Systems Thinking for Impactful Innovation
In recent years, there has been a surge in the adoption of innovative methodologies and approaches among public servants to enhance the efficiency of their work and deliver better results. From Agile methodologies to design thinking, human-centred design, product management, and service design, the toolkit for tackling our business challenges is expanding rapidly. Yet, amidst this proliferation of methods lies an important realization: while these approaches are helpful at identifying and addressing immediate problems and solutions, an understanding of the broader perspectives and contexts is necessary to ensure that solutions align with larger goals and are sustainable.
Today's problems are often the byproducts of yesterday's solutions because systems evolve, overlap, and interact, resulting in new needs. Therefore, we need to continuously evaluate our systems to understand the bigger picture and design solutions that serve the needs of the people using our solutions. One way to consider the big picture is to adopt systems thinking as a mindset and approach. Embracing systems thinking from the start allows for a more comprehensive understanding of complex problems, ensuring solutions are interdisciplinary, collaborative, effective and sustainable.
Systems thinking: Definition and importance
Systems thinking is a mindset and an approach to looking at and solving problems. It considers how all the parts of a system work together at all levels of an organization rather than focusing on just one part at a time. It's about understanding the connections between different parts of our system1 to see the bigger picture.
In the context of government, countless systems exist, ranging in size and scope, including organizations, services, projects, products and policies. Each decision made within these systems is a response to the need to address system-related issues. As every aspect of the system is interconnected, every action and decision set off ripple effects within the system and its surroundings.
Understanding the interconnected nature of systems is crucial when designing effective solutions. For example, if the goal of a government policy is to improve health outcomes, one might naturally consider health policy interventions. However, it is impossible to separate community health outcomes from other policy domains such as infrastructure, education and employment. Given the inherent complexity of any system, accurately predicting the outcomes of decisions is challenging due to the numerous variables and feedback loops involved. By considering the interconnected pieces of the system, we can better predict outcomes and design more effective solutions.
In the following sections, we will unpack how we can embrace a systems thinking mindset and approach in our daily work.
Systems thinking as a mindset: The principles of systems thinking
As a mindset, systems thinking encourages you to keep informed about the big picture and see beyond immediate issues to understand the broader impact of the work that you do. It can be applied to small-scale systems, such as local parking permit processes, as well as large-scale systems, like national healthcare or transportation networks. Interconnectedness is the core mindset needed to understand any system.
The visual below illustrates how systems thinking principles work together to uncover the interconnectedness of the system's components.
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The system is made of interconnected components. To uncover the connections and dependencies in any system, we need to consider the following:
- Boundaries: Define the scope and interactions of the system.
- Context: Understand the external factors and conditions that impact the system within its defined boundaries.
- Causality: Identify direct cause-and-effect relationships to see how specific changes lead to outcomes.
- Feedback loops: Examine how outputs are fed back into the system to reinforce or balance behaviours over time.
- Non-linearity: Recognize that non-linear relationships can lead to disproportionate and unpredictable effects.
- Dynamic complexity: Understand how interactions of non-linearity and feedback loops create complex and often unpredictable behaviours.
- Evolution: Explore how the system adapts and changes over time, influenced by dynamic complexity and non-linearity.
Understanding the interaction between these principles can help untangle any system. Let's build on these principles and turn them into actionable steps that can help us understand how systems are interconnected and how to effectively analyze and manage their complexities.
- Define boundaries: The first step is to define boundaries around systems. Defining boundaries helps organizations identify the scope of analysis and intervention, enabling them to focus their efforts effectively while also recognizing the interconnectedness between systems and their environment.Setting boundaries allow for a better understanding of how different systems merge and influence each other, emphasizing the importance of managing interfaces and interactions across these boundaries.
- Assess context: Building on boundaries, context needs to be identified next as problems and solutions are deeply influenced by their specific environments. Interconnectedness is key here, as understanding how different components interact within their context helps tailor interventions to fit the unique conditions of the system. This approach ensures that solutions are effective and sustainable by considering the complex interplay of factors influencing the system.
- Analyze causality: Understanding context naturally leads to recognizing causality within systems. As Heinrich's domino theory suggests, even the smallest change in one system component can trigger a ripple effect throughout the entire ecosystem. Understanding the interconnectedness of causes and effects within a system is crucial for organizations, as it allows them to recognize dependencies and anticipate the impact of changes across the entire system. This interconnected causality leads to more effective decision-making and problem-solving.
- Identify feedback loops: Understanding causal relationships helps figure out what feeds into the system and how different components interact over time. By identifying feedback loops, you can observe how outputs from one part of the system loop back as inputs to influence other parts. This insight allows you to recognize reinforcing or balancing mechanisms within the system, which can either amplify or stabilize behaviours.
