Systemic thinking

Systemic thinking is a simple technique for gaining deep insights into complex situations and information very quickly.

It's both:

• a process that anyone can follow and
• a skill that anyone can learn.

It was discovered by Gary and Lynne Bartlett of Productivity Solutions and Probsolv.

We say discovered rather than invented because everyone thinks systemically unconsciously - inadvertently - all the time.

Systemic thinking is the secret of genius.  Being able to see patterns across things, that ordinary people can't - or rather, couldn't before systemic thinking was discovered and the systemic thinking process developed.

Now anyone can develop genius-level insights into complex and challenging situations by following a simple, 3-step process.

You could say that we're quite excited about all this....!

Mindspace

Let's begin by creating some space in your mind for the systemic thinking concept.   We'll paint in the detail afterwards.

Systemic thinking is different from both systematic thinking and systems thinking.

Systemic thinking combines analytical thinking (breaking things apart) with synthetical thinking (putting things together). 

Until recently, our society has placed a strong emphasis on analytical thinking - and not much on synthetical thinking at all.

The difference between analysis and synthesis

Analysis is a powerful thinking tool - for understanding the parts of a situation.  It's just not that crash-hot for understanding how those parts work together.

Synthesis, on the other hand, is a powerful thinking tool for understanding how the parts of a situation work together, but one needs to have broken the situation down into parts before one can use it.

Combining analytical and synthetical thinking

The systemic thinking cycle

Systemic thinking combines analytical thinking and synthetical thinking into a cycle.

We told you it was simple, didn't we?

Because our society has put so much focus on analysis and so little on synthesis, we need to restore the balance by improving our skill at synthetical thinking.

Apart from the good news that it's a skill (something that anyone can learn), we already have a head start!

Synthesising consciously

In spite of our society's lack of focus on synthesis, we all synthesise - unconsciously - all the time.

Systemic thinking adds deliberate synthesis as a thinking skill to our existing skill of deliberate analysis.

Here's why this is so important:

Everything is part of a system

In other words, everything interacts with the things around it.

Interactions are important because how things behave in concert is of greater concern to us than how they behave in isolation.

The problem is that interactions are difficult to get one's head around, because there're so many of them, they're invisible and they affect each other - all the time.

It's nearly impossible to keep track of all these changing interactions, unless you know about...

The Fractal Phenomenon

systems are made up of repeating patterns

It's much easier to master complex subjects and challenging situations if you can deal with things at the pattern level, rather than at the detail level.

Dealing with interactions at the pattern level enables one to deal with those interactions in concert instead of in isolation.

We depend on the Fractal Phenomenon all the time.  It's the basis of mastery.  Once you've found the pattern, you rule.

Systemic thinking is about finding the patterns across things in a deliberate and proactive way instead of in an unconscious way.

Systemic thinking

Systemic thinking is finding systemic (system-wide) patterns across complex subjects and challenging situations.  There are two parts to systemic thinking:

1. Listing situation elements and;
2. Finding the common theme across those elements

This is different from the conventional approach:

1. Listing situation elements and;
2. Selecting the most likely element to focus on.

Common applications of systemic thinking

Identifying systemic (system-wide) problems
Developing systemic (system-wide) solutions
Systemic (system-wide) decision-making
Determining systemic (system-wide) needs

Because of the Fractal Phenomenon, there is always a systemic pattern across the elements of a complex subject or a challenging situation. 

We'll show you how to find them in the next section.

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