Systems Thinking: Fundamental Concepts
In this series of articles, I will share key ideas and tools for developing the systems thinking needed to solve complex problems and transition to a circular economy.
I've taught thousands of hours of workshops on systems, sustainability, and planning—and over the years, I've perfected ways to quickly get people into the 3D mindset needed to work in closed systems. My motivation for writing this article was to help empower professionals to quickly adopt systems thinking to achieve positive results.
Words have their power. Systems thinking uses some specific words that deliberately define a set of actions that are different from conventional thinking. Concepts such as “synthesis,” “emergence,” “interconnectedness,” and “feedback loops” may seem challenging to some. And since they have a specific meaning in relation to systems, let me begin by examining six* key topics.
*There are many more than six, but I have chosen the most important ones to start with. As I dive deeper into the topic, I'll cover other key terms that make up systems thinking.
1. Connectedness
Systems thinking requires a change in thinking: from linear to circular. The fundamental principle of this shift is that everything is connected. We are talking about interconnectedness not in a spiritual sense, but in a biological sense.
Essentially, everything depends on something else to survive. People need food, air and water to maintain their vital functions, and trees need carbon dioxide and sunlight to grow. Everything needs something else to survive, often a whole complex of other things.
Inanimate objects also depend on other objects: wood is needed to make a table, and electricity is needed to operate electrical appliances. When we say “everything is connected” from a systems thinking perspective, we define a fundamental principle of life. From this, we can change the way we see the world, moving from a linear, structured “mechanical worldview” to a dynamic, chaotic, interconnected set of relationships and feedback loops.
A systems thinker uses this way of thinking to unravel and work within the complex structure of life on Earth.
“A system is a collection of interrelated components that work together in a specific environment and perform all the functions necessary to achieve the purpose of the system.”
— quote from the book “The ABCs of Systems Thinking” by Donella Meadows (approx. per: American environmental researcher, teacher, one of the world's most famous experts on systems thinking, author of several books).
2. Synthesis
Generally speaking, synthesis means combining two or more elements to create something new. When it comes to systems thinking, the goal is synthesis—as opposed to analysis, which is the decomposition of something complex into manageable components. The analysis fits into a mechanistic and reductionist worldview in which the world is broken down into parts.
But all systems are dynamic and often complex, so we need a more holistic approach to understanding phenomena. Synthesis is an understanding of the whole and the parts at the same time, as well as the relationships and connections that make up the dynamics of the whole.
Essentially, synthesis is the ability to see relationships.
3. Emergence
From a systems perspective, we know that something big comes from smaller parts: emergence is the natural result of elements coming together. In its most abstract sense, emergence describes the universal concept of how life arises from individual biological elements in different and unique ways.
Emergence is the result of the synergy of parts, it is nonlinearity and self-organization; and we often use this term to describe the result of the interaction of things.
A simple example of emergence is a snowflake. It is formed from environmental factors and biological elements. At the right temperature, freezing water particles form beautiful fractal patterns around a single molecule of matter, such as a speck of dirt, a spore, or even dead skin cells.
Conceptually, emergence often seems a little difficult to understand, but once you understand it, your brain begins to form emergent results from the disparate and often strange things you encounter in the world.
“There is nothing about a caterpillar that says it will become a butterfly.”
— R. Buckminster Fuller (
Richard Buckminster Fuller is an American architect, designer, engineer, inventor, philosopher, mathematician, writer, poet).
4. Feedback loops
Since everything is interconnected, loops and feedback flows constantly arise between elements of the system. We can observe, understand, and intervene in feedback loops if we understand their type and dynamics.
The two main types of feedback loops are − reinforcing And balancing. What can be confusing is that increasing a feedback loop is usually not a good thing. It happens when elements in the system strengthen other elements such as population growth or algae growing exponentially in the pond. IN reinforcing loops, the excess of one element can constantly increase – this often leads to the fact that it takes over.
Ubalancing a feedback loop is a situation in which elements within a system balance each other. Nature, in general, guessed this, creating a predator/prey situation. But if you remove too much of one animal species from an ecosystem, the next moment the population of another will explode, which is an example of another type of feedback – reinforcing.
5. Causality
Understanding feedback loops is about understanding cause and effect: how one thing leads to another in a dynamic and ever-evolving system (all systems are dynamic and constantly changing to some degree; that's what life is all about).
Cause and effect are quite common concepts in many professions and in life in general – parents try to teach this most important life lesson to their children; and you, too, can probably remember some time when you felt the consequences of an unintentional action.
Causality, as a concept in systems thinking, is the ability to decipher how elements influence each other in a system. Understanding causality leads to a deeper look at the concepts of agency, feedback loops, connections, and relationships that are fundamental components of systems mapping.
6. Systems mapping
One of the key tools of a systems thinker is systems mapping. There are many ways to map, from analogue cluster mapping to sophisticated digital feedback analysis. However, the fundamental principles and practices are universal: identify and map the elements to understand how they are interconnected and operate in a complex system. This will help you use unique ideas and insights to develop changes and solutions that will radically change the system in the most effective way.
These six key concepts are essential building blocks for developing a detailed vision of how the world works from a systems thinking perspective. Mastering these concepts will improve your ability to think divergently and creatively to achieve results.
Through years of experience working and teaching systems thinking, I have developed new tools to complement these time-tested concepts from the pioneers.
What I think is critically important is the ability to develop your own agency. To do this, you need to understand the basic concepts.
In the next part, I'll talk about what defines a system and go into more detail about threads in systems.
In the meantime, we invite everyone to open lessons:
