Chapter 4: Systems Thinking for Communities

Chapter 4: Systems Thinking for Communities

There are many points raised in the chapter that describe a variety of problems and solutions that different types of communities and different aspects of a single community face often. When Jay Forrester began his study of social systems in 1956 out of MIT, he broke ground on a frontier that has blown up into such a complex methodology that is used to create situation analysis for present day problems that communities face. One of his most imperative points that he brings to light in this chapter was the fact that in a system, the connections and relationships are more important that the elements themselves. I partially agree with this statement, but feel that the elements are the foreground and basis of these systems. So while the connections are important, without and elements or particular kinds of elements the system can easily be flawed. A system needs the right elements to be successful; it cannot just rely on the various loops that interconnect.
Hallsmith goes into detail and explains a numerous amount of feedback loops and how each one differs from another. One basic example, how a positive feedback loop would for instance make two dominoes fall the same way and a negative feedback loop be compared to a see-saw where when one side goes up the other goes down. To take feedback loops to the next dynamic level, system archetypes include different types of feedback loops working simultaneously. Hallsmith gives the example of traffic congestion in this chapter (figure 4.13), which exemplifies a positive feedback loop, a negative feedback loop and delay. While these scenarios are more or less hypothetical, they are based on social science and human trends. As the single problem of road congestion arises, there are many elements involved that seem to be logically deduced, but in the end, more congestion is produced and the problem has not been solved. These systems definitely have a lot of feasibility and can anticipate an outcome before money has been spent, roads built, time wasted and resources used up. I feel that while these systems do that, and do that well. It is our job or someone’s responsibility to than go from there and come up with a system or a solution so that these problems are no longer feedback loops but linear and corrective. We need to learn how to manage congestion in a way to not create more on a larger scale. Hallsmith does a great job of pointing out the how’s and why’s things are the way they are, but lacks in presenting reasonable solutions.