When Systems Thinking Is Not a Natural Act
Competence in systems thinking is implicitly assumed among the population of engineers and managers – in fact, most technical people will self-identify as systems thinkers. But systems thinking competencies are not as prevalent as these assertions might lead one to assume. Controlled experiment...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Technical Report |
| Published: |
2014
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/84042 |
| Summary: | Competence in systems thinking is implicitly
assumed among the population of engineers and managers – in
fact, most technical people will self-identify as systems
thinkers. But systems thinking competencies are not as
prevalent as these assertions might lead one to assume.
Controlled experiments show that systems thinking
performance, even among highly educated people, is poor. This
paper provides a set of systems thinking competencies and
demonstrates how these are not as common as advertised. We
also discuss how these competencies can be measured. Our
main thesis is that systems thinking is not a natural act because
evolution has favored mechanisms tuned to dealing with
immediate surface features of problems. We discuss the
implications of this philosophy and provide recommendations
for closing |
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