Systems Thinking

Ancient philosophy of Yin-Yang , says that When two opposite forces lives in harmony, then and only then creation happens and evolution thrives. We see its evidences everywhere in this vast existence, whether it is electrons and protons giving existence and sustainability to an atom and hence this creation, North and South pole of our planet, male and female , day and night, opposite charges in a battery etc. Hence, Opposite forces are not contradictory in fact they are complementary. 

Dear friends , Balance and harmony are the fundamental principles upon which our universe is functioning.

Therefore, in this context it is very important for us to understand and inculcate a certain way of thinking that recognizes and values all the forces operating within a particular system and that enable us to keep balance in our every thought and action. We call this way of thinking as systems Thinking.

System Thinking is – “when instead of asking the name of the person and blaming him for some kind of mistake or disaster, we start asking what is the system that is producing this problem and this person who is creating the problem?”

What is a system?

• Systems are interconnected web of elements with several levels of relationships within. More elements, more correlations, more complex is the system.
• Human Body is a system, All large Corporations, political parties, government, Administrative / defense services, cities, states, countries, corporates etc. are systems in themselves.
• Language is a system. It is continuously evolving and devolving. No one man invented language. We all acted as substrate in the formation and evolution of languages we use.
• Systems are highly ordered and chaotic. They are difficult to predict. System are self-organizing, self- sustaining and self-repairing. 
• We can think of Systems as organisms, Systems behave. They exhibit behaviors like fear, love, attack, reproduction, shy, revenge etc. when come in connect of external forces.
• Na?ve people, get into the system and try to provide solutions and change the system not considering and respecting all the forces of the system. If you change something without considering all the forces operating within a system, then the system backfires.
• Another important point to understand in context of Systems Thinking is that , Growth at all cost is cancerous:
• What is Cancer? It is simply domination of one kind of life energy over other kinds of life energies within human system.
• For example, Humans as species are dominating this planet earth at the moment and we think we are the only species on this planet who have all authorities and rights in every sense and hence humans are becoming cancerous for the planet

Why systems Thinking :

• It is a fact that to make long lasting meaningful impact on the world, you need to be dealing with systems(Ex: political, social, cultural , philosophical, technical, cultural etc.) and for that, first of all you need to understand systems. you need to identify and understand the nature of forces operating within a given system.
• System thinking provides us the opportunity to approach towards a problem holistically instead of personally. It is an Inclusive way of thinking
• Failure in understanding systems leads to disasters like Poverty, Global warming, Terrorism, Drug addiction, epidemic, Flood , drought, computer viruses, spam emails etc. These are not personal or local problems. These are global problems. None of us want these kind of problems but yet collectively we are producing these problems.
• Therefore, Fate of humanity depends upon our ability to understand systems and apply system thinking.

Systems thinking has become a buzz word these days across the industry and discussions are around on how to inculcate systems thinking in our daily lives to make this world a better place . But I think Lord Krishna was talking about System Thinking more than 5000 years ago when he said “Vasudhev Kutumbakam” – This whole Cosmos is one large family. I think It’s time we comply with that.

Thank you !

Coz, Sharing is caring and Growing Together !