Systems Thinking Media
Emergence & Phase Transition
This video presents the ideas of emergence, phase transitions, and strong vs. weak emergence. According to Wikipedia, emergence is conceived as a process whereby larger entities, patterns, and...
System Dynamics Overview
In this video, we give an overview of the area of system dynamics, a branch of systems theory that tries to model and understand the dynamic behavior of complex systems over time...
System Science
Systems theory is a formal language that since its development during the middle of the 20th century has gone on to support many new domains of science under its canopy....
System Homeostasis
In this module, we will be discussing how dynamic systems regulate themselves within their environment. Many types of systems require both a continuous input of resources from their environment...
System Hierarchy
In this video, we look at the ideas of system hierarchy and abstraction. We can only get so far by talking about systems on one level of analysis as the reality of the world we live in is of...
Synergistic Relations
A synergy is the creation of a whole that is greater than the simple sum of its parts. In this lecture, we discuss the relation between components within a system and the two fundamentally...
System Boundary & Environment
In this module, we present models for understanding systems within the context of their broader environment within which they must operate and interact with other systems....
System Efficiency
Whether we are talking about a car, political system or a farm we are often interested in answering the question how well does it work, that is to say what is the ratio between the resources that...
System Function
In this module we start to talk about one of the key elements to our model of a system that is functions, functions are an important concept within many domains from mathematics to engineering...
Systems & Sets
In this video, we start to give an outline to what we mean by the concept of a system when we contrast it with what we call sets. The concept of a system is defined as a set of things that work...
When to Use Systems Thinking
In this video, we discuss when to use systems thinking. We talk about how systems thinking is most relevant when dealing with systems that are highly interconnected; that are dynamic in nature...
Understanding Analysis and Synthesis
In this short video, we explain the primary difference between analytical methods of reasoning and systems thinking while also discussing the two methods that underpin them; synthesis and reductionism....
System Dynamics
System Dynamics System dynamics is a branch of systems theory that tries to model and understand the dynamic behavior of complex systems. It deals with internal feedback loops and time delays...
Functions
Functions A function is a very broad and fundamental concept that is central to systems theory. It is also used in many different domains, being particularly important in mathematics and...
Homeostasis
Homeostasis Within systems theory and cybernetic, homeostasis describes the process whereby a system regulates itself or its environment in order to archive an optimal set of input states...
Cybernetics
Cybernetics Cybernetics is the study of control, communications and information processing within systems of all kind, biological, mechanical and social. Norbert Wiener(one of the founders of the...
Systems
Systems There are many definitions for a system. Some examples include Wikipedia’s definition where “a system is a set of interacting or interdependent components forming an...
System Efficiency
System Efficiency Whether we are talking about a car, political system or a farm, we are often interested in answering the question: how well does it work, that is to say, what is the ratio...
System Boundary
System Boundary A system’s boundary demarcates a limit to the system’s internal components and processes. Internal to its boundary, the system has some degree of integrity, meaning...
Iceberg Model
Iceberg Model The Iceberg Model tries to illustrate the various level of abstraction to a situation or organization, from the observable events to underlying patterns that generate these, to the...
Adaptive Thinking
Adaptation is a behavior or response that is contingent on its environment, maybe the best way to understand it is to contrast it with reacting, we might think of reacting as a predefined...
Systems Thinking In Pictures
Short image and text video presenting some of the main ideas in systems thinking. Systems thinking is the process of understanding how those things which may be regarded as systems, influence one...
Nonlinear Thinking
A line is often defined as the shorts path from one point to another, linear thinking then describes how we interpret events or act in terms of direct cause and effect means. When we use linear...
Network Thinking
Network thinking is about seeing not just things but the nexus of connections that they are embedded within and that give them context, it is seeing the overall fabric that these connections...
Systems Thinking – The Key To Complexity
Complexity has become a hallmark of 21st-century reality within almost all areas from business management to fundamental physics. This surprisingly quirky little word has proven to be a...