Intellectual

Intellectual character

Practices | Develop habits of an informed systems thinker

Man sitting at desk with computer.

Use evidence-based resources and data to inform flexible thinking and appreciation of emerging insights and multiple perspectives, allowing one to recognize how the individual parts are influenced by their environment and interact to form a complex whole.

1. Highlights

In Principled Innovation, the challenges we seek to address are inevitably part of bigger systems — systems that we need to better understand in order to effectively address the problems we face. Taking the time to map the bigger system that surrounds our problem prompts us to understand how one piece relates to other parts of the environment before generating solutions.

Seek out and evaluate various sources of data and points of view

Map the bigger system that surrounds the problem and work to better understand it

Remain open to new pieces of information and be willing to change our understanding

Building on the perspective taking and cultural and contextual understanding which are developed through the Civic practices, to develop habits of an informed systems thinker, we must seek out and be responsive to existing and emerging data and varied points of view, remaining open to information that might contradict our assumptions and trigger new iterations of innovation.

To do this, we must engage our Intellectual character assets — in particular, curiosity, truth-seeking and critical thinking — along with Moral and Civic assets such as humility, perspective taking and inclusivity. Curiosity drives our desire to understand the big picture, the root causes of a problem and a diversity of perspectives. In systems thinking, we work to gather a comprehensive set of perspectives from across organizational boundaries and power structures. As we collect and analyze this and other information, we use truth-seeking and critical thinking to determine what is relevant and how to interpret and incorporate what we are learning. We map the relationships that define the current institutional, community or physical environments, and we work with stakeholders to identify the system’s existing or potential assets and use these findings to support our efforts to enact change.

Man using calculator at desk.
Systems thinking is not a skill reserved for adults or older students; in fact children can learn the habits of systems thinking from a young age.
Man looking at paper in hand.
Evaluating data requires sorting through an increasingly large mountain of information and being aware of the biases that shape the way that information is shared and interpreted.

2. Context

Man looking at paper in hand.
Evaluating data requires sorting through an increasingly large mountain of information and being aware of the biases that shape the way that information is shared and interpreted.

All of us belong to social ecosystems that affect our daily experiences in the world. On a personal level, those ecosystems often include family and friendship groups, governmental organizations, non-profits, or professional commitments. At a larger scale, we are also impacted by city, state, and federal governments, health care providers, or even distant companies who provide us with the services we depend on each day. By engaging in critical and compassionate self-reflection (Practice I2) on these ecosystems that impact our lives on a daily basis, we can identify new sources for resilience within those ecosystems and better understand the components that present us with the greatest challenges. Combining this reflection with perspective-taking (Practice C2) on others’ experiences of those same systems can in turn deepen our empathy and compassion for those around us.

Educators can incorporate systems thinking into their classroom activities in many ways, helping to build their students’ ability to identify systems, see connections and relationships within and between systems, and understand how the design of a system can lead to particular outcomes. This could include mapping systems that they are part of and aware of, such as their families, the school, or broader community; thinking about the people in these systems and how their experiences and perspectives can differ; and considering what happens when making a change to one part of a system. It is also important for educators to build their own capacity as systems thinkers by collaborating with colleagues to think about the systems that they are part of and how they can effectively gather information from varied sources to form a fuller picture of their classroom and school community.

Leaders of education systems, whether a school, district or other institution, can start by recognizing that their organization is a system made up of many sub-systems and engage their teams in thinking about their environment in this way. They should also understand that theirs is an “open” system that has permeable boundaries, with connections to other systems that have a strong impact on how their system functions. This orientation — combined with the assets of curiosity, humility, and perspective taking, among others — will help support a systems thinking approach to gathering and evaluating information, engaging a diversity of voices and perspectives (Practice C2), and iteratively testing innovations while monitoring how changes affect the other parts of the system.

3. Resources

Select one of our featured resources or visit the PI toolkit library for more tools.

A library full of books

What are systems?

  Video

  2 minutes

  By: PBS

Open

Systems thinking: understanding the whole rather than just separate pieces

  Video

  3 minutes

  By: Synergos

Open

Why school system leaders need to be systems thinkers

  Article

  5 minutes

  By: Getting Smart

Open

Mapping systems

  Tool

  60 minutes

  By: Harvard Graduate School of Education

Open

Access our collection of +200 learning materials

PI toolkit library

4. Connect the dots

How could this practice be enacted through the Intellectual assets?

Graphic illustration of truth-seeking.

Truth-seeking

Finding systemic solutions requires that we have understood those systems themselves. We perpetuate problems when we misunderstand or underestimate them due to one-dimensional data or our own biased perspectives. Truth-seeking supports systems thinking by compelling us to assemble a diverse set of data, drawn from multiple perspectives and forms of inquiry.

Explore
Graphic illustration of critical thinking.

Critical thinking

Critical thinking requires us to invest the time to fully understand the interconnectedness of problems and solutions and thus to develop well-informed and carefully reasoned solutions that meet stakeholder needs in a sustainable manner.

Explore
Graphic illustration of curiosity.

Curiosity

Curiosity pushes us to explore the ways that the social systems around us connect to create problems and to understand the assets that exist to solve them. Curiosity allows us to explore new venues for possible solutions and to creatively envision “positive change for humanity.”

Explore
Graphic illustration of reflection.

Reflection

The Intellectual asset of reflection takes into consideration the causal linkages that produced the world in which we live today. Understanding these linkages—and becoming informed of them through the Moral and Civic practices—helps us strategize on how to create a more equitable and sustainable future that builds on our interconnected personal and community assets.

Explore