Systems Thinking Applied to Wicked Problems

Fundamentally, I believe that problems worth solving as system problems.

As mentioned by wickedproblems.com:

“These problems can be mitigated through the process of design, which is an intellectual approach that emphasizes empathy, abductive reasoning, and rapid prototyping.”

In contrast, systems thinking (derived from system theory) provides a way to break these complex issues down into discrete parts so that we can apply the three methods mentioned.

Ecosystems and Stacks as Solutions

The first representation of this form of thinking that I came across was the H-LAM/T diagram, created by Douglas Engelbart in his seminal paper, “AUGMENTING HUMAN INTELLECT: A Conceptual Framework”.

In an, “Overview of Systems Thinking”, author Daniel Aronson writes:

“Systems thinking allows people to make their understanding of social systems explicit and improve them in the same way that people can use engineering principles to make explicit and improve their understanding of mechanical systems.”

Even more importantly…

“Systems thinking, in contrast, focuses on how the thing being studied interacts with the other constituents of the system—a set of elements that interact to produce behavior—of which it is a part. This means that instead of isolating smaller and smaller parts of the system being studied, systems thinking works by expanding its view to take into account larger and larger numbers of interactions as an issue is being studied.”

Simultaneous to a single change within a system, constituents of a system need a way to assess how the change of a single component impacts the system as a whole. Within the context of the H-LAM/T diagram, this means that any change across humans, language, artifacts, and training should be connected back to the overall level. How we report on the impact of change should be contextualized and managed from these pillars.

The Property of Emergence

Emergence is a property of systems theory. My preferred definition comes from the complex systems scientist Peter Corning who describes the five features of emergence.

“The common characteristics are:

1. radical novelty (features not previously observed in systems);
2. coherence or correlation (meaning integrated wholes that maintain themselves over some period of time);
3. A global or macro “level” (i.e. there is some property of “wholeness”);
4. it is the product of a dynamical process (it evolves); and
5. it is “ostensive” (it can be perceived).”

Emergence Studio

I created Emergence Studio because of my passion for transformation - helping others to better understand the way systems grow, how to prioritize the transformation of components, and better understand all elements of a system throughout its evolution.

To begin (in order of most abstract to most analytical):

1. Imaginations of the core values that drive emergence
2. Science-fiction style re-imaginations of the way that people will work alongside each other in the pursuit of transformation
3. System post-mortems and breakdowns of existing systems
4. Broad data-driven analyses focused on how transformation can be quantified
5. Simulation, and how it can be applied in order to understand systems and components simultaneously

An open invitation to collaborate

Have suggestions for any of the above? Want to work together? Let’s chat: jameson.lee@emergence.studio OR direct message me on twitter.