QUESTION

➢Whenever you wonder how the world is working?

➢Why we have to do thing in a specific way?
➢How is our society working?
➢ Could you name the common things in the following
example?
▪Car engine
▪Human body
▪University
▪Software
▪Manufacturer
 MODULE 1:
INTRODUCTION TO Dr. Tuan Truong

SYSTEM
SYSTEM STRUCTURES AND
BEHAVIORS
 A SYSTEM IS A SET OF
THINGS INTERCONNECTED
IN SUCH A WAY THAT
THEY PRODUCE THEIR
OWN PATTERN OF
BEHAVIOUR OVER TIME
IS IT A SYSTEM?
Can you identify
No Not a system
specific elements?

Yes
It’s a system
Are the parts
interconnected Not a system
and dependent on No
each other?

Yes
Yes

Is the effect When the parts

persistent over work together is
Not a system No Y Not a system
time despite the Yes the effect different No
s
environment? from each part on
its own?
The Blind Men
and the Matter
of the Elephant
“The behaviour of the system cannot be known by
just knowing the elements of which the system is
made” - DHM
 SYSTEMS – MORE THAN THE SUM OF ITS PARTS

Behaviours can and may include:

• Adaptive
• Dynamic
• Goal-seeking
• Evolutionary

Systems mostly cause their own

behaviour; outside events unleash
that behaviour
 “EVERY SYSTEM IS
PERFECTLY DESIGNED TO
ACHIEVE THE RESULTS IT
GETS.”
DR. DON BERWICK
A SYSTEM CONSISTS OF:

• Elements

System • Interconnections
• Common Purpose
 EXAMPLES OF SYSTEMS
● Digestive system ● Animal
● Sports team ● Tree
● Sc hool ● Forest
● City ● Earth
● Factory ● Solar system
● Corporation ● Galaxy
● National Economy ● ITsystem
Flow of Information
drives
interconnections

Information holds
systems together
 INFORMATION

The flow of which often

holds the system
together so when
combined with
knowledge and know-
how they operate as a
collective force.
 WHAT CAN DETERMINE A SYSTEM’S BEHAVIOUR?

• Purpose & Function working n harmony

• Interconnections married to purpose

• Example:
• Teamwork
• Departments in an organization
AND DISCOURSE?
Changing relationships normally
changes a systems behavior.
WHY?

“To ask whether elements,

interconnections, or purpose are the
most important in a system is to ask
an unsystemic question” – DHM
 FUNCTIONS AND
PURPOSE
➢ Functions are often
ascribed to machines
➢ While, purpose is
associated with human
elements.
➢ In truth a system has both
because elements are
often intertwined
A system will behave as the
function or purpose
determine
EXERCISE 1.1
Choose a system and identify the following:
➢Elements
➢Interconnections
➢Purpose - system behavior

Could your group also identify its inputs and outputs?

STOCKS AND FLOWS
 ➢ “Changes in stocks set the pace of the dynamics of systems”
➢ “Stocks are pretty much queues”

STOCK
Elements you can see, feel, count or measure
at any given time

There rate of change tends to be slow – so they act as a buffer The memory and history of the changing
or shock absorbers to a system flows within the system
Tốc độ thay đổi có xu hướng chậm - vì vậy chúng hoạt động
như một bộ đệm hoặc bộ giảm xóc cho một hệ thống
 Inflow

Stock

Outflow

Information flow
 ➢ Water in a bathtub
➢ A population
EXAMPLES OF
STOCKS ➢ Books in a bookstore
➢ Wood in a tree
➢ Money in a bank
 STOCKS CHANGE OVER TIME
VIA FLOWS
➢ Workflow
➢ Information flow
➢ Both inflow and outflow
 TYPE - REINFORCING FEEDBACK LOOPS
• Ability to reproduce itself
• Self-enhancing – exponential leanings
• Non linear

