Systems thinking for foggy situations

Systems Thinking is where real world situations are treated as systems to learn more about them. Treating situations as systems provides a viewpoint to explore the situation in a subtly different but powerful way, hereby affording insight and understanding that would remain hidden by traditional reductionist approaches. The beauty of Systems Thinking lies with its universality; it can be applied to anything, anywhere and at any time, effectively allowing the thinker to compare chalk with cheese. This can permit learning in one domain to be transferred to another. It allows for the comparison of different systems to gain insight and understanding of generic issues and behaviour. In consequence, Systems Thinking is seen as the approach to handling the complexity and risks associated with business and organizational problems and opportunities in the modern world. The adoption of Systems Thinking provides a very powerful framework for understanding complex situations and issues’ leading ultimately to their elucidation or resolution. Its applicability is universal, from designing a new product or service through to root cause analysis of problems, managing transformation and change and the exploration and evolution of future strategies.