Component thinker: Believes adding acai berries tree bark to their diet will positively impact their health.
Systems thinker: Diet is a whole process, not only trying to eat things that are good, but avoiding what may be bad.
99% of all advertising targets component thinkers.
Systems thinker: Diet is a whole process, not only trying to eat things that are good, but avoiding what may be bad.
99% of all advertising targets component thinkers.
Component thinking is understudied and definitely more common than systems thinking. Many people reason about situations in such a way. "If only I had x, then y would be true."
x/y examples:
money/happiness
nice clothes/charm and appeal
diet product/good health
x/y examples:
money/happiness
nice clothes/charm and appeal
diet product/good health
If people say something like "I'm a systems thinker" its probably about as useful as hearing "I'm an idea guy". But I think there is a marked difference in how people think about situations that plays out along these lines.
Maybe the easiest generalization: Most people do not think of game-theory-adjacent situations as being iterated games. This makes them TERRIBLE at political policy making. People who have a systems view are people who are wondering about x, but also the second order effects of x.
That said, consultants and people who self-assess as "systems thinkers" are maybe just trying to be... fancy and there's probably no guarantee that they actually think any particular way.
If consultants self assessed as "we think of second order effects" then it sounds very "well duh, you better." But saying "We're systems thinkers" probably gets more smiles from management, who themselves are component thinkers, and want to add that bit of bling to their process.
