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Congregations As Systems
The Art of Systems Thinking by Joseph O'Connor & Ian McDermott
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What is a system?
A system is an entity that maintains its existence and
functions as a whole through the interaction of its parts.
The Art of Systems Thinking by Joseph O'Connor & Ian McDermott
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The Art of Systems Thinking by Joseph O'Connor & Ian McDermott
Systems thinking looks at the whole, and the parts, and the
connection between the parts, studying the whole in order to
understand the parts.
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The Art of Systems Thinking by Joseph O'Connor & Ian McDermott
It is the opposite to reductionism, the idea that something is simply
the sum of its parts.
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The Art of Systems Thinking by Joseph O'Connor & Ian McDermott
A system is a number of parts acting as a single entity.
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The Art of Systems Thinking by Joseph O'Connor & Ian McDermott
There are some general rules that apply to any system. This means
that you can predict the behavior of the system without knowing any
of the parts.
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The Art of Systems Thinking by Joseph O'Connor & Ian McDermott
You can understand many different systems by using the principles of
systems thinking.
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The Art of Systems Thinking by Joseph O'Connor & Ian McDermott
Systems form part of larger subsystems and are composed in
turn of smaller systems.
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The Art of Systems Thinking by Joseph O'Connor & Ian McDermott
Every system has an optimum size and if it is made much larger or smaller than this without other
changes, it will not function.
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The Art of Systems Thinking by Joseph O'Connor & Ian McDermott
There is a limit to how big a man-made system can grow. Everything else being equal, at a certain point
it will become unwieldy, hard to manage and more prone to
breakdown.
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The Art of Systems Thinking by Joseph O'Connor & Ian McDermott
As systems grow bigger, it makes sense to divide them into smaller
systems and establish different levels of control.
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The Art of Systems Thinking by Joseph O'Connor & Ian McDermott
Systems have emergent properties that are not found in their parts.
You cannot predict the properties of a complete system by taking it to pieces and analyzing its parts.
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The Art of Systems Thinking by Joseph O'Connor & Ian McDermott
Emergent properties emerge from the system when it is
working.
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The Art of Systems Thinking by Joseph O'Connor & Ian McDermott
The first lesson of systems thinking is to know whether you are dealing with detail or dynamic complexity
– a jigsaw or a chess game.
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The Art of Systems Thinking by Joseph O'Connor & Ian McDermott
A system will act like a strong elastic net – when you pull one piece out of position it will stay
there only for as long as you actually exert force on it. When you let go you may be surprised
and annoyed that it springs back to where it was before.
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The Art of Systems Thinking by Joseph O'Connor & Ian McDermott
Whenever you make a change in any complex system – a business, a
family or your own way of doing things – expect resistance.
You cannot have stability without resistance, they are two sides to
the same coin.
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The Art of Systems Thinking by Joseph O'Connor & Ian McDermott
Reformers often make the mistake of pushing and pushing, and finally exhausting the system’s resilience,
at which point it breaks down completely, to everybody’s cost.
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The Art of Systems Thinking by Joseph O'Connor & Ian McDermott
When systems do change, they tend to do so relatively rapidly and
often quite drastically.
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The Art of Systems Thinking by Joseph O'Connor & Ian McDermott
There is a threshold beyond which a system will suddenly change or
break down.
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The Art of Systems Thinking by Joseph O'Connor & Ian McDermott
The Principle of Leverage
Change can be surprisingly easy if you identify the right connections. This doesn’t mean piling
on the pressure, but knowing where to intervene so that a small effort can get a huge
result.
This is leverage.
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The Art of Systems Thinking by Joseph O'Connor & Ian McDermott
What is stopping the change?
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The Art of Systems Thinking by Joseph O'Connor & Ian McDermott
As a general rule, the greater the control/influence of the system of
the part you change, the more pervasive and wide-ranging the
effects will be.
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The Art of Systems Thinking by Joseph O'Connor & Ian McDermott
When you are dealing with a system you can never do just one
thing.
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The Art of Systems Thinking by Joseph O'Connor & Ian McDermott
Expect side- effects
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The Art of Systems Thinking by Joseph O'Connor & Ian McDermott
Thinking in Circles
Systems thinking is thinking in loops rather than in straight lines.
