Applying Systems Thinking Research Articles

Applying Systems Thinking to Sustainable Beef Production Management: Modeling-Based Evidence for Enhancing Ecosystem Services

We used systems thinking (ST) to identify the critical components of beef cattle production through the lens of ecosystem services (ES), offering a holistic approach to address its adverse externalities. We identified eight critical feedback loops in beef production systems: (i) grazing and soil health, (ii) manure management and soil fertility, (iii) feed efficiency and meat production, (iv) water use and soil moisture, (v) cultural services and community engagement, (vi) energy use, (vii) carbon sequestration and climate regulation, and (viii) environmental impact. Our analysis reveals how these interconnected loops influence each other, demonstrating the complex nature of beef production systems. The dynamic hypothesis identified through the loops indicated that improved grazing and manure management practices enhance soil health, leading to better vegetation growth and cattle nutrition, which, in turn, have a positive impact on economic returns to producers and society, all of which encourage the continuation of interlinked beef and ecosystem stewardship practices. The management of beef production ES using ST might help cattle systems across the globe to contribute to 9 of the 17 different United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, including the “zero hunger” and “climate action” goals. We discussed the evaluation framework for agrifood systems developed by the economics of ecosystems and biodiversity to illustrate how ST in beef cattle systems could be harnessed to simultaneously achieve the intended environmental, economic, social, and health impacts of beef cattle systems. Our analysis of the literature for modeling and empirical case studies indicates that ST can reveal hidden feedback loops and interactions overlooked by traditional practices, leading to more sustainable beef cattle production outcomes. ST offers a robust framework for enhancing ES in beef cattle production by recognizing the interconnectedness of ecological and agricultural systems, enabling policymakers and managers to develop more effective and sustainable strategies that ensure the long-term health and resilience of humans and ES.

Breaking Silo Thinking within the South African Water-Energy-Food Nexus via Systems Thinking and Simulation Workshops

Despite their inextricable interlinkage commonly known as Water-Energy-Food nexus, the current disconnect in policy development and management of the water, energy, and food resources threatens their security of supply. The security of these basic human needs is aggravated by the cross-cutting role of climate change which impacts their availability. These apprehensions suggest that contemporary methods are required to improve and enhance integrated approaches and systems in the management of the food, water, and energy sectors within the discourse of climate change. This study applied Systems Thinking methodologies to foster collaboration amongst key stakeholders within Eskom, electricity generating sector in South Africa. This was done through several simulation workshops held amongst these value chain sectors. The workshops have demonstrated the ability of these systems to enable stakeholders to apply the “nexus thinking” approach in managing the sectors of water, food, energy, and climate change within the power utility. The study concluded by recommending application of this simulation within the policy development and other key sectors to enable a broader application of nexus thinking.

Applying Systems Thinking to Research into Risk Factors Influencing Earthmoving Equipment Operation Safety in Construction Sites

Earthmoving operations in the construction process are complex environments that involve interactions between equipment, the workforce, and materials within an overarching construction plan. Over the past two decades, researchers in construction have focused on improving the safety of construction earthmoving equipment due to their omnipresence in the construction environment. Although previous studies have explored safety risks and the causes of accidents involving construction earthmoving equipment, their approaches were common and lacked a comprehensive perspective. Hence, this systematic literature review applies Rasmussen’s (1997) risk management framework using a systems thinking approach to identify and classify the risk factors influencing earthmoving equipment operation safety in construction sites. Utilizing a multistep methodology, this research first identifies 38 risk factors pertinent to earthmoving equipment operations and then classifies them based on systems thinking. Social network analysis (SNA) is employed to analyze the data. The results show that most research on earthmoving equipment safety focuses on monitoring construction sites, but very little on government and regulatory roles. When considering the interdependencies of risk factors, safety training is the most important factor, followed by the largely overlooked earthmoving machinery characteristics and manufacturer’s performance. The results of this review inform both the research community and industry practitioners regarding the less-understood aspects of earthmoving equipment operation safety and future research directions.

Building a Systems Map: Applying Systems Thinking to Unhealthy Commodity Industry Influence on Public Health Policy.

