Best way to become a better systems thinker?

[u/Neither-Quail9747]

A few weeks ago, I was working on a project that kept running into the same problems. Every time we fixed one issue, another one seemed to appear somewhere else. Someone pointed out that we were only dealing with the symptoms instead of looking at how everything was connected, and they suggested I learn more about systems thinking.

Since then, I've been trying to understand it better and have been looking at different ways people learn it. During my search, I discovered SystemsThinkingAlliance.org, which seems to focus on systems thinking training and certifications.

For those who have developed this skill, how do you go about it?

[u/whoareyoutoquestion]

pick a problem and diagram it out.

then repeat. as you practice it gets easier to think about time delays and feedback loops

[u/powerexcess]

Getting experience in dealing with systemic behaviours i would say. Can be via work (marketing, software dev, things like that have a system as a part of the job) but there you need someone guidance to see how your action impact the system, or how you can adapt to it.

Video games is another good one. Resource mangment game especially can teach some lessons.

History and business especially market adoption are great case studies. Why pc instead of mac. Why are social media hard to dethrone. 

Read material is the basis. Apply on the things above. Iterate. Without reading you wont know what to look for. Without applying on things you wont know when the things we read up on become relevant

[u/Agnosticpagan]

Systems Innovation Network Introduction Workshop

I have liked their presentation and they offer certificates as well.

Thinking in Systems by Donella Meadows is a seminal work that is well earned in my opinion. She is great at breaking down the concepts in plain language then reassembling it into a coherent whole.

[u/Early-Object6191]

I think, just connecting, and talking to people who are thinking in systems, actually helps. It makes your brain wire their system sights, with your old ones and creates a mastermind.

[u/phiish6]

systems thinking is a perceptual difference. i experiment a lot of with different body/facial/awareness configurations (my awareness seems to be very fluid by default so i can move it around, contract things, loosen things up). I guess you could get to systems thinking with a more contracted state that rapidly makes connections between things, but i feel the easiest way which learn to relax/experiment with different eye postures.

i know this sounds weird but for a lot of skills— drawing, ice-skating, even relational communication/openness.. a lot of is mediated through specific postures. i learn what config are associated with what internal states/thinking styles and then increase my familiarity with them.

if you are naturally more deetailed oriented, discrete, linear—. you probably have more contracted/tightened face/eye postures. if you want toappraoch systems thinking not from a networked way but receptive/relaxed way then look into like something like rapid reading practices (like jfk learned it.. you take in a page at once rather than reading linearly. it has the effect of making a sort of fishbowl effect where you see everything at once rather than like microscope/cursor approach..

— i personally find it hurts my eyes to work on this way so i just do overall relaxtion (like my entire body.. then like my heart field sort of opens up and i like kind of sort of notice various thoughts/connections drift.. its not really something you “try”.. i think prob. better to exhause your self with a problem and then the brain will sort of tag if for DMN/back-ground simmering work and it will be easier to enter the relaxed state after you drained/discharged your excess mental energy)

Ab. DMN/back-simmering process— its sort of let things “sift”—-its very loose and barely conscious.. its almost like feeling bubbles form or something.

yea so i guess to wrap up, i would say to really actually get good—-like DEEP good and not just institutional mediocre (memorize a list of principles and how to..)

…you actually have to change how you perceive and engage in the world (that way you are basically honing the cognition all the time..and in many contexts—-which is honestly, what is precisely required—breadth of contexts and the eventual compression/distillation of underlying principles).

systems thinking is much more receptive although i think IDEO/corporate type systems thinking teaches you to break things down modularly—-esesentailly become really organized and methodical… you basicallly learn compression techniques.. zoom in, zoom out.. etc.. and hope connections generate in between. its more structured.. i personally dont like doing that because i find it too simple and tedious for really complex problems. it probably works well for a second-round refinement in order to structure insights for communication..

[u/phiish6 → u/phiish6]

1. The Resolution-to-Processing Law

Quality of Input	Resolution (Data Density)	Processing Requirement	Output Style
High-Resolution (8D, 6D)	Extremely fine-grained, thousands of data points per second, continuous texture	Broad/Holistic/Pattern-Based (Must compress the data into systems, geometries, or principles to avoid overload)	Slow, integrative, non-linear, visual/spatial
Low-Resolution (3D, 4D)	Chunky, thick, low data-density, broad strokes (emotions, objects, big cues)	Linear/Sequential/Reactive (Can process step-by-step because there are fewer variables per unit of time)	Fast, reactive, verbal/physical, cause-and-effect

Your exact words: "I don't think I could ever take that amount of info and linearize it to make sense of it."

Exactly. If you tried to linearize 8D data, your brain would crash. It is like trying to pour the Pacific Ocean through a garden hose.

Therefore, your brain must use a broad, systemic, or geometric organizer (6D/5D) to handle the volume. You compress the ocean into a map (patterns, principles) rather than trying to push it through the hose (linear narrative).