Systems Thinking Approach:
Understanding System Structure:
- Elements: Identify all components in the system
- Interconnections: Map relationships between elements
- Purpose: Understand the system's function or goal
- Hierarchy: Recognize sub-systems and super-systems
Identifying Leverage Points:
- Parameters: Numbers, subsidies, taxes
- Material Stocks and Flows: Changing structure
- Regulating Rules: Incentives, constraints
- Information Flows: Who has access to what information
- Rules of the System: Constitution, policy
- Power Distribution: Who gets to make the rules
- Paradigms: Shared ideas and assumptions
- Transcending Paradigms: Staying unattached to any worldview
Systems Archetypes:
- Limits to Growth: Growth approaches a constraint
- Shifting the Burden: Quick fixes that undermine long-term solutions
- Tragedy of the Commons: Individual rational behavior leads to collective irrationality
- Success to the Successful: Winner takes more resources, making future wins more likely
Lateral Thinking Techniques (Edward de Bono):
Random Entry:
- Choose a random word, image, or object
- Force connections between the random stimulus and your problem
- Use the connections to generate new ideas
- Example: Problem = "Reduce meeting time" + Random word = "Sandwich" → Ideas about layering information, having "bite-sized" agenda items
Provocation and Movement:
- Create deliberate provocations that challenge assumptions
- Use "Po:" (Provocative Operation) to introduce impossible or absurd ideas
- Move from the provocation to practical ideas
- Example: "Po: Meetings should have no chairs" → Ideas about standing meetings, walking meetings, energy levels
Six Thinking Hats:
- White Hat: Facts and information
- Red Hat: Emotions and feelings
- Black Hat: Critical judgment and caution
- Yellow Hat: Positive assessment and optimism
- Green Hat: Creativity and alternatives
- Blue Hat: Process control and thinking about thinking