Unhealthy commodity industries (UCIs) engage in political practices to influence public health policy, which poses barriers to protecting and promoting public health. Such influence exhibits characteristics of a complex system. Systems thinking would therefore appear to be a useful lens through which to study this phenomenon, potentially deepening our understanding of how UCI influence are interconnected with one another through their underlying political, economic and social structures. As such this study developed a qualitative systems map to depict the complex pathways through which UCIs influence public health policy and how they are interconnected with underlying structures. Online participatory systems mapping workshops were conducted between November 2021 and February 2022. As a starting point for the workshops, a preliminary systems map was developed based on recent research. Twenty-three online workshops were conducted with 52 geographically diverse stakeholders representing academia, civil society (CS), public office, and global governance organisations (CGO). Analysis of workshop data in NVivo and feedback from participants resulted in a final systems map. The preliminary systems map consisted of 40 elements across six interdependent themes. The final systems map consisted of 64 elements across five interdependent themes, representing key pathways through which UCIs impact health policy-making: (1) direct access to public sector decision-makers; (2) creation of confusion and doubt about policy decisions; (3) corporate prioritisation of commercial profits and growth; (4) industry leveraging the legal and dispute settlement processes; and (5) industry leveraging policy-making, norms, rules, and processes. UCI influence on public health policy is highly complex, involves interlinked practices, and is not reducible to a single point within the system. Instead, pathways to UCI influence emerge from the complex interactions between disparate national and global political, economic and social structures. These pathways provide numerous avenues for UCIs to influence public health policy, which poses challenges to formulating a singular intervention or limited set of interventions capable of effectively countering such influence. Using participatory methods, we made transparent the interconnections that could help identify interventions in future work.

Applying Systems Thinking for Designing Immersive Virtual Reality Learning Experiences in Education

Applying Systems Thinking for Designing Immersive Virtual Reality Learning Experiences in Education

Applying Systems Thinking to Inform Decentralized Clinical Trial Planning and Deployment

Recently, there has been a growing interest in understanding how decentralized clinical trial (DCT) solutions can mitigate existing challenges in clinical development, particularly participant burden and access, and the collection, management, and quality of clinical data. This paper examines DCT deployments, emphasizing how they are integrated and how they may impact clinical trial oversight, management, and execution. We propose a conceptual framework that employs systems thinking to evaluate the impact on key stakeholders through a reiterative assessment of pain points. We conclude that decentralized solutions should be customized to meet patient needs and preferences and the unique requirements of each clinical trial. We discuss how DCT elements introduce new demands and pressures within the existing system and reflect on enablers that can overcome DCT implementation challenges. As stakeholders look for ways to make clinical research more relevant and accessible to a larger and more diverse patient population, further robust and granular research is needed to quantify the impact of DCTs empirically.

Applying Systems Thinking to Wicked Water Problems

Increasingly at the center of many complex problems facing citizens, localities, states, and nations, water is the focus of research across many disciplines. Water issues are at the nexus of the economy, society, politics, the environment, public health, and other sectors. This level of complexity and the multiple perspectives involved makes water problems highly suited for systems thinking analysis. Yet the systems thinking field is characterized by great diversity in approaches, theories, and methods, which can be daunting and dissuade newcomers and non-experts. ThinkWater is a USDA-funded program that uses advances in systems thinking training to increase understanding about water issues. The program specifically targets primary and higher education, research, and Extension and outreach. ThinkWater conducted a case study using brief training in the underlying rules of systems thinking to see whether and how it enhanced the ongoing work of a cohort of advanced water researchers. The researchers came from a variety of disciplines and backgrounds, yet all reported benefit from their short exposure. Multiple participants reported a newfound appreciation that scientific models are approximations of reality as well as increased capacity to identify and articulate the perspectives implicit in disciplinary approaches. The researchers also appreciated systems thinking as a mechanism for incorporating societal factors into natural science models, identifying the broader relevance of their work, and for sharing their research with those outside their discipline and academia.

Designing for Impact and Institutionalization: Applying Systems Thinking to Sustainable Postpartum Family Planning Approaches for First-Time Mothers in Bangladesh.

Integrated service delivery approaches have shown promise to increase use of services including postpartum family planning (PPFP) by young, first-time mothers (FTMs) but have proven challenging to scale and institutionalize. Integration adds complexity, requiring careful assessment of effects on a range of key system functions from demand creation and service delivery to oversight and governance. Through an innovative design process, we selected approaches to increase FTMs' PPFP use through existing health systems. We generated programmatic options and then sought to select approaches based on (1) potential impact on FTMs' PPFP uptake and (2) potential to institutionalize in the health system. The latter represented an innovation in addressing management systems' drivers of scalability and sustainability; to accomplish it, we developed a participatory design process to assess the potential of an approach to be institutionalized in a specific context.We adapted a management systems theory, the Viable System Model (VSM), which presents 5 essential organizational functions and the relations required between them to improve the viability (performance and institutionalization) of organizational systems. Drawing from the VSM, we developed a process for reviewing the effects of proposed approaches on provider workload, client flow, infrastructure, revisions to guidelines and job descriptions, coordination and management, and information systems. The VSM provided a structure to identify potential displacement of capacity in the health system and mitigate often neglected organizational challenges that compromise institutionalization. The process informed the elimination of approaches with potential for impact but that had deal-breakers to institutionalization, such as increased workload or shifted job descriptions, in the Bangladeshi context. For the selected approaches, consideration of systems elements fostered discussion of expected risks to institutionalization, highlighting needed mitigation efforts and monitoring during implementation.

Yuan‐Shengdialectical holism and systems thinking: A systemism research tradition that integrated Chinese and Western holism

AbstractFrom the perspective of Laudan's ‘research traditions’, this paper attempts to propose the ‘systemism research tradition’ (SRT) that integrates Chinese and Western holisms based on complex systems science. First, we establishYuan‐Shengdialectical holism as the ontological assumption of the SRT, emphasising that the world is a ‘relation‐centric’ system.Yuanrefers to specific time–space relations, and the becoming of the world (Sheng) fromYuanmanifests as a dialectical holistic relationship in which ‘contrary is complementary’. Second, we argue that the ontological assumption of SRT implies three methodological principles: systemhood thinking, synergistic thinking and emergent thinking. These principles focus on relations, openness, synergy, adaptation and emergence. Last but not the least, we argue that the SRT is a kind of applied systems thinking. The context‐dependent multi‐causation methodology, dealing with the sustainability of social‐ecological systems, has been successfully applied in explaining the resilience governance of Guangzhou Haizhu Wetland in China.

Practical Application of System Thinking: Developing a Remote Facility Maintenance System

Practical Application of System Thinking: Developing a Remote Facility Maintenance System

Applying Systems Thinking Approaches to Address Preventive Health Factors through Public Parks and Recreation Agencies

Within the United States parks and recreation agencies (P&R) manage public facilities, spaces, lands, and recreation programs. Public health (PH) evidence has increasingly pointed to local public P&R agencies as critical for promoting preventive health. Programs and strategies are available, but most P&R agencies have limited resources and lack local knowledge on which to base actions. However, the research base is growing. The global research question has shifted from asking IF P&R agencies can positively affect PH factors, to HOW they can best do so with limited resources.This research adapted a systems theory approach to how local public P&R agencies are addressing health factors. Methods included a literature review along with iterative exploration through a three-stage Delphi panel study with 17 P&R agency Expert Panelists in the U.S and Canada. Panelists were identified through a waterfall selection process. Each had at least three years of senior administration experience with interest in addressing PH factors.The study explored which preventive factors appear to be most modifiable by P&R. Results indicated increased physical activity, improved nutrition, enhanced safety or perception of safety, increased social and parental engagement, improved transportation and access to locations (especially nature), and cessation or reduced overconsumption of tobacco and alcohol. However, the priority of factors varies by community, and the continuing challenge is determining the priority of the factors for agencies and their partners to address. Community-specific data are not typically readily available to P&R agencies. Programs, strategies, internal methods, policies, and documents utilized by agencies were collected. Thirty-one related national initiatives (programs) were identified and ranked by the panelists.Key common strategies for P&R were identified. Results indicated a need to focus strategies on leadership and adequate funding to create a strong organizational culture of systematic assessment for addressing PH through allocation of P&R staff and financial resources. Systems thinking analysis and strategies can improve outcomes for cultural ethics of inclusion and equity, equitable access to assets and programs, collaboration with other partners, utilization of crime prevention and environmental design strategies, increased health promotions and education, and centralized tracking and evaluation of feasible measures.Implications for research include needs for additional validation and dissemination of research, evidence-based tools, and proven methods. There continues to be a strong need to help address gaps in knowledge transfer between research and practice realms. Management implications suggest methods for practice to enhance systems-thinking approaches for better preventive health outcomes through P&R in communities.

Applying Systems Thinking Approach to Enterprise Development

In an increasingly complex, turbulent and rapidly changing environment, enterprise development actors have their hands full in designing and delivering effective enterprise development programmes. While enterprise development is a complex system, it also interacts with the education system and labour market systems, among other systems, thereby increasing the number of actors/agents within these systems, their interrelationships and their connectedness. To address this increased complexity, this paper argues for a systems thinking approach to enterprise development. The authors will discuss systems thinking concepts, the structure of enterprise development and their related systems. Three causal loop diagrams and systems thinking archetypes are used to discuss enterprise development.

Applying systems thinking and human-centered design to development of intervention implementation strategies: An example from adolescent health research.

Introducing innovative health interventions into clinic settings requires a comprehensive and creative approach to multiple implementation challenges. To optimize implementation of a sexual and reproductive health intervention for young women with depression, we applied systems thinking and human-centered design thinking methods to develop tools and strategies to address issues influencing intervention implementation in diverse clinics. We recruited staff from three clinics that provide sexual and reproductive health and behavioral health care to young women. Across five sessions (four video conference calls, one in-person workshop), we used systems mapping to identify key stakeholders and their relationships, processes, and challenges to care; formed clinic staff-investigator design teams; brainstormed about challenges that would influence intervention implementation and considered potential solutions; prioritized implementation challenges; and designed prototypes of solutions. Participants responded positively to the systems thinking perspective and collaborative design thinking process. Findings included generalizable considerations about solving implementation challenges for clinic-based interventions, such as forming a team of champions representing the diverse disciplines involved in and impacted by intervention implementation, and creating multiple tools and strategies for implementation that can be tailored to a given clinic’s culture.Significance for public healthImplementing innovative health interventions in clinic systems requires consideration of multiple human, environmental, and process factors. To develop implementation tools and strategies for a sexual and reproductive health intervention for young women with depression, we applied systems thinking to consider clinic system elements and their connections, and human-centered design to tackle challenges with intervention implementation by centering on the clinic staff who would be experiencing these challenges. Using this approach, the investigators and clinic staff efficiently and effectively identified implementation challenges in diverse clinic settings and designed tools and strategies to overcome these challenges. This form of investigator-clinic staff collaboration, attention to system factors, and focus on creative solutions can inform research and care around implementing novel interventions in established clinical systems.

Sense-Making, Mutual Learning and Cognitive Shifts When Applying Systems Thinking in Public Health - Examples From Sweden Comment on "What Can Policy-Makers Get Out of Systems Thinking? Policy Partners' Experiences of a Systems-Focused Research Collaboration in Preventive Health".

It is widely acknowledged that systems thinking (ST) should be implemented in the area of public health, but how this should be done is less clear. In this commentary we focus on sense-making and double-loop learning processes when using ST and soft systems methodology in research collaborations with policy-makers. In their study of policymakers’ experiences of ST, Haynes et al emphasize the importance of knowledge processes and mutual learning between researchers and policy-makers, processes which can change how policy-makers think and thus have impact on real-world policy concerns. We provide some additional examples from Sweden on how ST has been applied to create learning and shared mental models among stakeholders and researchers in national and regional healthcare development initiatives. We conclude that investigating and describing such processes on micro-level can aid the knowledge on how to implement ST in public health.

Applying Systems Thinking to Frame and Explore a Test System for Product Verification; a Case Study in Large Defence Projects

AbstractThe test system is a vital part of delivering a verified product to the end customer. The test system used in Kongsberg Defence and Aerospace (KDA) to test missile products today needs to change to be able to cope with future requirements for faster project execution and running more projects simultaneously. This article uses a Systems Thinking approach to see the bigger picture and to ensure understanding of the entire problem domain. The system consists of the following structural elements: Data Preparation System, Mission Planning System, Simulators, Data Analysis System and Storage System. The stakeholders of the test system are testers, system owners, project managers, company, customers, government and suppliers. Several possible value added processes are foreseen to make this necessary transition; automation of test execution and test analysis to avoid bottlenecks, verification on both core product and adaption product level for modularity, combining test arena input over different systems/sub‐systems/components for re‐use of data, and Machine Learning only to trigger necessary manual analysis. These changes will influence the system in several ways and levels, which a possible implementation need to consider. Regarding aspects like facilities, environment, security and safety not to cause issues for the changes in question is important. The main steps in the current test process is that the test system will provide scenario data to the tester to run test scenario to generate test results to the analyzer to perform test results analysis to achieve a verified product. The test structure is a limiting factor in the process of ensuring test maturity. The analysis structure is a limiting factor in reaching the desired verification level. The test structure and analysis structure are leverage points of the test system, which can significantly change the test system. The test system should have an automated test execution and test results analysis process, not requiring tedious manual operations. The automated test process should further introduce Machine Learning to change the focus of everything to managing the exceptions. KDA will increase its probability of success in future projects by applying the proposed changes to its test system.

