How does Systems Thinking support the Understanding of Complex Situations?

In order to understand and solve complex problems in complex situations it is crucial to have an appropriate understanding of the situation in question. Based on the understanding of the situation (actual state) and the target state in mind decision maker can decide on actions. If systems thinking is to support achieving an appropriate understanding, it should support the collection of relevant information and their integration into a model so that an appropriate understanding of the situation can be gained. Thus, the questions to be considered are: What is the relevant information needed to understand complex situations? And, Does systems thinking support the perception of these in order to develop an appropriate model upon which an appropriate understanding can be achieved? To answer these questions, we first refer to an extended version of the widely known iceberg representation to illustrate that a situation can be perceived and understood at different system layers. We then present a system taxonomy. This summarizes relevant system characteristics from a literature review and assigns them according to the iceberg model to the structural characteristics, the resulting behavioral characteristics and the characteristics regarding origin and purpose. Furthermore, the taxonomy indicates which characteristics are attributed to simple, complicated and complex systems. Furthermore, we provide an overview of the definitions and capabilities or tasks of systems thinking found in the literature and assign them to the different characteristics within the systems taxonomy. This allows us to show how systems thinking or the systems thinking task identified in the literature supports the systematic collection of relevant information of a complex system. In addition, we can see what system information is not systematically captured. For these, we propose tasks, and thus the extension of the list of systems thinking tasks. With this list, decision makers can be informed or guided about what system information should be gathered and included into a model in order to develop an appropriate understanding of the system.