What’s the systems approach?

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The systems approach is a transdisciplinary method of viewing a group of related elements as a whole entity. The systems approach has its roots in the 1940s in the studies of mathematicians, physicists and engineers. These thinkers began to realize that many things, from computers to bacteria to ponds, could be studied as regularly interacting systems or groups of elements that form unified wholes.

The Austrian biologist Ludwig von Bertalanffy decided to combine the ideas of systems thinking and biology into a universal theory of living systems. His model is known as General Systems Theory. Bertalanffy stated that a system could be physical, biological, psychological, sociological or even symbolic. He also argued that every system is a subsystem of a larger system and that every system contains subsystems.

One of the best-known ideas in the systems approach is that systems use both positive and negative feedback to maintain homeostasis, with homeostasis defined as an equilibrium steady state. Negative feedback indicates that the system is drifting off course and signals the system to correct itself. Positive feedback confirms that the system is on the right track.

A common example of a feedback loop is a home cooling system. If the thermostat is set at a certain temperature, that temperature is homeostasis. When the air in your home gets too warm, the thermostat gives negative feedback, starting the air conditioner. If the temperature is correct, the thermostat provides positive feedback and no action is required.

The systems approach is used in many fields, including biology, physics, engineering, software design, sociology, and family therapy. The ideas of the systems approach are universal enough that they can be applied to almost any situation. Systems thinkers approach problem solving from a broad perspective, seeking to look at all relevant systems and subsystems. Recognizing that considering all relevant information is ideal but not humanly possible, systems theorists introduced the concept of critical boundaries, the idea that decision making is always based on which facts and ideas are considered relevant and which are considered irrelevant .

The systems approach is used in many areas of study, but has also inspired some particular fields. Synergy and Futurology are transdisciplinary fields of study based on the systems approach. Synergy focuses on the principles of self-organization within systems. Futurologists try to understand the future: which trends will continue, which will end, and which new trends will start. Both disciplines, due to their roots in the systems approach, study a wide variety of phenomena.

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