The Parts of a System

Elements

The elements of a system are often tangible things like the paddlers in a boat, the boat they are paddling, the water body they are on, and the weather they are experiencing. However, elements can also be intangible such as the skill of the paddlers.

Interconnections

The interconnections are "the relationships that hold the elements together" (Meadows, 2008, p. 13). In the boat example above, the paddles apply force to the water that moves the boat because the paddlers are in the boat, they are interconnected. The paddlers have to communicate with each other. The wind may push against the boat affecting its path or how difficult it is to move. As Meadows points out, you can change the elements without drastically affecting the overall system but for anyone who has tried moving anywhere outside, in a boat or otherwise, against a heavy wind knows the impact of this interconnection on the system.

Challenge yourself to decide whether each item in the list below is an element or an interconnection before revealing the answer.

Cars

Element

Bus schedules

Interconnection

Learning

Interconnection (while the students, teachers, and material would all be elements, the learning that occurs, or doesn't, describes the relationship between the elements)

Scholarships

Element

Computer

Element

Recipe

Interconnection (you could argue that the recipe is an element and it is the actual chemical reactions that occur that are the interconnections)

Feedback Loops

Feedback loops are a very important part of a system, but they are also one of the most difficult to understand and to identify. Feedback loops happen when the level of an element affects the flow in or out of that element.

Balancing Feedback Loops

A balancing feedback loop occurs when there is a goal or target level for the level of an element and the changes occur in such a way that the level always stays around that goal. For example, there is a goal number of students at MacEwan and the institution adjusts things like admission criteria to try to maintain the "flow" of students to keep the level close to that goal.

Reinforcing Feedback Loops

A reinforcing feedback loops when there are runaway effects (exponential growth or collapse). If changes in an element result in more changes in the same direction you get a reinforcing feedback loop. An example of this is when something goes viral. People like something, which results in more people seeing it, which results in more people liking it, which results in more people seeing it, and so on.

See if you can determine if each of the following are reinforcing or balancing feedback loops. Then check your answers.

Reputation of a company

Reinforcing - word of mouth or reputation is an important factor in how many clients a company may have. If they have a client who shares positives or negatives about the company this will influence the company's ability to attract new clients which will impact the ability of the company to attract still more clients. (The reason that this is more reinforcing than balancing is that it does not assume that the company will take on all the new clients which may cause their work and reputation to suffer, this would be balancing).

The level of stock that a store keeps of a particular item

Balancing - the store wants to make sure that they are actively moving the inventory so they don't want too many extra items than they expect people to buy. If more people buy an item they will bring in more stock but if they have extra then they will decrease the level of stock they bring in.

The number of deer in a natural area

Balancing - If the deer have a good year and reproduce more then there will be a higher population level. However, if there isn't enough food for all of those deer then there will be increased deaths bringing the deer population back down. Then because there are fewer deer again they may have access to more food allowing them to reproduce more.

The willingness of a dog to learn new behaviours

Reinforcing - if the dog has a positive experience learning a behaviour then they will want to do that behaviour again in order to get the positive experience. As they get more positive experiences with a particular behaviour they will be more willing to do that behaviour.

Leverage Points

Leverage points are points that you can push a system in order to trigger systems change. Meadows describes multiple types of leverage points that vary in their ability to change the system. One leverage point that sports teams often attempt to use is bringing in a star player to revitalize the team. This, in theory, is supposed to make the whole team better. This is a form of changing the numbers. In sustainability we do this through things like government subsidies or taxes. At the most extreme end, we might look at changing our paradigm. Remember that I said that culture plays a role in wicked problems? If we adjusted our view of economy to focus on stability rather than growth there would be potential for an entirely different way of looking at and measuring success.

The linked video, you just need to watch from the beginning to 3:23, shows how a town in Sweden identified a leverage point to reduce hospital costs for people injured by walking on icy sidewalks by focusing on gender equity. This is a great example of not just a leverage point (changing the order or priorities for snow clearing) but also the complexity of systems as a whole.

In SUST 201 we'll be looking at some different economic models later in the course to see how a change like this might happen. If you are not a SUST 201 student but you are interested in learning more I encourage you to start by looking up Kate Raworth and Doughnut Economics.

A Systems Thinking Approach to Community-Based Urban Agriculture

Kalen Pilkington's TedX Talk from the MacEwan TedX event in 2018 provides a great review of systems thinking and then describes an example from her undergraduate experience. As you watch, try to identify the elements, interconnections, and function/purpose of the system she describes.

Think and reflect

Think about an area in your life that you would like to achieve change. See if you can identify three possible leverage points that you could apply a small change but achieve a significant impact on the overall system. Some examples that you might want to consider include making more time for friends and family, improving your overall fitness and health, or improving your performance at school or work.

Continue to Systems Mapping

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. This Creative Commons license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon our work non-commercially, as long as they credit us and indicate if changes were made. Use this citation format: Munro, T. (2021). Introduction to Systems Thinking. Retrieved from https://sites.google.com/view/intro-to-systems-thinking/home. CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

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