4.3 Systems thinking and sensing

What is systems thinking? How could your systems thinking skills help you at significant moments in your creative process?

---

It is fair to say that in today’s world almost everything is interconnected. This global world is a very complex system, with so many cause and effect mechanisms, that everything cannot be totally known or managed. A system can be any kind of entity consisting of at least two parts, the mutual relations of the parts, and the relations between the parts and the whole (see Figure 4.3.1. below). A human body is also such a system, and so is a family, an organization or any other human community. Climate is a complex system too, and one with potentially catastrophic, unknown tipping points.

Why are we talking about systems in this course? Because they are the environment in which the creative work is increasingly done. And if we want to be radically creative and create change in the world, a central skill is to understand how to influence and work with systems.

Systems thinking is an alternative to the traditional scientific method that breaks down complex phenomena into smaller parts and makes it look more orderly, known and manageable. In systems thinking, instead of focusing on just one part or a single event, the idea is to think how different parts interact and influence each other. For example, what happens when AirBnB is introduced into a city? In addition to letting visitors stay in homes and short term rental apartments, AirBnB has secondary effects on housing prices which cause some of the locals move away from city centers for more affordable housing. That wasn’t planned, but unforeseen consequences are a feature of many systems: their behavior is impossible to predict completely.

Similarly, a positive effect might take place by a change in one part of the system. Take the #MeToo movement, for example. There was a pattern of sexual harassment within gender and power relations, and the victims often kept quiet because they were afraid for their career or reputation. Then a woman decided to speak publicly about her harassment and started the hashtag #MeToo. When the hashtag eventually spread, that had a large impact on the toxic system. There are ways to change such huge and powerful systems—and radical creativity helps.

To sum up, systems thinking refers to the holistic understanding of the dynamic and complex interactions between you, as a creative individual or group with big aspirations, the domain in which you work, and the field in which you want your creativity recognized and validated.

Changing systems

What to pay attention to?

---

When it comes to changing a system, it’s important to examine the relations between things as well as the relations within the system as a whole instead of analyzing things in isolation. One thing to keep in mind is that social systems are built on underlying beliefs and values which often aren’t even recognized. If you want to change things, you need to be aware of that as well.

For example, investigating toxic power relations would mean analyzing the underlying system itself rather than concentrating on a single person. In #MeToo, even though only one part of the system was initially changed, it led to a paradigm shift within gender relations.

Because systems are in many ways invisible and unknown, creativity is needed to explore, experiment and test how a system can be influenced. An open mind and listening to other people is essential. It’s also important to take advantage of research on how to influence systems effectively.

Famous systems thinker Donella Meadows has identified ways to intervene in systems and change them (Meadows 1999). Interestingly, the methods that are usually used in trying to create change aren’t very effective, according to her. Without good systems thinking skills, people often try to change systems using simplistic mechanistic methods or quick fixes that end up exacerbating the original problem.

For example, the practice of wildfire suppression intended to protect communities and resources by stopping all fires quickly has sometimes actually made matters worse. By preventing low-intensity fires that naturally clear underbrush and dead material, this practice has resulted in fuel building up for later wildfires, making them much larger.

Changes that don’t take into account the whole system are unlikely to change the foundations of the system, so the proposed cure can end up reinforcing a negative phenomenon within the system. To effectively change a system, influencing or challenging the beliefs and assumptions that are underlie it is a powerful tool.

Another very effective way to change a system is to increase its self-organizing capacity so that it can self-evolve. The system itself is creative. This kind of systems are very resilient. They thrive on difference and variety (Meadows 1999).

‘Self-organization is basically a matter of an evolutionary raw material — a highly variable stock of information from which to select possible patterns — and a means for experimentation, for selecting and testing new patterns. For biological evolution the raw material is DNA, one source of variety is spontaneous mutation, and the testing mechanism is something like punctuated Darwinian selection. For technology the raw material is the body of understanding science has accumulated and stored in libraries and in the brains of its practitioners. The source of variety is human creativity (whatever THAT is) and the selection mechanism can be whatever the market will reward, or whatever governments and foundations will fund, or whatever meets human needs.’

To grow these creative, resilient systems, we need to favor variety, and we also need to let go of the notion of complete control. Even with good systems thinking skills, we cannot really predict and control systems. Meadows (2008) warns about that as a seductive illusion. The real world will remain inherently unpredictable and uncontrollable. Instead of aiming for control, we need to learn to embrace complexity and welcome uncertainty.

Sensing

Reason and intellect are only part of our intelligence

---

We’re all always thinking and sensing, but our formal education and often our work experience biases thinking over feeling. Bringing together the thinking and sensing aspects of our intelligence creates systems intelligence.

