This book is about the behaviour of systems. Systems are important, for
we interact with them all the time, and many of the actions we take are
influenced by a system - for example, the system of performance measures
in an organisation influences, often very strongly, how individuals
within that organisation behave. Furthermore, sometimes we are involved
in the design of systems, as is any manager contributing to the
definition of what those performance measures might be. That manager
will want to ensure that all the proposed performance measures will
drive the 'right' behaviours rather than (inadvertently) encouraging
dysfunctional 'game playing', and so anticipating how the performance
measurement system will work in practice is a vital part of a wise
design process.
Some of the systems with which we interact are local, such as your
organisation's performance measurement system. Some systems, however,
are distant, but nonetheless very real, such as the healthcare system,
the education system, the legal system and the climate system. Systems,
therefore, exist on all scales, from the local to the global. And all
systems are complex, some hugely so. That's why understanding how
systems behave can be very helpful.
Systems are complex for two main reasons. First, the manner in which
they behave over time can be very hard to anticipate - and anticipating
the future sensibly is of course a key objective of management. Second,
the 'entities' within a system can be connected together in very complex
ways, so that an intervention 'here' can result in an effect 'there',
perhaps a long time afterward. Sometimes this can be surprising, and so
we talk of 'unintended consequences' - but this is of course a euphemism
for 'because I didn't understand how this system behaves, I had not
anticipated that'.
Systems thinking, the subject matter of this book, is the disciplined
study of systems, and causal loop diagrams - the 'pictures' of this
'picture book' - are a very insightful way to represent the
connectedness of the entities from which any system is composed, so
taming that system's complexity.
