Understanding the systemic structure is powerfully generative

Systems thinking provides the framework for observing multiple levels of explanation in any complex situation. Senge describes three:[^1

Events (reactive)
↑
Patterns of Behavior (responsive)
↑
Systemic Structure (generative)

Event explanations are merely reactive to any event. Senge observes that this surface level of understanding “who did what to whom” dooms people “to a reactive stance. …event explanations are the most common in contemporary culture, and that is exactly why reactive management prevails.”[1]

“Pattern of behavior” explanations focus on “seeing longer-term trends and assessing their implications. … Pattern of behavior explanations begin to break the grip of short-term reactiveness. …they suggest how, over a longer term, we can respond to shifting trends.”[2]

Systemic Structure explanations are “the least common and most powerful. [They] focus on answering the question, “What causes the patterns of behavior?” … Though rare, structural explanations, when they are clear and widely understood, have considerable impact.”[3]

#systems-thinking #complex-systems #teams #cognition

See also:

  1. Ibid. ↩︎

  2. Ibid. ↩︎

  3. Ibid. ↩︎