Integrated Innovation: Applying Systems Thinking to Sustainable Innovation and Transformation

Despite allusions to systemic elements in the conception of innovation more generally, and sustainable innovation in particular, the literature generally fails to capture many of the insights that systems science can bring to our understanding of these subjects. This concept paper elaborates five principles of integrated innovation—diversity, aspiration, networks, convergence and emergence—and describes five stages of integrated innovation: intention, ideation, invention, synovation and transformation.

Overcoming Barriers to Applying Systems Thinking Mental Models in Policy-Making Comment on "What Can Policy-Makers Get Out of Systems Thinking? Policy Partners' Experiences of a Systems-Focused Research Collaboration in Preventive Health".

Systems thinking provides the health system with important theories, models and approaches to understanding and assessing complexity. However, the utility and application of systems thinking for solution-generation and decision-making is uncertain at best, particularly amongst health policy-makers. This commentary aims to elaborate on key themes discussed by Haynes and colleagues in their study exploring policy-makers’ perceptions of an Australian researcher-policy-maker partnership focused on applications of systems thinking. Findings suggest that policy-makers perceive systems thinking as too theoretical and not actionable, and that the value of systems thinking can be gleaned from greater involvement of policy-makers in research (ie, through co-production). This commentary focuses on the idea that systems thinking is a mental model that, contrary to researchers’ beliefs, may be closely aligned with policy-makers’ existing worldviews, which can enhance adoption of this mental model. However, wider application of systems thinking beyond research requires addressing multiple barriers faced by policy-makers related to their capability, opportunity and motivation to action their systems thinking mental models. To make systems thinking applicable to the policy sphere, multiple approaches are required that focus on capacity building, and a shift in shared mental models (or the ideas and institutions that govern policy-making).

Integrating Green-Infrastructures Design in Strategic Spatial Planning with Geodesign

In the last decades green infrastructure planning, design, and management have been widely recognized as a way to contribute to reach higher levels of sustainability of development. However, often green infrastructures are considered in a sectoral way, while their design should be more integrated within comprehensive planning and design. The paper proposes the use of geodesign methods and technology to support the early phases of integrated strategic territorial planning, in order to enrich the relationships between the design of green infrastructure and of the other relevant systems via more comprehensive planning and design, and by applying systems thinking. A case study developed with architecture and engineering students under the umbrella of the International Geodesign Collaboration is used, to demonstrate how with intensive geodesign workshops it is possible to create spatially explicit design scenarios which take into account the relationships between green infrastructure and other territorial systems and dynamics. A set of analyses on the case study results of the two scales is used to demonstrate the assumption. It is also argued that geodesign intensive workshops can, in a very short time, contribute to raising the awareness among the participants of collaborative design to the importance of green infrastructure in strategic territorial planning.

Deployment of E-Learning modules to foster entrepreneurial mindset among engineering students at WVU Tech

“E-Learning Module- Applying Systems Thinking to Solve Complex Problems” were deployed at West Virginia University Institute of Technology (WVU Tech) to foster an entrepreneurial mindset among engineering students. This E-Learning Module were applied to an elective electrical engineering course “EE 493X Alternative Energy Resources” in fall of 2017 to develop a skill set to solve complex problems by applying system thinking. The implementation of Applying Systems Thinking to Solve Complex Problems help realize students to think out of the engineering classroom box and be mindful of the entrepreneurial environment. The module is bundled up with a number of learning outcomes provided by the KEEN. The modules’ supplementary resources were guided by the instructor in the class and then made accessible to the students through blackboard. Students reviewed the online contents of the module and then spent their time to complete module activities. Instructor debriefed the classwork activity to highlight on the purpose and the summary of that specific activity. These activities created a very interactive and an effective learning environment advancing student engagements, curiosities, and maximize the learning. Overall, students effectively utilized the module materials for defining system, systems architecture, and system engineering, identify alternative distributed power generation system architectures, decomposing alternative distributed power generation system hierarchy to at least four levels and defining/addressing future integrated power systems from various perspectives, including technical feasibility, value, risk, and societal impact. In the future, the module is planned to be deployed in other courses.

Applying Systems Thinking to Engineering and Design

The application of Systems Thinking principles to Systems Engineering is synergistic, resulting in superior systems, products, and designs. However, there is little practical information available in the literature that describes how this can be done. In this paper, we analyze 12 major Systems Engineering failures involving bridges, aircraft, submarines, water supplies, automobiles, skyscrapers, and corporations and recommend Systems Thinking principles, tools, and procedures that should be applied during the first few steps of the System Engineering design process to avoid such catastrophic Systems Engineering failures in the future.