Systems Thinking

Category: Interpersonal/Team, Systems Thinking, Change Management

Number of Hours: 2 Hour

Date: September 21, 2020

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The purpose of this workshop was to learn how Systems Thinking makes sense of the uncertain and ever-changing world. Systems thinking can be applied to all areas of life including business decisions, interpersonal relationships, and other complex (and non-complex) issues. This workshop walked through a reading by Dr. Senge and a LinkedIn learning course on Systems Thinking. The reading worked to understand the difference between reinforcing and balancing loops, feedback, detail and dynamic complexity. The LinkedIn learning showcased how the world is actually Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous (VUCA) while humans try to categorize the world as Linear, Anthropocentric, Mechanistic, and Ordered (LAMO). In order to reconcile the difference between how we see the world throughout mental maps and how reality really is, making distinctions between ideas, organizing ideas into a system, recognizing relationships, and taking different perspectives, the DSRP model, was introduced. Systems mapping techniques were also discussed and practiced through case studies to have the ability to adapt in the changing world.

An example I see of the reinforcing feedback loop with a vicious cycle is with regards to refusing to wear a mask during the COVID-19 pandemic. Not wearing a mask is the primary way of spreading the virus. Therefore, when people went out, many were infected and continued to spread the virus as they went to other locations. Once the pandemic hit the United States and many States went into a state of emergency, other states persisted and not wore masks. The cycle persisted as the current President refused to wear a mask and refused to accept scientific facts about the pandemic. Therefore, many people who lived in open states continued to go out to public places without masks, further progressing the virus. The three variables discussed in this viscous reinforcing feedback loop were not wearing a mask in public places, the President propagating false information, and States not shutting down during the pandemic. The future challenge that I foresee with COVID-19 in the United States is the pandemic persisting through and returning for a second harsher wave. Many schools have not switched to complete remote learning and not all States have gone through a shutdown period. By not having all these factors, I believe that the pandemic will, unfortunately, continue through this vicious cycle until there is a valid treatment, non-invasive accurate testing, and vaccines in place.