REPLY Future Development Directions (SD6272)

[System Dynamics Mailing List]

Posted by  Anupam Saraph <anupamsaraph at gmail.com>

System Dynamics is a **methodology** for studying and managing  
complex **feedback** systems [www.systemdynamics.org].

Ever since I learnt SD from Dana Meadows in the mid 80's I looked for  
feedbacks driving nonlinear dynamics in every "system" I encountered.  
I found tremendous insight looking at macro systems; often  
disappointment when looking at micro systems. Somehow the feedback in  
the eyes of the beholder seemed to change faster than my  
understanding of it.

The more my journey took me across organizations, cultures, nations   
and pushed my encounters from the front-desk to supervisors,  
managers, senior executives to boardrooms and cabinets, the more  
clear it was that there was less and less time to agree on the  
feedback let alone see it; less and less did feedbacks last; less and  
less did they form the "system". After all the system should have  
continuity over the time of interest!

How are feedbacks formed? Where do they reside? How long do they  
last? What is the dynamics of feedbacks themselves? Around 1990 in an  
effort to develop tools for organizations in Europe and Asia I found  
to my surprise I was addressing just these questions.

I shared with Dana Meadows and about a dozen remarkable modelers  
across the globe the startling questions- together we ran a few  
workshops to share the insights we had in addressing these questions.  
I have been a practitioner and so moved on to practice my insights. I  
have since used the insights to ignite understanding, evolve public  
policy, advise business and government  and focus on sustainable  
solutions.

What creates a system is amazingly simple; it is the actors, those  
who engage in some relationship. In a market system it is buyers and  
sellers. In a banking system it is borrowers and lenders. In an 
ecosystem it is predators and prey. The business organization and the  
government can now have greater clarity on feedback and its dynamics.  
We are focusing on something they see, something that lasts as long  
as they do and somewhere where **they** can act.

When the actors of a system recognize they make up the "system" that  
is responsible for the the events that they encounter, they realize  
they are in it together. They can then focus their energies on  
exploring what **they** can do to drive sustained change in the  
events they encounter. They can deal with something that lasts as  
long as they do. They can co-design the system they are a part of,  
focus on **design**, not analysis- something that Jay Forrester has  
hinted all along in his writings.

A methodology is a system of **methods** used in a particular area of  
study. We need more methods which address different questions of  
systems. Or like mathematics we look at SD as a the abstract science  
of feedback and evolve different theories and methods to address its  
domain.

Anupam

Anupam Saraph, Ph.D,
Clinical Professor,
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
P.S. I am happy to respond to individual requests for a copy of  the  "principles of systems"  and Dana Meadows commentary on it.
Posted by  Anupam Saraph <anupamsaraph at gmail.com>
posting date  Thu, 15 Feb 2007 10:17:31 -0500