The systemic thinking process

The systemic thinking process is very simple. Here it is:

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Systemic thinking enables one to find systemic (system-wide) focus by identifying the common theme (repeating pattern) across the situation one's thinking about.

The systemic thinking process is not all that different from conventional thinking, but the differences are critical ones.

Comparing thinking processes

Systemic thinking process

The systemic focusing process

Conventional thinking process

The conventional focusing process

Step 1

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The first step in the st process is to list the system elements we're interested in.

Because the next steps involve finding the theme or repeating pattern across those elements, we need to list as many elements as we can think of.

The more elements, the more systemic (system-wide) the pattern.

The analytical thinking process is only slightly different.

at_1.gif (1983 bytes) Analytical thinking

The first step in the analytical process is to list a handful of system elements

Because the next steps involve selecting an element to focus on, we don't want too many - the more there are, the harder it is to rank them.

Step 2

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The second step in the systemic thinking process is to group similar elements together, then describe the (sub-)theme across each group.

Here are two ways to make grouping the elements easier:

Mark similar elements by number - group by number
Extract the idea(s) contained in each element - group by idea

The analytical thinking process is very different.

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Analytical thinking
The second step in the analytical thinking process is to compare the elements and rank them best to worst.

This makes selecting one easier.

Step 3

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The third and final step in the systemic thinking process is to find the common theme across the theme groups. This will be the theme across all of the system elements listed in step one.

Once again, this is very different from analytical thinking.

at_3.gif (3033 bytes) Analytical thinking
The third step in the analytical thinking process is to select the most promising element to focus on, discarding the other elements in the process.

The advantages of the systemic approach should be obvious - it enables one to focus on the elements of the situation in concert, rather than isolation.1

Summary of the systemic thinking process

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The systemic thinking process is very simple.

Step one is to list as many system elements (of the type you're interested) in as you can think of. (e.g. problems, solutions, ideas, opportunities, desired outcomes, needs etc)

Step two is to group similar elements together and describe what each group has in common.

Step three is to find the common theme across (running through) the group descriptions.

The common theme is the systemic pattern across the entire situation - the genius level insight into the entire situation.