Feedback loops

Attributes TYPE – BALANCING FEEDBACK LOOPS

• Closed chain of causal connections • Stabilizing – stock equilibrium maintained
• Runs from a stock and is impacted by a set of rules • Goal relevant
• Often dependent upon stock levels • Sources of resistance to change
• Circular and iterative
EXAMPLE OF BALANCING FEEDBACK LOOPS

Thermostat

Guided missile

Iterative, incremental software development

 REINFORCING FEEDBACK LOOPS
➢ Market collapse: uncertainty -> remove money -> more uncertainty
➢ Compound interest
➢ Death march: Too much to do -> work harder -> more bugs -> work even harder
 SHIFTING DOMINANCE

• Dominance – when one

feedback loop (reinforcing or
balancing) has hold of a system.
This relationship can be dynamic
and has a profound impact upon
system behaviour.

•When neither feedback loop

dominates the system is said to
be in ‘dynamic equilibrium’ –
cân bằng động

•Example:
• Mindset
• Politics
• Body reaction
BE WARY OF ACCEPTANCE – NOT ALL MODELS ARE GOOD

• Are the driving factors of the

model realistic?
• Do you believe the model is a
fair representation of
behaviour?
• What are driving the driving
factors?

System dynamics – What if?

 IF A CAUSES B, IS IT
POSSIBLE THAT B ALSO
CAUSES A?
DELAYS
Causality and delay
The delays in information mean
that feedback can only effect
future behaviour.
Even non-physical feedback is not
fast enough to correct behaviour it
can only impact the future
behavior
CHANGING NEED TIME
 HEAT TO
Heat from furnace
OUTSIDE
Room temperature

Discrepancy between Discrepancy between

desired and actual room outside and inside
temperature temperatures
A heating system is a
stock maintaining
balancing feedback loop
with natural heat loss or
gain. To establish
equilibrium the goal
must be set high or low
of target to avoid over or
undershoot. Flow does
not respond to flow – it
responds to a change in
the level off the stock
 HOW FEEDBACK FAILS
➢ Late, lost, unclear,
incomplete, hard to interpret
information
➢ Weak, delayed, resource-
constrained, ineffective
response
STOCK CONTROL &
DELAY
• Perception delay – is the change
in demand for real?
• Response delay – is there a need
to make partial adjustments?
• Deliver delay – If demand is rising
what delays are wholesalers
experiencing of their own?
SYSTEMS FOR POPULATION AND ECONOMIC GROWTH

Systems with
similar feedback
structures
produce similar
dynamic
behaviour
 DELAYS – A SYSTEM WOULD
NEVER BE WITHOUT THEM

• They are pervasive

• They have repercussions
• Systems can modify their
behaviours on the back off them
• They lead to oscillations
LIMITS
• In any exponentially growing system with physical aspects
there must be a reinforcing feedback loop driving growth and
a balancing loop acting against this.

• No physical system can grow forever

 Elements
REMIND -
SYSTEMS Interconnections
CONSISTS OF
THREE THINGS Function (non-human system)
or Purpose (human system)
 CHANGING ELEMENTS
USUALLY HAS THE LEAST
EFFECT; CHANGING
INTERCONNECTIONS OR
PURPOSE IS USUALLY
MORE DRAMATIC
 EXAMPLES
➢ Change all members of a sports
team vs change rules of the game or
the definition of winning
➢ Change people in the organization
vs change the way of working or
the definition of organizational
success
SYSTEM INTERACTIONS
OPERATE THROUGH
INFORMATION FLOW
 ADDRESS INCONGRUENT
PURPOSES
System purposes do
not necessarily
match the intention of
the designers or
actors within it
 HOW MIGHT YOU
INTERVENE IN YOUR
SITUATION TO IMPROVE
THE SYSTEM?
 ➢Use the system in the previous exercise and
identify its stocks, flow.
EXERCISE 1.2 ➢How would you change the system and
why?
ANY QUESTIONS?