Whole Systems

Description

"Whole-systems thinking recognizes that a problem is created by every part of the system in which the problem is embedded, and that the problem can be addressed in any and every part of the system.

This approach focuses on interactions between the elements of a system as a way to understand and change the system itself. Whole-systems thinking pays close attention to incentives and feedback loops within a system as ways to change how a system behaves.

Whole-systems thinkers see wholes instead of parts, interrelationships and patterns, rather than individual things and static snapshots. They seek solutions that simultaneously address multiple problems.

Respected whole-systems theorist Donella H. Meadows lists nine places to intervene in a system, in increasing order of impact: numbers (subsidies, taxes, standards), material stocks and flows, regulating negative feedback loops, driving positive feedback loops, information flows, the rules of the system (incentives, punishment, constraints), the power of self-organization, the goals of the system, and the mindset or paradigm out of which the goals, rules, and feedback structures arise.xii In Meadow’s hierarchy, altering numbers—adding five percent more money to a program budget, reducing unemployment by half a percent—are the least effective form of intervention. Altering mindsets—traditional industrialization leads to prosperity, waste is inevitable, centralized projects mean progress—is the most effective form of intervention. Effective change means tinkering with intervention strategies and parts of the system until something works.

Whole-systems thinking can produce effects that would be unattainable with more linear approaches because it is often a closer fit to the reality of the situation." (http://files.howtolivewiki.com/A%20Whole%20Systems%20Framework%20for%20Sustainable%20Production%20and%20Consumption.pdf)