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Systems Thinking is Not Optional: Lessons From a Pandemic

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Systems Thinking is Not Optional: Lessons From a Pandemic

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Systems thinking is essential for effective leadership, as it allows leaders to see the bigger picture and understand the consequences of their decisions. The video highlights the laws of systems thinking and their application to the COVID-19 pandemic, emphasizing the importance of considering the interconnectedness of all aspects of society. By adopting a systems approach, we can better prepare for future challenges and ensure that our decisions have positive and holistic outcomes.

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Systems Thinking is Not Optional: Lessons From a Pandemic

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Systems thinking is the philosophy that all things are connected and is often the missing piece in our attempts to solve today's problems. Steve Woodsmall illustrates the key concepts of systems thinking by applying them to the COVID-19 pandemic, thus helping you "see the invisible" and think differently about addressing complex issues.

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This video explains the concept of systems thinking and how it can help us understand the interconnectedness of various aspects of the world, such as the clothing industry and industrial agriculture, and the potential consequences of our actions within these systems. The speaker encourages viewers to incorporate systems thinking into their daily lives and to consider the broader implications of their choices on the larger systems they are a part of.

For example, when trying to reduce our carbon footprint, systems thinking involves considering the interconnectedness of various systems, such as transportation, energy production, and waste management. By making informed choices like using public transportation, supporting renewable energy, and reducing consumption, we can have a greater positive impact on the environment.

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Systems Thinking 101 | Anna Justice | TEDxFurmanU

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According to the article, systems design involves designing the interactions between the parts of a system. The author mentions that systems designers focus on the needs of stakeholders and utilize human-centered design principles. They highlight the importance of systems design in addressing challenges related to human systems such as education, healthcare, criminal justice, and government.

It is interesting to consider the significance of human-centered systems design in addressing complex societal challenges. By prioritizing the needs of stakeholders and designing interactions that are centered around humans, we can create more effective and inclusive systems.

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I'm in a quiet but crowded bar chatting with a friend of a friend, who inevitably asks: "So, what do you do?"

Sometimes I wish I could reply with an expected answer - doctor, lawyer, teacher, engineer, entrepreneur.

Instead, I say: "I'm a systems designer."

Pause.

"A what?" they ask.

When I started at IDEO six years ago, I had no idea what a systems designer was either. Only that I was one.

Now I have an answer, but I'm still perfecting the 30-second elevator pitch. If you've got four minutes, here's what I've got so far.

An iPhone, the human body, buildings, cities, organizations, economies, the universe. One of these can fit in your pocket and another is infinite - what makes them all systems?
A system is defined by the interactions of its parts.
In a series of excellent lectures, Russell Ackoff, a pioneer in systems thinking and former professor at Wharton Business School, uses the analogy of an automobile to explain systems. Ackoff explains that no individual part of a car can move you from point A to point B on its own - not the wheel, axle, seat, or even the motor. But a car can. If you take apart a car, you no longer have a car, just the pieces. As Ackoff says, this is because "A system is not the sum of the behavior of its parts; it's the product of their interactions." This is as true for a computer as it is for the universe as it is for any other system.

In his business school lectures, Ackoff criticized managers for focusing on business silos (marketing, operations...

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A systems designer at IDEO breaks down what systems are, why they require design, and what her job entails, with the help of Russell Ackoff, a pioneer in the field.

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What 'systems thinking' actually means - and why it matters for innovation today

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What 'systems thinking' actually means - and why it matters for innovation today

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The article discusses the concept of systems thinking and its significance in today's world. It emphasizes that systems thinking helps understand the interconnectedness in our world and can stimulate innovation, particularly in the face of uncertainty caused by the pandemic.

One example presented in the article is about the impact of COVID-19 on the banking industry. The pandemic led to the closure of bank branches and a shift towards online banking and digital services. This trend was already emerging before the pandemic, as more customers sought convenience and digital experiences. The underlying structure driving this shift is the growing desire for digitalized experiences and the preference for minimal touchpoints. Understanding these patterns and structures through systems thinking can help businesses adapt and innovate in response to changing customer behaviors.

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Innovation

Systems thinking helps us see the part of the iceberg that's beneath the water Image: Ezra Jeffrey

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What 'systems thinking' actually means - and why it matters today

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'No man is an island' is a well-known phrase, yet in practice, how often do we understand the interconnectedness of everything around us? Enter systems thinking.

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The article discusses the integration of AI into systems thinking in engineering. It highlights how AI can extract and identify stories within complex engineering tasks, aiding in more efficient system design and refinement. The approach, which involves using machine learning to understand the dynamics of engineering projects, has potential revolutionary applications in military technologies. The concept of dynamical systems theory is a key component, emphasizing the storytelling nature of human activities and their application in AI systems development.

This article presents an innovative intersection of AI and systems thinking, offering a fresh perspective on engineering problem-solving. The approach of viewing engineering challenges as stories to be unraveled by AI is not only creative but could significantly enhance efficiency and innovation. It's particularly fascinating how this methodology could transform military technology development, potentially leading to groundbreaking advancements. The combination of AI's analytical capabilities with the holistic view of systems thinking could redefine engineering processes and outcomes.

