Last Updated on July 12, 2025 by Pastor Rocklyn

This is the first of what will probably be many blog posts dealing with system dynamics and related fields.

What is Systems Thinking?

Systems Thinking can be defined as “a way of making sense of the complexity of the world by looking at it in terms of wholes and relationships rather than by splitting it down into its parts”. – Wikipedia

Cause and Effect

We are naturally “wired” to understand systems in which cause and effect are close together in time and location: You walk into a room and flip a light switch on the wall – immediately a light on the ceiling illuminates the room. Your brain and nervous system process this and quickly understand it well enough to exploit it in the future. In complex systems however, cause and effect are often separated in time and or space.

The Myth Of Learning From Experience

When cause and effect are separated by time and/or space, our opportunities for learning from experience are limited unless we embrace systems thinking. Consider the following video:

Let’s consider two possible scenarios in which you are the small figure in the domino circle:

Scenario 1

You implement a change in your organization. You push the first domino and the ripple effect of the change eventually circles around and whacks you from behind.

Scenario 2

You implement a change in your organization, but here the domino chain is much, much longer. Your change yields short-term benefits that result in a promotion. As a result, you move to a different part of the organization and are replaced by another employee. When the last domino falls, it doesn’t hit you; it hits your successor. The lesson you learn from experience is: making changes with short-term benefits earns you a promotion. Your successor, on the other hand, learns a different lesson: accepting a new position subjects you to unexpected problems.

Delay Makes a Difference

Here are two examples of how delays affect system behavior:

Bathroom Faucet vs. Shower Massage

Consider a bathroom that has, in addition to a sink with a faucet, a shower with a shower massage head connected to the water valve by a loop of hose several feet long.

The 7 feet of delay (a simple complication) changes the way you manage the water temperature. The shower requires slower adjustments in order to avoid wild swings between too hot and too cold.

Criminalizing a Previously Legal Behavior

Consider what happens when, perhaps in response to public pressure, a legislature adds a new behavior to the list of crimes that police are expected to enforce:

• The new legislation goes into effect.
• Police now have an additional law to enforce.
• Resources previously devoted to enforcing other laws must now also be devoted to enforcing the new law.
• Overall law enforcement may suffer until additional police can be brought online to handle the new enforcement burden.
• Bringing new police online involves:
  • Recruiting new officers.
  • Successfully getting new recruits through the civil service exam process.
  • New cadets must then complete the police academy.
  • New academy graduates must then be trained by field training officers.

Why Practice Systems Thinking?

We’ve seen that something as simple as a delay can significantly affect the behavior of a system. There are a number of other factors that affect the behavior of systems and those factors can have surprising impacts. People who hope to effect change in complex systems need to understand why “obvious” changes often either fail to deliver the hoped for results or often produce significant negative consequences. Keep an eye out for these systems features:

• Counter-productivity
• Delays
• Feedback Loops
• Mental Models
• System Archetypes
• Unintended Consequences

In the Beginning

I first encountered Systems Dynamics when I read “The Fifth Discipline” by Peter Senge sometime in the 1990s while I was working at MIT Information Systems. Inspired by the book, I discovered that MIT Sloan School of Management was offering a week-long executive education course on System Dynamics and I got permission from my boss to enroll. The course featured an opportunity to play the “Beer Game”, a supply chain simulation that helps the participants gain insight into the issues that arise when people engage with systems.

Emmanuel Gospel Center

In 2003 I met Jeff Bass, the Executive Director of Emmanuel Gospel Center (EGC) – a nonprofit Christian organization in Greater Boston dedicated to equipping Christian leaders to serve the city. In 2004, I accepted Jeff’s invitation to join the EGC Board, where I served as a member from 2004 to 2007 and as Board Chair from 2007 – 2012. I quickly learned that EGC is heavily committed to Systems Thinking as a critical tool for promoting God’s Work in Greater Boston:

EGC Systems Practice

Living Systems in the Urban Context

Each spring, EGC helps to teach a course at the Boston Campus of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, also known as CUME, or the Campus for Urban Ministerial Education. This core urban ministry course is:

Living Systems in the Urban Context

It draws heavily on system dynamics and utilizes the “Bible Game” – a variant of the “Beer Game” used broadly in system dynamics classes all over the world. I’ve had many opportunities to help facilitate these “Bible Game” sessions over the years.

Boston Capacity Tank

As a member of the EGC Board, I was asked to represent EGC on the Boston Capacity Tank (BCT)- a group that was set up to help build the capacity of local non-profits to meet the needs of their constituents. It was in my capacity as a member of the BCT that I had the opportunity to suggest that we apply systems thinking to one of the thornier issues with which we were grappling – Youth Violence. In 2010, the Youth Violence Systems Project (YVSP) began its work of helping communities strategize for and achieve sustained reductions in youth violence in Boston.

Youth Violence Systems Project (YVSP)

In an effort to explore the root causes of youth violence in Boston, the Emmanuel Gospel Center and the Boston Capacity Tank convened the YVSP to develop a multidisciplinary framework that can be used by multiple stakeholders. The project steering committee included representatives from the Emmanuel Gospel Center, the Black Ministerial Alliance of Greater Boston, the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative, and project consultants. Academic partners included the Harvard School of Public Health’s Youth Violence Prevention Center and Northeastern University’s Institute on Race and Justice.

Here are some links:

• A community-based systems learning approach to understanding youth violence in Boston
  Progress in Community Health Partnerships: Research, Education, and Action – Johns Hopkins University Press
• Youth Violence Systems Project – Getting to the Roots
• Youth Violence Strategy Lab – Neighborhood-Scale Version

Living System Ministry Class

In 2019 I had the opportunity to participate in the Living System Ministry Class taught at EGC . . .

Life Church

In 2014, I invited EGC to facilitate a session of the “Bible Game” at a retreat for Life Church that we held at Toah Nipi, the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship retreat facility in New Hampshire. We did this to introduce system dynamics concepts to our members. It was a great learning experience!

MIT Sloan School of Management

Every fall, the Introduction to System Dynamics class at MIT’s Sloan School conducts the “”Beer Game” simulation as part of their orientation for new Sloan School students. In 2019 I asked for and received permission from Prof. John D. Sterman to invite some MIT administrators and campus volunteers to participate. This was a great opportunity to introduce them to some system dynamics concepts. I hope to do this again in the coming years.

What’s Next?

I expect to take the following next steps in this journey:

• Organizing and packaging systems dynamics and systems thinking material to make it accessible to the people in my spheres of influence: pastors, ministry leaders, non-profit organizations, etc.
• Working with others who are interested in the subject to develop more effective ways of promoting it.
• Encouraging everyone who wants to change the world in some way to embrace systems thinking (along with cognitive science and behavioral economics).

Resources

For more information about systems thinking, I recommend the following books and links: