Cultivating Systemic Thinking - Article Review

The purpose of this paper is to outline a definition for systemic thinking based on the definitions given in the 2008 article, Cultivating Systemic Thinking in the Next Generation of Business Leaders. This paper will define system thinking and give a brief overview of a survey conducted and its underlying premise. The premise that a solid framework for management education must cover teaching students about systemic thinking, but to also teach them develop systemic thinking skills which will help them develop a richer understanding of how to properly implement the methodology. In addition this paper will focus on the Toyota Company and its successful implementation of lean thinking and what Toyota needs to do to stay a leader in their global industry. Lastly, this paper will cover an example of systemic thinking, the balanced scorecard, and how it was used in our management coursework pertaining to systemic thinking.

Systems thinking as a whole can be a difficult term to define. In the 2008 article, Cultivating Systemic Thinking in the Next Generation of Business Leaders, systemic thinking was defined by Ackoff as “holistic versus reductionist thinking, synthetic versus analytic.” The definition provided is accurate; however, it is not exact. The definition given does not help to understand what cognitive processes are encompassed, it merely defines the concept. My interpretation of what is being said is that we tend to focus on the parts, rather than seeing the whole, thus we may fail to see the organization as a large interrelated process. It is too often defined unidimensionally. Based on a survey given, the article more accurately defined systems thinking as “Understanding how different parts of an organization interact, react to change over time, & send feedback to affect performance.”

To accurately understand systemic thinking we must understand all of the skills that make up systemic thinking. To understand it as a whole we must look at it piece by piece. There are several cognitive processes which are needed to develop a holistic insight, and the difficulty in describing systemic thinking us that it encompasses multiple sets of skills. We view analytical thinking as being the same as systemic; however in reality it is very different. Analytical thinking studies parts independent of one another by breaking down a system. Once the parts are understood the behavior of the whole is explained based on the parts studied in isolation. In contrast, synthetic thinking which is a more non-analytical approach looks at how the entire system operates combining single ideas into a more complex whole.

A survey was conducted to assess if business school faculty understand and can accurately define systemic thinking. Whether or not they believe it has an important place in the curriculum, and if/how it is being taught in the top tier graduate school programs. The answers provided a picture of the 2008