Stop talking about “systems thinking”.
Stop talking about “systems thinking”.
Talk instead about “multistep thinking”.
So here is the idea: Even though I believe it would increase humanity’s chance of survival if systems thinking was more prevalent, talking about “systems” is somehow not particularly sexy. It does usually not make you the coolest guest at the cocktail party. (If you have different experiences, please invite me to those parties next time…)
It can bring up partisan political connotations to point towards “the system”, and telling others that they should “think in systems” hardly ever sparks curiosity. It sparks a feeling of getting overwhelmed by complexity, of getting entangled in a wicked web of connections and of losing any clear place to start or to end the thinking process. How reassuringly predictable it is instead to take a single step along a linear, causal chain. One step back: Voilá, the root cause. One step forward: Well done, you considered the totality all possible consequences of your action. In an information overloaded VUCA world, complexity becomes the enemy and simplicity is king.
For that reason and for purely pragmatic considerations, I think we should talk about “multistep thinking” instead of “systems thinking” and of “single step thinking” instead of “linear thinking”.
It gives better orientation: You can still take predictable steps along a chain — you simply do that multiple times, over and over again. You’ll still make your way through the system and discover the connections eventually, but it seems less overwhelming to get started.
Moreover, with a good ol’fashioned linear mind set, you’ll understand that, since multistep is more than single step, it must be better. More = growth = good: Hey, I should try multistep thinking! And you should.
