Overview of Systems Theory Thinking

1. Thinking
Wholelistically:
Systems Thinking--
Human & Organizational
Cognition, Actions, Events
and
Behavior
 Another way of thinking in diagnosing & solving
problems
JP Bishop, ABD, CPT

3. A Screw in My Sandwich???
A Real Life Story from a customer who purchased a sandwich at Arby’s
on October 30, 2006.

4. What is Systems Thinking?
 Crosses disciplines
 Multiple perspectives
 Studies the structure, properties, and
characteristics of systems, focusing on how
systems interact and effect each other and/or
the environment, and/or how systems, in
turn, are effected by the environment
 Way of understanding reality that emphasizes
the relationships among a system's parts, rather
than the parts themselves

5. Many Disciplines
 Employs many theoretical perspectives and borrows
from
– Ontology
– Philosophy of science
– Physics
– Biology
– Engineering
 Uses concepts from these theoretical bases and applies
to
– Sociology
– Geography
– Political science
– Management science
– Economics, etc

6. Ludwig Von Bertalanffey
Austrian Biologist
A system is an entity which maintains its existence
through the mutual interaction of its parts.
•Scientists operated on the idea that all systems were closed systems (i.e.
did not interact with their environments)
•Von Bertalanffey proposed that systems are open systems which led to the
General Systems Theory which factored in effects of the environment on the
system

7. Defining Characteristics of Systems
Thinking
 Every system has a purpose within a larger
system
 All of a system's parts must be present for
the system to carry out its purpose optimally
 A system's parts must be arranged in a
specific way for the system to carry out its
purpose
 Systems change in response to feedback
 Systems maintain their stability by making
adjustments based on feedback

8. Feedback Loop
Input Output
Output
Input Output
Process Output
Input Output
Output
Input Output
Output
Input

9. Types of Systems- Isolated System
 Isolated system
– A physical system that does not
interact with its surroundings
 In i.e. thermodynamics it obeys
a number of conservation laws
– Its total energy and mass stay
constant
 They cannot enter or exit
but only move around
inside
– “A system in which the only
forces which contribute to the
momentum change of an
individual object are the forces
acting between the objects
themselves can be considered an
isolated system”
– In real life, totally isolated
systems do not exist;
HOWEVER, real systems have
behaved this way for
exceptionally long times!!!

10. Types of Systems- Closed System
 Definition from thermodynamics
– “A system that can exchange heat and work
but not matter”
– # of particles as well as total energy fixed by
boundary conditions
 Tends toward equilibrium and increases in entropy
 Practical example:
– Closed system toll road
 Take ticket when you get on, pay at the end
– Toll calculated by distance traveled

11. Types of Systems- Open System
 Open systems draw some sort of energy
from the environment
– Matter and energy can flow into and out from
the system
– Capable of self-maintenance based on
throughput from the environment

12. Advantages of Systems Thinking
 More effective problem solving
 More effective leadership
 More effective communications
 More effective planning
 More effective organizational
development
 Avoiding Founder's Syndrome

13. Differences
Analysis Systems Thinking

14. Systems Thinking & Problem
Solving

15. Problem Solving and the
Root Cause Analysis
 Industry likes using Root Cause Analysis for
accident investigations
 Root Cause Analysis also good for uncovering
repeat errors, underlying problems, and which
can be solved
 95% of the problems are caused by process
failures and 5% by personnel failures
– Based on asking “Why?”
– Decision tree logic- working backwards to the origins
of the cause

16. Danvers, MA Chemical Plant
Explosion

18. 4/5 Steps in the Root Cause
Analysis Process
1. Collect data
– First need to entirely understand an event
– Majority of time spent in analyzing event is to
gather data
2. Chart causal factors
 Provides structure for organizing contributing
factors/ events
 Identifies gaps and inefficiencies
3. Root cause identification
4. Sometimes steps 4 AND 5: Recommendation
generation and implementation

19. Causal
Chart

20. Causal Chart 2

21. Fishbone Technique

22. Fishbone Diagram Problem Solving
 Invented by Dr. Kaoru  Brainstorm ideas to identify factors within each
Ishikawa, a Japanese category
quality control statistician – “What are the ________ issues causing
 How constructed:
_____”
 Repeat this procedure with each factor under the
– The 4 M’s: category to produce sub-factors. Continue
 Methods, Machines asking, "Why is this happening?" and put
, Materials, Manpo additional segments each factor and
wer subsequently under each sub-factor
– The 4 P’s:  Continue until you no longer get useful
information as you ask, "Why is that happening?"
 Place, Procedure, P  Analyze the results of the fishbone after team
eople, Policies members agree that an adequate amount of
– The 4 S’s: detail has been provided under each major
category
 Surroundings, Sup
pliers, Systems, Ski – Do this by looking for those items that
appear in more than one category
lls
– These become the 'most likely causes"
 For those items identified as the "most likely
causes", the team should reach consensus on
listing those items in priority order with the first
item being the most probable" cause

23. Fishbone Diagram

24. Interrelationship Diagram

25. Current Reality Tree

26. Root Cause Limitations
 Hindsight bias
 Brainstorming activity- if the team does not recognize a failure mode then it
does not get included
 Time consuming
 Unknown unknowns- might miss a failure mode if it is not recognized
 Taking on too large scope
 Not including operators
 Not including customers
 Becomes a consuming job- takes too long
 Not including one or more ;
people, method, equipment, materials, Environment
 Not getting into details- superficial look at process only
 Confusing root cause with failure mode
 Not looking at each product
 Assuming detection controls are better than they are
 Assuming detection controls apply when they don’t

27. Cognition & Ways of Thinking
 Thinking systemically and systematically
changes the way you approach problems
 Advantage:
– See the “big picture”
– Get to the root cause
 Disadvantage:
– Time
– Cost
– Not a quick fix

28. Scenario # 1
 The Plant Manager walked into the plant and
found oil on the floor
 He called the Supervisor over and told him to
have maintenance clean up the oil
 The next day while the Plant Manager was in the
same area of the plant he found oil on the floor
again and he subsequently raked the Supervisor
over the coals for not following his directions
from the day before
 His parting words were:
– “Either get the oil cleaned up or I’ll find
someone who will!”