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Applying AI to Systems Thinking

Every Engineer Has a Story

1. Home

2. What We Do

3. Applying AI to Systems Thinking: Every Engineer Has a Story

By Albert McKeon

Everyone has a story to tell, even engineers and systems they build. While there's no surprise that it's complex work to design intricate and integrated systems and structures, many may not see that as elements of a bigger picture story.

Using artificial intelligence (AI) to identify and extract those stories can help engineers recognize an approach they've missed or overemphasized. AI can then point them toward creating and refining operational systems more efficiently. That's what two Northrop Grumman developers have discovered: applying AI to systems thinking can bring out the storyteller in every engineer.

"A lot of human activity is a dynamical system, it's a story. Humans are a story telling species. This is a fundamental thing to the way we are built."

- Isidoros Doxas

Uncovering Dynamics to Revolutionize Engineering

"The way we build things and the way we work is a story," said Isidoros Doxas, a data scientist at Northrop Grumman. "The current way people engineer is to try to troubleshoot and find failure modes. You have subject matter experts who break things down...then slowly, they come up with a story of how this machine can fail. Failure modes are stories," Doxas said.

He continued, "The way machine learning works is also a story. Because of that, we have machinery that comes from an analysis of what are dynamical systems. Within this, there are all sorts of points about the life of story, and we can find them."

By applying machine learning techniques to data sets, Doxas and his team uncover the dynamics that sometimes inconspicuously underlie engineering projects. Their research could revolutionize engineering. The marriage of AI and dynamical systems could, for example, improve the development of fighter planes, targeting systems and communications devices, further advancing the capabilities of a modern military.

"Engineering has a very formalized story technique. It's repeatable, measurable. If anything can lend itself to formalization of this approach it is engineering. It will let engineers pick up a signal out of a lot of noise."

- Tom Strelich

Isidoros Doxas

Data Scientist

Tom Strelich

Northrop Grumman Fellow

Jumping on the Third Wave

Before coming to Northrop Grumman, Doxas worked as a researcher for nearly two decades at the University of Colorado, Boulder. There, he studied dynamical systems, essentially the backbone of the rule-based models that underpin complex systems. Dynamical systems theory illustrates how systems change over time and the theory doesn't have to be limited to what is considered pure scientific observations.

"A lot of human activity is a dynamical system, it's a story," he said. "Humans are a story telling species. This is a fundamental thing to the way we are built." Students at Ohio State University made a life log, using photos taken on their cellphones to catalog the routines of their daily lives. Inevitably, the string of photos showed that their routines formed a dynamical system, he said.

Now at Northrop Grumman - where he develops algorithms, software and computational hardware architectures for AI systems - Doxas has the resources to further pursue his study of dynamical systems.

He also found an ideal collaborator in Tom Strelich, a Northrop Grumman Fellow who specializes in the development of software systems. Strelich is a natural storyteller: He's a playwright, novelist and screenwriter. They and other colleagues are working on what they call the Third Wave AI Dynamical Systems (or TWAI-DS).

"Current AI methods stop at classification, which is useful operationally. We want to push into the next wave of AI with a Dynamical Systems approach," Strelich said. We want to explore and discover the underlying dynamics behind how people build systems-how they communicate with each other to build the system.... Engineering itself is a structured, formal communication process that people use to design, build and maintain a physical thing, and we tell stories to do that."

Shifting Engineering "Left"

The first test of TWAI-DS came when Doxas and Strelich applied AI to a collection of 500 fictional short stories; each was 50 paragraphs long, and the first and last paragraphs were identical. The authors had to create a narrative that would mesh their 48 paragraphs with the bookend paragraphs. Despite the differences in the middle, TWAI-DS recognized a pattern, something to consider if the stories were aimed at developing something.

"It showed there is a formula here," Strelich said. "Could it be one that predicts an engineering system? Well, they are just fiction stories, so, 'no.' but... there was an underlying dynamical system, that may be applicable to engineering 'stories' too" Strelich said

Leveraging Northrop Grumman intellectual property, TWAI-DS now churns through engineering materials, essentially training itself and building a foundation that "we think will reveal the structure and cognitive dynamics of how humans create and refine mature engineering solutions," Strelich said. The hope is that by applying AI to systems thinking, product and systems development can shift "left"- a point where engineers will see their stories unfolding in real time and can immediately glean insight that benefits projects.

AI Identified Stories Inform Engineering, which Could Shape Modern Military Communications

Strelich likens TWAI-DS to a self-teaching hammer. "Imagine the hammer learning how to be a hammer while being used by a master carpenter. When the hammer is handed to an apprentice carpenter, it knows the difference between a nail and a screw, and how not to bend a nail or smash a thumb."

The insights revealed by TWAI-DS could lead to advancements that create a modern military, sophisticated communication systems and perhaps inventions that haven't yet been considered. "We hope it will attract new clients," Doxas said, "but also enable us to build better things, cheaper and quicker."

"Engineering has a very formalized story technique," Strelich said. "It's repeatable, measurable. If anything can lend itself to formalization of this approach it is engineering. It will let engineers pick up a signal out of a lot of noise."

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Applying AI to Systems Thinking: Every Engineer Has a Story | Northrop Grumman

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Everyone has a story to tell, even engineers and systems they build. While there's no surprise that it's complex work to design intricate and integrated systems and structures, many may not see that as elements of a bigger picture story.