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1. A system
· Must have practical boundaries.
· Can be greater than the sum of its components.
· Can be closed or open.
· Must have feedback.
2. An Open System
· Must ingest enough input to offset its output and consumption.
· Has no unique solution to the same problem. You need to optimize.
· In effective systems, work adds value and eliminates all sorts of waste.
Systems theory has identified numerous principles that are common to systems, many of which help us to better understand organizations.
Systems thinking reposes on basic principles:
1. Any system must have boundaries that separate it from its environment. This principle is essential for studying a system or improving it. If the system is big, it should be broken into subsystems with clear, practical boundaries.
2. Structures influence behavior: when there are problems at work, mainly because structure elements do not work together, performance (a result of behavior) fails to live up with what is planned. People tend to react in three different ways:
· Addressing systemic structure because systems generate behavior (generative reaction).
· Addressing patterns of behavior because behaviors produce events (responsive reaction).
· Addressing results or events when they produce (reactive response: most common and the easiest way to react). Addressing structures prevents reproduction of behaviors that result in problematic events. Therefore, to improve a system, consider improving the structure that runs this system.
3. A system can always be more than the sum of its components. That a system can always include the effect of synergy. If not, then there is something within not working in harmony with the other components. There is always a position where the function of the system is optimum or effective. This position has to be sought. Effectiveness is not a static property; it changes with change of circumstances and external environment. System effectiveness is apparent when its outputs exceed the sum of the individual outputs. This can be accomplished when there is unity of direction and commonness of objectives of its members and where teams or individuals in the organization see where they stand in relation to the company’s other work, especially in cross-functional groups.
The fact that sum of the system can be greater than the sum of the individual work of its employees, proves that effective systems have synergy. Such state of synergy is reached when waste is minimal, and when all actions add value to the mission of the system.
4. A system can be considered closed or open at a certain period of time. An open system has some kind of exchange with the environment. A closed system does not have this exchange: a system in the universe cannot have any exchange with the environment unless for a limited period of time. The car is a closed system, to some extent, when it is parked and not used. When used, the car becomes an open system and exchanges certain product with the environment.
5. For an open system to survive, it must ingest enough input from its environment to offset its output as well as the energy and material used in its operation. This is referred to as “steady state.” Steady state conditions are dynamic: the system must be able to change in order to adapt to the dynamic situation of the environment of the system. Before reaching a steady state, system can be in a re-enforcement state. Re-enforcement can be positive (if performance is increasing as a result of positive feedback) or negative (when performance is decreasing as a result of negative feedback). Open systems tend to specialize and elaborate their elements and structure and enlarge their boundaries with time, with size and maybe with the change of the environment.
6. In open systems, there is no unique solution to the same problem: there are many ways to produce the same output or there are many outputs for the same input.
7. A system must have feedback: information that the system needs to maintain steady state and to know that it is not in danger of destruction.
8. In systems thinking, every influence is both cause and effect: i.e. a cause can also be an effect of something else when regarded in different way.
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