- Understand non-linearity: Causality and feedback loops can help adapt non-linear approaches for more flexible and responsive problem solving. Recognizing that systems often exhibit non-linear behaviour—where small changes can lead to disproportionate effects—enables you to anticipate and manage complex interactions and unintended consequences.
- Consider dynamic complexity: By recognizing non-linear patterns, you can better anticipate how various factors interplay and contribute to the system's overall complexity. This understanding supports the development of strategies that are flexible and adaptive, allowing you to manage and respond to the evolving and interconnected nature of dynamic systems more effectively.
- Anticipate evolution: Once dynamic complexity is untangled, it becomes easier to understand how systems evolve and predict patterns. This clarity reveals how various components interact and influence each other over time, highlighting the system's continuous and often unpredictable evolution. With this understanding, you can anticipate potential changes and trends within the system, enabling you to design and implement adaptive strategies.
Systems thinking as an approach: Analyzing the pillars
As an approach, systems thinking provides a structured framework using various tools and methods to analyze how components within a system interact and influence each other. Tools such as causal loop diagrams, system maps, stock and flow diagrams, feedback loop analysis, and root cause analysis are essential for identifying connections, patterns, feedback loops, and emergent properties within the system.
Another way to untangle complex systems is breaking them down using the following five pillars: input, process, people, output and outcomes. This decomposition is not to suggest linearity, but to reinforce the need of understanding the system's components as a first step towards adopting a systems thinking mindset and to emphasize that these pillars are interconnected as shown in the image below.
Learn more about the five pillars of systems thinking
- Input: By scrutinizing the inputs into the system such as data, resources, and stakeholder feedback, public servants can identify gaps and inefficiencies. Input initiates or triggers the rest of the pillars.Input triggers organizations to interact and collaborate on creating processes.
- People: The human element in the system including employees, stakeholders, users and customers plays a pivotal role in its functioning. They bring diverse needs, perspectives, motivations, and experiences shaping the system's dynamics. However, the varying interests and priorities of colleagues and clients can often result in conflicts or misalignments within the system. Aligning these diverse perspectives and motivations towards common goals is essential for cohesive system functioning.
- Process: Understanding how the processes interact with other pillars and systems is crucial for optimizing workflow and team collaboration. Processes serve as the backbone of system operations, guiding the execution of tasks and the allocation of resources. They establish the framework for how inputs are transformed into outputs, influencing the efficiency and effectiveness of the system. However, the interaction between processes and people introduces a layer of complexity. While processes aim to streamline operations and enhance productivity, they must accommodate the diverse needs, preferences, and capabilities of individuals within the system. This interaction can result in varying degrees of alignment, where well-designed processes complement and support human activities, leading to smoother workflow and improved outcomes. Conversely, misaligned processes can hinder productivity, create bottlenecks, and foster frustration among system users.
- Output: Analyzing the outputs such as documents, digital or physical products, services, and completed projects generated by the system provides insights into its effectiveness in delivering intended outcomes. Public servants can assess the quality, quantity, and relevance of outputs to determine whether they meet stakeholder and user needs and expectations. People deliver outputs to users and stakeholders. Users and stakeholders interact with outputs to result in outcomes.
- Outcome: Clearly understanding the outcomes public servants want to achieve helps them gauge their efforts towards achieving sustainable, viable, feasible, and desirable results. Therefore, outcome is the most important systems thinking pillar as it triggers the engagement of the other pillars (input, people, process and output).
The desired outcome is like the central pillar of a building—it guides everything else. Just like how a building's foundation is made strong by its corner pillars, our system's foundation is built on input, process, people and output. But it's the desire to achieve certain outcomes that holds everything together and directs our efforts.
Every input is chosen, every process is designed, and every person's role is defined with the desired outcome in mind. Thus, the outcome drives the adjustments and interactions of the other pillars. Understanding the connections among these pillars can help identify opportunities for problem-solving and meaningful improvement.
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A diagram titled "Systems thinking in service and design" depicting interactive elements in colourful circles. All circles are connected with bidirectional arrows. The main five circles represent desired outcomes: people, input, output and process. Each of the main circles is further divided into interconnected elements.
- desired outcomes include impact, reach, growth, sustainability and success
- people include individuals, groups, organizations, employees and leaders
- inputs include mission, vision, policy, gaps, needs and feedback
- outputs include products, services, programs, policy, information and data
- processes include external and internal processes, design, development, delivery, improvement, evaluation, compliance, procurement, information exchange and partnership
These pillars are universal. They are applicable everywhere, anywhere, any time. So, it's never too late to start mapping your system and understanding how these pillars can shape your work environment.