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The Art of Systems Thinking by Joseph O'Connor & Ian McDermott
Feedback Loops
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The Art of Systems Thinking by Joseph O'Connor & Ian McDermott
We experience feedback as the consequences of our actions
coming back to us and so influencing what we do next.
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The Art of Systems Thinking by Joseph O'Connor & Ian McDermott
Feedback is often used to mean any response, but the essential point is
that it is a return of the effects of an action, influencing the next step.
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The Art of Systems Thinking by Joseph O'Connor & Ian McDermott
Two Types of Feedback Loops
Reinforcing Feedback: When the changes in the whole system feed back to amplify the original change. In other
words, change goes through the system producing more change in the same direction.
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The Art of Systems Thinking by Joseph O'Connor & Ian McDermott
Reinforcing Feedback
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The Art of Systems Thinking by Joseph O'Connor & Ian McDermott
Two Types of Feedback Loops
Balancing Feedback: When the changes in the whole system feed back to oppose the original change and so
dampen the effect.
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The Art of Systems Thinking by Joseph O'Connor & Ian McDermott
Balancing Feedback
Balancing feedback limits growth and opposes change.
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The Art of Systems Thinking by Joseph O'Connor & Ian McDermott
If you want to change a complex system, balancing feedback
appears as “resistance”. When you want to maintain the system, it
appears as stability.
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The Art of Systems Thinking by Joseph O'Connor & Ian McDermott
A balancing feedback loop is set up by a difference between what the
system has – the present condition- and what the system
needs to balance
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The Art of Systems Thinking by Joseph O'Connor & Ian McDermott
Balancing Feedback
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The Art of Systems Thinking by Joseph O'Connor & Ian McDermott
Balancing feedback always acts to reduce the difference between where a system is and where is
should be.
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The Art of Systems Thinking by Joseph O'Connor & Ian McDermott
Balancing feedback will always move the system in the direction of
the “true” desired state.Balancing feedback drives the
system towards a goal.
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The Art of Systems Thinking by Joseph O'Connor & Ian McDermott
A system needs a way of measuring so that it can tell the difference between
where it is and where it should be.
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The Art of Systems Thinking by Joseph O'Connor & Ian McDermott
Systems need to measure accurately.
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The Art of Systems Thinking by Joseph O'Connor & Ian McDermott
Feedforward
• Reinforcing Feedforward: a self-defeating prophecy – telling yourself that you are afraid you won’t be able to sleep.
• Balancing Feedforward: a self-fulfilling prophecy – telling a determined athlete that he or she is going to lose.
Our beliefs shape our future.
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The Art of Systems Thinking by Joseph O'Connor & Ian McDermott
Delays
Often there is a delay between when a cause happens and its effect.
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The Art of Systems Thinking by Joseph O'Connor & Ian McDermott
A delay may fool us into adjusting too soon, too late, or too much.
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The Art of Systems Thinking by Joseph O'Connor & Ian McDermott
When you are dealing with systems, expect time delay. Do not
expect to see the results of the change immediately.
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The Art of Systems Thinking by Joseph O'Connor & Ian McDermott
What we do now will affect our lives in the future when the
consequences come round again.
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The Art of Systems Thinking by Joseph O'Connor & Ian McDermott
We mold the future by what we do now!
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The Art of Systems Thinking by Joseph O'Connor & Ian McDermott
Mental Models
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The Art of Systems Thinking by Joseph O'Connor & Ian McDermott
We cannot solve a problem with the same level of thinking that
created it.
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The Art of Systems Thinking by Joseph O'Connor & Ian McDermott
Mental Models
Our beliefs, ideas and assumptions.
They are our general ideas that shape our thoughts and actions and lead us to expect
certain results.
Our mental models guide all our actions.
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The Art of Systems Thinking by Joseph O'Connor & Ian McDermott
Our mental models are not facts!
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The Art of Systems Thinking by Joseph O'Connor & Ian McDermott
We can evaluate and change our mental models.
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The Art of Systems Thinking by Joseph O'Connor & Ian McDermott
Often changing a mental model is the leverage point that leads to
breakthrough.
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The Art of Systems Thinking by Joseph O'Connor & Ian McDermott
Unless solving a problem leads to a shift in mental models, it hasn’t
been completely solved.
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Congregations As Systems
The Art of Systems Thinking by Joseph O'Connor & Ian McDermott