News & Columns
1. How do we understand how change happens?
What is Systems Thinking? What is a system in the first place? Please look around your surroundings. Don't you think that there are a lot of "changes", whether you look over there or here?
From ever-changing market price movements to events and relationships in the workplace, trendy products and customer preferences, trends of competitors and business partners or changes in people and organizations over a longer span, familiar regions and from nature to international relations to the global environment, changes are constantly surrounding our lives and jobs. We are constantly trying to anticipate, respond to, or create changes in our homes, workplaces, communities, and even the international community.
But how exactly do we understand the occurrence of these changes, and more importantly, how can they be triggered? In fact, in most cases, you don't fully understand it.
2. Today's problem is from yesterday's solution
When we are faced with a problem, we try to solve it, so we change things and situations. We make changes in order to achieve the desired state. However, as we all know, problem-solving methods that you think and implement do not always work.
Even if you do a sales promotion campaign to increase sales, the sales will return to the original level as soon as it is over, or in the worst case, it will drop. Even if you try to motivate employees, the effect is not always as expected or the effect does not last long. When I increased the number of lanes on the road to solve the traffic jam, the traffic jam increased.
Maybe you have something to think about around you. Even if you think it's good to make a change, it doesn't always solve the problem, and it even makes it worse in some cases.
Especially in today's society, where the division of labor is progressing and many factors are intricately intertwined, unexpected things, expectations and predictions can lead to unthinkable things. That's because the cause of the problem happening right now isn't always right in front of us. And ironically, many of today's problems stem from yesterday's solutions.
3. "System thinking" necessary to understand change and cause desired change by oneself
So how can we understand the changes and respond appropriately? And can you make the desired changes yourself?
Even if we say "change" in one word, a wide variety of changes occur at various levels in various fields. However, we can find common patterns in the "structure that causes change" and the "process of change", whether it is a change in our surroundings or a change in the international community.
"Systems thinking" plays an important role when trying to find an essential solution, by focusing on the structure and process of this change and understanding the dynamics of the change. It is an approach that focuses on the interaction between elements, not only on the part where things are visible, but on the system as a whole.
4. What is a "system"?
By the way, what does "system" mean here? "System" is a word that is used frequently and in various ways, so let's define it when using it in systems thinking.
A system in systems thinking is "a collection of many elements that are connected by the flow of things, energy, and information, which interact with each other, and have characteristics as a whole". The mere existence of components is not a system. The components of the system must be connected to each other. If there are many stones in the river, but nothing changes even if one is removed, it is not called a "system".
5. System features
So, what is a "system"?
A car, for example, is made up of many components such as the engine, steering wheel, tires, and body. Then, the power generated by the engine is transmitted to the tires via the transmitter to move the car. The movement of the steering wheel is transmitted to the front wheels and determines the direction of travel. In this way, "the components are connected", and this is an important feature of the system.
In addition, while the car is moving, various information can be obtained through windows and meters on the dashboard. Then, based on this information, the steering wheel, accelerator, and brake are controlled. The controlled result will be returned as information again. In this way, "there is an interaction between the components", and this is a characteristic of the system.
And another feature is that "the system has the characteristics and purpose as a whole". The purpose of a car is to move from your current location to the arrival point. A car is a system that seeks to achieve this goal through the interaction of components with different functions.
6. "System" around us
Systems can vary in size, from the cellular level of living organisms to the level of organs such as the heart and engine, to the level of individuals such as humans and automobiles and their aggregates, and more to the level of the global environment.
Also, the system is not all physical. Organizations and institutions that make up society, such as families, companies, communities, markets, and nations, and the society itself are also systems. The economic system is also a system. In each case, many components interact with each other to achieve the overall purpose.
Systems thinking focuses on the structure and process of change for various systems in this way, and provides ideas, approaches and tools for making effective changes. In this series, we will introduce the ideas and tools.
Next time, I will introduce systems thinking and system dynamics.
