Transcript What is a System?

What is a System?
Unit One
Tools for Systems Thinking
What is a system?
A system is a group of
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interacting
interrelated
interdependent components
that form a complex and unified whole
Examples
of systems you know
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Your body is a system
The marketing department of a
company is a system
The economy is a system
Defining characteristics
of a system
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A system’s parts must all be present for
the system to carry out its purpose
optimally.
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Your body, minus your head will not
function optimally, for example.
Defining characteristics
of a system
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A system’s parts must be arranged in a
specific way for the system to carry out
its purpose.
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Your body, with your spine relocated to the
outside of the back will work differently.
Defining characteristics
of a system
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Systems have specific purposes within
larger systems.
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Your nervous system, digestive and
circulatory system are a part of the system
of your body, which is a part of the system
of your family, which is a part of the
system of your community… and so on.
Defining characteristics
of a system
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Systems maintain their stability through
fluctuations and adjustments.
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Your body constantly regulates itself
through a series of adjustments that
control temperature, for example.
Defining characteristics
of a system
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Systems have feedback.
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Your body changes temperature because it
gets information to do so (feedback) from
several sources, to the brain.
When your body adjusts, it knows when to
stop adjusting through feedback. That is,
the body ‘talks to itself.’
Which of these
is NOT a system—and why?
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A
A
A
A
garden
society
bowl of fruit
pile of laundry
The last 2 are not systems
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A bowl of fruit and a pile of laundry are
not systems
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They do not generate feedback to
themselves
They do not adjust through fluctuations
They will function more or less the same in
most any order