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home • OCT 17, 2018

Systems Psychology

Find the most believable people possible who disagree with you and try to understand their reasoning.
Ray Dalio

Understanding how a system works, wanting to change it, and actually changing it, are three different things altogether.

The motivations for doing the three things are almost completely independent. Each of them require different talents and skill sets to do them effectively. Rare is the person who can do all three and succeed.

Understanding How a System Works

This requires a person who likes to understand how things work and exercise analytical skills. The task involves understanding existing theories about the system and what it is about the system that you are interested in at the moment.

You need to know how existing theories compare. You need to know their strengths and inadequacies. You need to have a creative mind to connect these with the need at hand and even create new theories.

Wanting to Change a System

The first thing you want to decide is whether you want to change the system at all. Most of the time you don’t. Even when you do, you might be coming from different motivations.

If you are adversely affected by a system, you will have a genuine motivation to change the system. This is especially true if you have no choice but to live with the system. You still have the option of letting the system be.

Sometimes people want to change a system for the boost it gives to their ego. This is a dangerous motivation as you may neither understand the system nor have the ability to successfully change it.

In the ideal scenario, you want to change a system to fix a problem, improve efficiency, or optimize resource management, essentially, to make things better.

For fruitful results, you need to really understand the purpose of the system and the purpose of the desired change.

Actually Changing a System

The successful changing of a system requires visionary leadership. First, you need to understand the system adequately. Second, you need to understand the desired change and the purpose of that change. Third, you need the ability to learn fast and adapt.

When you actually do it, you need a holistic view and must be willing to learn and adapt as it may turn out that all the old and new theories are wrong for a given situation.

What will help you all the way are your understanding of the system, the purpose of the desired change and your genuine desire to change the system for the better.