🎯 Systems 101: How Does It All Work?
The basics you need to know to make any System work for you.
Hi dear reader, Marc here! 👋 And welcome to the first post with real content😊
Do you constantly feel like you're trying to fix the very same problems over and over? You try hard to fix them with all your knowledge, tools and shiny frameworks (especially those which offer you some expensive certification), but for some reason they keep popping up, only in a different ‘flavor’? And that’s if your lucky enough. Because things could just get worse 🙈.
Might be, you were drinking a cup of coffee at the office in one of your breaks. Someone close said loud something like "Systems Thinking", and you wondered "what the hell is that?" 🤔
Well, here at The Leaner you are in the right place to figure it out! I hope it will become as much of a game-changer for you as it was for me.
I intent to make The Leaner as practical as possible, so that everyone can relate to it and apply something positive to their lives and workplaces. That said, I do believe pragmatism needs to be backed up by a solid understanding of some theory, principles and values. Simply stated, one cannot become Shakespeare without learning first the alphabet and some grammar.
That’s why, in the next few posts, we’re going to navigate Systems Thinking from A to Z. Whether you're a newbie to the concept or you’re aiming to deep dive, this series will take you step-by-step through the building blocks. And yes, this will more theoretical than practical, but I commit to making it as simple and entertaining as my imagination allows.
Looking at them piece by piece, they might look like simply stupid. If so, best news ever!
Before we jump in, let me start with a quick confession: very recently I discovered and became a huge fan of Richard Feynman. This guy could explain quantum physics in a way that even his cat (pun intended) would get it.
That’s the tone I’m going for here. I want to make Systems Thinking so accessible that your grandma could explain it to her friends at their tea time.
🎯 What’s in it for you?
Hopefully you can get a whole new angle of seeing and TRULY solving problems from the root, and stop patching symptoms. It could be at work, in life… you name it.
Today we will start with the very basics: What is a system?
Grab your cup of coffee (today just a ristretto ☕), relax, and without further ado let’s dive into a world where complexity gets much simpler. Welcome to Systems Thinking!
🌟 What is a System?
System? What’s that? 🤷
Well, a System is like a cooking recipe with three main ingredients:
Elements: Each of the individual parts.
Interconnections: How these parts (Elements) interact among them.
Function: last but not least, the Function (Purpose) it achieves.
👨🍳 Cook these together, and, voilà, you've got a System!
Now let’s go through them one by one.
🧩 Elements: The Building Blocks
Elementary, my dear Watson 🕵️♂️
You can think of Elements as the pieces of a puzzle. Alone, they’re just parts. But together, oh dear, they create something bigger.
Imagine a bakery. The elements? Flour, the oven, the baker, and even the customers. They’re all pieces of the bigger picture.
But wait! Elements aren't just physical things. Intangibles count too! Such as the recipes in the baker’s head or the satisfaction, the brand, or how a customer feels after eating that delicious cake.
🔗 Interconnections: The Glue
What connects the elements?
Sorry to state the obvious: Interconnections do.
Pretty much like the recipe instructions that guide the baker to mix ingredients, bake the cake, and serve it to customers.
Let’s go back to our bakery and walk through an oversimplified sequence of steps which are interconnected.
The baker pours some water and mixes it with the flour (an Interconnection).
The cake gets into the oven and gets cooked (a tasty Interconnection! 😋).
You might get a 5 stars Google Review from a happy customer (yet another Interconnection! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐).
Some Interconnections are pretty straightforward, like baking the cake. Others are less visible but just as important (if not more), like customer’s feedback, that will shape the bakery’s future.
🎯 Function: The Big Why
Why does the System exist?
Purpose. It’s the reason the bakery is in business. Obvious examples: to bake bread, satisfy customers, and yes, why not, also to make money as a consequence.
Also, a bakery’s purpose could be to create the best cake in town. Or maybe it’s to provide a cozy place for people to relax. The Purpose drives everything!
Odds are you’ve already watched this talk from Simon Sinek many times, the author of “Start with Why”. If so, just skip and bear with me. But if even one reader discovers that piece because of this blog, that would be worth it.
Purpose is often hidden. If a bakery is all about quality, you will taste it. But look closely—if it’s all about profit, you might taste the shortcuts too.
🧠 Which Matters Most: Elements, Interconnections, or Purpose?
What’s most important in a system?
Good question! Let’s see what happens if we change them in isolation:
Change the Elements: Swap out the baker, and it’s still a bakery. Replaced the broken oven? still a bakery. Got a new client? Yeah, still a bakery… Elements change, but the system remains as is.
Change the Interconnections: Change how the baker makes bread—e.g. from a short fermentation time to a 24h fermentation. The bread now is much more tasty, has more flavor… Simply delicious 😋) Still, the system changed but you own a bakery.
Change the Purpose: If the bakery stops baking bread and starts making ice cream instead, it’s no longer a bakery. Purpose shifts change everything.
The takeaway?
Purpose is usually the most critical aspect of a system. It defines what the system is all about. And some people can get very creative!
🌍 Systems within Systems
Getting dizzy…😵
Systems are like Russian dolls🪆, often nesting within each other.
The bakery is part of a larger system—the neighborhood, the food industry, the economy. Within the bakery, the oven is a system, the baker’s workflow is a system, and so on.
Each smaller system can impact the larger one. If the oven breaks down (a Subsystem), the whole bakery could come to a halt.
Should I care?
Well… we all remember how a tiny virus collapsed all Systems in earth few years ago, confining us for months. Or how the subprime mortgage crisis and the collapse of Lehman Brothers led to a chain reaction felt all around the globe in 2008. Things go “reasonably well” until they don’t.
🧩 The Harmony of Subsystems
How do subsystems affect the whole?
For a System to work well, its smaller parts need to be in sync with the big picture.
Imagine the bakery is growing, and now it has a delivery team to bring that lovely bread at your place in just few minutes. If they consistently deliver late, it doesn’t matter how good the bread is. You will get unhappy costumers 😠.
The delivery team (a Subsystem) must align with the bakery’s Function of customer satisfaction for the whole System to succeed.
The best Systems are those which align all parts, big and small, with the overall Function ⚙️.
🚀 Ready to Wrap Up?
So, I think that’s enough for today! Just some Key Takeaways for you to refresh before you go!
A System is made of Elements (the pieces), Interconnections (the glue) and Function/Purpose (the why).
Changing the Function transforms the System entirely, while Interconnections and Elements don’t change the nature of the System that much.
Systems work as fractals, containing nested subsystems within them. You change one, the others layers are affected.
Next up, we’re diving into Stocks, Flows, and System Dynamics. Yep, things are about to get a bit more convoluted, but don’t worry—I’ll keep it as straightforward as possible, I promise.
Catch you in the next one! 👋
thanks Marc, it helped me think out of the box when designing a system & ask myself why? what is the purpose of the system?
thanks, well said & in simple terms 🙂