Thinking in Systems

Síntesis

Thinking in Systems es un libro de Donella Meadows que argumenta que los mayores problemas globales (como la guerra, el hambre, la pobreza y la degradación ambiental) son, en esencia, fallos sistémicos; por lo tanto, no pueden resolverse arreglando partes aisladas. En un sistema interconectado, incluso los detalles aparentemente menores tienen el poder de arruinar las intervenciones si tenemos una visión demasiado estrecha.

Más allá de enseñarnos herramientas y metodologías, el corazón del libro es una invitación a cambiar nuestra mentalidad. Meadows nos recuerda que debemos prestar atención a lo que es verdaderamente importante (y no solo a lo que se puede medir o cuantificar), mantenernos humildes y nunca dejar de aprender. En un mundo cada vez más complejo, abarrotado e interdependiente, este libro es una guía esencial para dejar de sentirnos indefensos y comenzar a diseñar soluciones proactivas y efectivas.

Mis subrayados

• Thus though man has never before been so complacent about what he has, or so confident of his ability to do whatever he sets his mind upon, it is at the same time true that he never before accepted so low an estimate of what he is. That same scientific method which enabled him to create his wealth and to unleash the power he wields has, he believes, enabled biology and psychology to explain him away—or at least to explain away whatever used to seem unique or even in any way mysterious.… Truly he is, for all his wealth and power, poor in spirit.
• The thing to do, when you don’t know, is not to bluff and not to freeze, but to learn. The way you learn is by experiment—or, as Buckminster Fuller put it, by trial and error, error, error.
• These few examples are enough to get you thinking about how little our current culture has come to look for responsibility within the system that generates an action, and how poorly we design systems to experience the consequences of their actions.
• If something is ugly, say so. If it is tacky, inappropriate, out of proportion, unsustainable, morally degrading, ecologically impoverishing, or humanly demeaning, don’t let it pass.
• … feedback, throughput, overshoot, self-organization, sustainability.
• The first step in respecting language is keeping it as concrete, meaningful, and truthful as possible—part of the job of keeping information streams clear.
• (Language) can serve as a medium through which we create new understandings and new realities as we begin to talk about them. In fact, we don’t talk about what we see; we see only what we can talk about. Our perspectives on the world depend on the interaction of our nervous system and our language—both act as filters through which we perceive our world.… The language and information systems of an organization are not an objective means of describing an outside reality—they fundamentally structure the perceptions and actions of its members. To reshape the measurement and communication systems of a society is to reshape all potential interactions at the most fundamental level. Language … as articulation of reality is more primordial than strategy, structure, or … culture. - Fred Kofman
• Systems thinkers see the world as a collection of stocks along with the mechanisms for regulating the levels in the stocks by manipulating flows.
• Stocks allow inflows and outflows to be decoupled and to be independent and temporarily out of balance with each other.
• A stock takes time to change, because flows take time to flow.
• A change in purpose changes a system profoundly, even if every element and interconnection remains the same.
• The least obvious part of the system, its function or purpose, is often the most crucial determinant of the system’s behavior.
• Keeping sub-purposes and overall system purposes in harmony is an essential function of successful systems.
• An important function of almost every system is to ensure its own perpetuation.
• Purposes are deduced from behavior, not from rhetoric or stated goals.
• Many of the interconnections in systems operate through the flow of information. Information holds systems together and plays a great role in determining how they operate.