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Systems Thinking is an approach for studying and managing complex feedback systems, such as one
finds in business and other social systems. In fact it has been used to
address practically every sort of feedback system.
SD is more or less the same as Systems Thinking, but emphasizes the usage
of computer-simulation tools.
The term System means an
interdependent group of items forming a unified pattern.
Feedback
refers to the situation of X affecting Y and Y in turn affecting X
perhaps through a chain of causes and effects. One cannot study the link
between X and Y and, independently, the link between Y and X and predict
how the system will behave. Only the study of the whole system as a
feedback system will lead to correct results.
The Steps in the SD methodology are roughly as
follows:
-
Identify a
problem,
-
Develop
a dynamic hypothesis explaining the cause of the problem,
-
Build
a computer simulation model of the system at the root of the
problem,
-
Test
the model to be certain that it reproduces the behavior seen in
the real world,
-
Devise
and test in the model alternative policies that alleviate the
problem, and
-
Implement
the solution.
Often these steps
have to be reviewed and refined going back to an earlier step. For
instance, the first problem identified may be only a symptom of a still
greater problem.
SD
is
based on Systems Thinking, but takes the additional steps of
constructing and testing a computer simulation model.
The SD field developed initially from the book
Industrial Dynamics of Jay W. Forrester.
Typical
applications of SD
can be found in:
-
strategy and
corporate planning
-
business
process development
-
public
management and policy
-
biological and
medical modeling
-
energy and the
environment
-
theory
development in the natural and social sciences
-
dynamic
decision making
-
complex
nonlinear dynamics
Book: John Sterman - Business D.: Systems Thinking and
Modeling for a Complex World - 
Compare with System Dynamics:
Gestalt Theory
| Scenario Planning
|
Five Disciplines |
OODA loop |
Game Theory |
Spiral Dynamics
More management models
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