29. Scenario # 2
 The Plant Manager walked into the plant and found oil on the floor
 He called the Supervisor over and asked him why there was oil on the floor
 The Supervisor indicated that it was due to a leaky gasket in the pipe joint above
 The Plant Manager then asked when the gasket had been replaced and the Supervisor
said that each one seemed to leak
 The Supervisor also indicated that Maintenance had been talking to Purchasing about the
gaskets because it seemed they were all bad
 The Plant Manager then went to talk with Purchasing about the situation with the gaskets
 The Purchasing Manager indicated that they had in fact received a bad batch of gaskets
from the supplier
 The Purchasing Manager also indicated that they had been trying for the past 2 months
to try to get the supplier to make good on the last order of 5,000 gaskets that all seemed
to be bad
 The Plant Manager then asked the Purchasing Manager why they had purchased from this
supplier if they were so disreputable and the Purchasing Manager said because they were
the lowest bidder when quotes were received from various suppliers
 The Plant Manager then asked the Purchasing Manager why they went with the lowest
bidder and he indicated that was the direction he had received from the VP of Finance
 The Plant Manager then went to talk to the VP of Finance about the situation
 When the Plant Manager asked the VP of Finance why Purchasing had been directed to
always take the lowest bidder the VP of Finance said, "Because you indicated that we had
to be as cost conscious as possible!" and purchasing from the lowest bidder saves us lots
of money
 The Plant Manger was horrified when he realized that he was the reason there was oil on
the plant floor. Bingo!

30. Most Influential Systems
Theory linked to
organizations…
 Peter Senge (MIT)
– Survival learning = adaptive learning
– Innovation = generative learning
 In order for organizations to learn they must master 5 disciplines
– Systems thinking
– Personal mastery
– Mental models
– Building shared vision
– Team learning
 Senge adds to this recognition that people are agents, able to act
upon the structures and systems of which they are a part. All the
disciplines are, in this way, “concerned with a shift of mind from
seeing parts to seeing wholes, from seeing people as helpless
reactors to seeing them as active participants in shaping their
reality, from reacting to the present to creating the future”
(Senge, 1990, p. 69).

31. The Book
That
Started It
All
1990

32. Great Systems Thinkers
 1950s
– Von Bertalanffey, Austrian born biologist known as one of the founders of
General Systems Theory
– Anatol Rapoport, Russian-born American mathematical Jewish psychologist, one
of the founders of General Systems Theory, game theory and semantics, and
psychological conlfict
– Kenneth E. Boulding, (British) unbounded theorist, advocate of normative
economics,
– William Ross Ashby, English psychiatrist and pioneer in study of complex
systems, Ashby’s Law of Requisite Variety, principles of a self-organizing system
 Variety absorbs Variety, defines the minimum number of states necessary for a
controller to control a system of a given number of states
– Margaret Mead, cultural anthropologist, positive and negative feedback into the
social sciences
– Gregory Bateson, British anthropologist and social scientist, cybernetics (study of
communication and control involving feedback loops to social systems)
– Jay Forrester, MIT (pioneered the field of system dynamics -- analysis of the
behavior of systems)
 Later
– Peter Senge, MIT, (learning organizations)

33. Stephen Hawking
 Expanded systems thinking to the global
platform by introducing the 'Chaos Theory'
that claims the 'interconnectedness of all
things'--- (i.e. the beating of a butterfly’s
wings in Asia can affect the course of Atlantic
hurricanes)
 Quantum Theory, origins of the
universe, imagery of time

34. How Systems Thinking Changes
Behavior
 Problem/ Cause investigations
– Tenerife
– TMI
 Management failures
– Enron
– Bering Bank
 Process weaknesses
 Organizational structures

35. Performance Improvement Model
Performance Analysis Cause Analysis Intervention Selection
Desired
Performance Target Group
State Organization Intrapersonal
Interpersonal
Intragroup
Intergroup
GAP Process
Intervention Type
Training/Learning
Consultative
Individual Techno-Structural
Actual Process
Performance
State
Intervention
Evaluate Results Change Management
Selection

36. Types of Interventions
 Training/ learning
– Knowledge and skills
 Consultative
– Support and feedback
– Results and consequences
– Employee selection
 Techno-structural
– Rewards and incentives
– Equipment and tools
– Organizational structure
 Process
– Job/process design
– Goal and strategic planning

37. Summary

38. References
 Aronson, D. (1996-8). Overview of systems thinking. Retrieved
11/22/06 from
http://www.thinking.net/Systems_Thinking/OverviewSTArticle.pdf
 Heylighen, F. (1998). Basic concepts of the systems approach.
Brussels: Principia Cybernetica Web. Retrieved 11/21/06 from
http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/SYSAPPR.html
 McNamara, C. (1999). Systems thinking. Authenticity Consulting
LLC. Retrieved 11/23/06 from
http://www.managementhelp.org/systems/systems.htm
 Senge. P. (1990). The fifth discipline. NY: Doubleday.