# Understanding Systems By:: [[Ross Jackson]] 2024-11-17 One of the more challenging aspects of understanding systems is that they allow for contradictory observations. If one claims that a system is just, finding observations consistent with a just outcome is not difficult. If one claims that a system is unjust, it is also not difficult to find observations consistent with that view. Most discussions end there. This “see I told you so” approach works great if simply attempting to protect one’s ego. It provides very little basis for understanding and almost no basis for collaboration. Individuals enact systems, but systems shape and constrain individuals. Finding observations consistent with a preferred view tells us little about the outcome. The just outcome could be produced due to the heroic efforts of an individual to get “the system” to do the “right thing.” Likewise, the unjust outcome could be the result of individual bias. In other words, the system could be just, and it is simply individual actors who are perverting the outcome (this is the “few bad apples” interpretation), or the system could be unjust. Individual actors occasionally can weigh in for the good. Cursory observations do little to indicate which it is. Systems often operate on higher-order abstractions. “Merit” is one of the most prevalent. In theory, this view would argue against the value of merit in making organizational decisions. Promoting the “best” candidate makes sense. The issue is that merit is contestable. Who has more “merit” the person with a moderate IQ and a high GPA or the person with a high IQ and a moderate GPA? One could make any number of comparisons of this nature. Merit is contestable. It is relatively easy to define merit in such a way that one can select whomever one wants to select. Understanding systems starts when one understands that systems consist of two radically different parts, the procedural and the human. Each contributes something to system outcomes. The procedural is what ultimately defines the system. The human is what induces the contradiction. For this reason, an unjust system can produce just outcomes, and a just system can produce unjust outcomes. The frequency of outcomes reveals something of its dominant tendency. Another approach is to determine how a given outcome occurred. If extraordinary actions were needed to produce the outcome, it wasn’t due to the system. Understanding systems takes time. Many people simply want an observation confirming their right perspective on the system. #### Related Items [[Systems Thinking]] [[Organization]] [[Justice]] [[Thinking]] [[Decision-making]] [[Observing]] [[Perspective]]