Sometimes the interactions between pillars align, but at other times, they may conflict, requiring careful management and adaptation. For instance, a procurement vehicle set up in advance may be a process that supports speed and may be counterbalanced with other processes that ensure safety or ethical considerations, slowing things down to support analysis and reflection. Knowing and applying the principles of interconnectedness can be particularly helpful in these situations. By understanding how different parts of the system influence one another, organizations can anticipate potential conflicts and synergies, enabling more effective planning and decision-making.
Systems thinking pillars in action: Product management
Let's use as an example to illustrate how systems thinking can contribute to improved products, and therefore, services.
By considering the interconnections and dependencies among different pillars or components of the system (input, process, people, output and outcomes), product managers can make informed decisions that consider the broader implications of competing demands and influences that shape the system's dynamics.
Let's look at the pillars of systems thinking through a product management lens:
- Input: Thoughtfully analyzing and clearly communicating the various sources of input is crucial for product teams to establish a unified vision. Inputs come from user research and feedback, departmental feedback, departmental requests, priorities, insights from performance gaps and needs analyzes, and comparative studies. These inputs often present conflicting priorities and tensions that need careful balancing. For instance, urgent requests from senior management might conflict with ongoing data collection and analysis efforts. Synthesizing these inputs effectively helps product teams align their efforts effectively towards achieving desired outcomes.
- People: Because of the cross-functional nature of product teams, it's imperative to define communication needs to facilitate seamless collaboration. Relationships with other organizations, teams, or individuals can exert influences that can both support and constrain the process. Evaluating human dynamics, roles, engagement levels, and networking opportunities can uncover areas for improvement in achieving outcomes. Effective collaboration with stakeholders, team members and users is essential for success, but it also requires navigating the tensions and dependencies between different roles and functions.
- Process: Implementing streamlined processes using Agile methodologies (Adopting Agile Methods in the Public Service) such as Lean, Scrum, or Six Sigma can enhance the work environment by minimizing bottlenecks and maximizing impact. However, processes are influenced by various external and internal factors, such as corporate policies and organizational enablers, which can either accelerate or dampen progress. Embracing these methodologies fosters a culture of continuous improvement and problem-solving while also managing the tensions between efficiency and compliance.
- Output: Continuously evaluating outputs such as products, prototypes, vision statements, roadmaps and results from performance metrics provide valuable insights into the effectiveness of product efforts. This ongoing assessment allows product teams to refine internal processes and strategies as needed, paving the way for enhanced outcomes. Outputs are not just end results but also indicators of how well the system components are interacting. Regularly monitoring outputs help teams stay agile and responsive to evolving user needs and the system's dynamics, highlighting areas where adjustments are necessary to address emerging challenges and opportunities.
- Outcome: The goal of product management is to deliver excellent product experience that fulfills user needs and achieves business objectives. This desired outcome is the culmination of all pillars—input, people, process and output—working in harmony. Each team within an organization bears accountability for their contribution to the collective desired outcome. By identifying desired outcomes early on, teams can strategically align all pillars to deliver impactful, viable and feasible solutions.
Without systems thinking, achieving desired outcomes becomes challenging for product teams. Products are not standalone entities but rather the culmination of interconnected systems including people, inputs, processes, outputs and desired outcomes. Systems thinking offers a powerful framework for product teams to navigate a system's complexities more effectively.
Conclusion
Systems thinking serves as a versatile mindset and a universal method applicable across diverse domains including policy, service design, learning design, user experience design, education, and more. The key lies in recognizing our position within the system, defining clear work objectives within its boundaries, and establishing connections between the pillars to gain a comprehensive understanding of the larger context. By embracing a systems thinking mindset and approach, public servants can drive positive change and create sustainable solutions for a better future.
Call to action
The next step is to embrace systems thinking. Treflect on how this approach can contribute to better service delivery in your organization. To guide your reflection, consider the following prompts:
- Identify the components of within your organization's system or even the project you're working on. How do various components interact and influence each other's performance and outcomes?
- Identify areas of improvement for each pillar. Are there bottlenecks or inefficiencies hindering productivity or the achievement of desired outcomes? Are there factors that substantially influence your ability to succeed, and if so, can you control or influence those? (meaning boosting positive influences or managing negative ones)
- Share your findings with the team and engage them in this conversation. Together, plan your next steps towards achieving more cohesive and impactful outcomes.
Definitions
A system is a collection of interconnected elements working together to achieve a common purpose. Like the human body, where cells form organs and systems that function harmoniously, any change within one part of a system affects the entire system.
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