Aalto professors Saarinen & Hämäläinen (2010) define systems intelligence as ‘the ability to use the human sensibilities of systems and reasoning about systems in order to adaptively carry out productive actions within and with respect to systems.’ Systems intelligence is about humans being both emotional and rational beings. It’s a concept that extends traditional systems thinking by focusing on the opportunity for positive human and systems growth. It focuses its efforts on finding out how people can develop the resources to enhance our lives (Jones & Hämäläinen 2013).

Watch this talk on systems intelligence by Aalto professor, philosopher Esa Saarinen. You can also watch the video via this link.

Here’s a short test to assess your systems intelligence capabilities if you’d like!

Theory U

Directing change from within

---

There are many systems thinking schools and theories. We introduce here Otto Scharmer’s Theory U. Scharmer is a senior lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and one of the founders of Presencing Institute, which works towards systemic transformation. The aim is to help individuals and groups leap to a new level of thinking and awareness, to change the way we perceive ourselves and the world. Otto Scharmer came to Theory U by interviewing and listening many change-makers and pioneers and by participating himself in many change initiatives. According to Scharmer, to really change the world we first need to shift the inner place that we operate from. This itself is a radically creative learning process.

According to Scharmer’s theory, we need to activate deeper sources of knowing than just our minds and thinking. When we start paying attention to feelings, intuition and bodily sensations, we get a more holistic view of things than if we rely only on rational thinking and intellectual reasoning. By combining all qualities of knowing and all our types of intelligence, we can connect with the invisible or unconscious potential within us that can play a key role in systemic change. We also need to become aware of blind-spots in our inner spaces. Unconscious beliefs and thinking patterns often hold us back from radically creative positive change.

An open mind is the capacity to suspend all habits of judgment. It’s about seeing with fresh eyes and allowing new data to come in. An open heart refers to the capacity to empathize and to look at a problem not from your own angle but through the eyes and the experience of someone else. An open will is the capacity to let go of all intentions, identities and who we think we are, in order to open up new possibilities. All this constitutes a shift in awareness that allows people to learn from the future as it emerges and to realize that future in the world.

The voices of judgement, cynicism and fear must be suspended, and attention needs to be directed from what is to what might be. All this enables us to connect more deeply with the sources of creativity and to sense how we can actualize highest future potentials through creative projects.

Social aspect of systems

Seeing the cracks

---

Ultimately, it is human-made systems that cause so much suffering in the world. Changing these systems is often an act of radical social creativity. As a musician needs to be intimate with the musical system, its instruments, traditions, sounds and compositions, a change-maker needs to be intimate with the social elements of systems.

Systems thinking is essentially about community, being part of a social—or better yet a socio-ecological—system. It’s about being a creative agent in a bigger constellation. It is important to align one’s vision and values with the common purpose. Skill in relating to others and in collaborating is essential to work with a wide range of actors and to leverage collective action to address complex issues of radical innovation. 

‘I learned, somewhat to my surprise, that “the system” as such does not really exist,’ writes Otto Scharmer in the Learning How to be Helpful to Change Makers section of his book The essentials of Theory U. ‘What does exist are coalitions of stakeholders that want to move the system one way, and other coalitions of people that want to move it another way. And many more in between. I learned how to see the cracks in the old system and how to use them as windows of opportunity for experimenting with systemic change.’

Scharmer describes how the way he related to the system transformed from seeing the system as the enemy to connecting to the system, seeing its cracks, and finally learning how to help change the system.

References

Cabrera, D., & Colosi, L. (2008). Distinctions, systems, relationships, and perspectives (DSRP): A theory of thinking and of things. Evaluation and Program Planning, 31(3), 311-317.

Cabrera, D., Cabrera, L., & Powers, E. (2015). A unifying theory of systems thinking with psychosocial applications. Systems Research and Behavioral Science, 32(5), 534-545.

Cabrera, D., Cabrera, L. L., & Midgley, G. (2023). The four waves of systems thinking. Journal of Systems Thinking, 1-51.

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2015). The systems model of creativity: The collected works of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Springer.

Csikszentmihalyi, M. & Wolfe, R. (2015). New conceptions and research approaches to creativity: Implications of a systems perspective for creativity in education. In Csikszentmihalyi, M. (Ed), The systems model of creativity: The collected works of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, 161-184.

Meadows, D. (1999). Leverage Points. Places to Intervene in a System. The Sustainability Institute.

Meadows, D. (2008). Thinking in Systems: A Primer.  Chelsea Green Publishing.

Poutanen, P. (2013). Creativity as seen through the complex systems perspective. Interdisciplinary Studies Journal, 2(3), 207.

Saarinen, E., & Hämäläinen, R. P. (2010). The originality of systems intelligence. Essays on systems intelligence, 9-28.

Scharmer, O. (2018). The essentials of Theory U: Core principles and applications. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.