For me, having a "systems world view" means that I can look at situations from a little farther back, with more perspective, and insight, and not take things so personally. It is actually from a higher level-of-consciousness in the continuum of AllThatIs. When seeking to understand things, "rise above it".
The familiar analogy is seeing the forest, and not just the individual trees. The "systems world view" helps me to .....use both sides of my brain, the RightBrain that sees the forest, or the patterns in events, and also the LeftBrain that sees the details. Essentially, it is the RightBrain that sees the "systems world view", the "general case". The LeftBrain sees more the "specific case" level.
The systems approach gives me a set of concepts that can be used in analyzing or in inquiring into any set of facts or situation. It gives me a template or "stylesheet" of thinking, that makes remaining objective a little easier. It teaches me to look at everything "as a system", which insulates me from the emotional or other types of energy that might drag me off-center, and be overwhelming.
This is important, because remaining mentally integrated, with both sides of the brain in use, helps me to "see the big picture", the whole, the pattern- recognition side of the brain, together with the logical analytical check.
Problems and especially conflicts between people usually can be resolved effectively, if everyone would seek that "win-win" layer of reality, where no one is 100% right, and the other one 100% wrong. So, here, the systems approach could be a framework to try and talk about things from a little farther back, more objectively, less emotionally, less thru the perspective of the old mental reruns of the planetary consciousness. We might say that the systems approach gives us permission to write a new script for the particular problem, then get everyone to buy into it.
A system is two or more things and their relationship. These systems all are dependent upon the flow of information and the interaction of the information with the human brains. If we look at "production" as the byproduct of project management, and of learning and communications, then it too is a system described as a flow of information. They are really different aspects of each other. These systems can be self-adjusting when there is opportunity for feedback information from the results of the process, toward the decision- making level.
All complex systems should be thought out on paper, before commiting equipment or materials to their expression or manifestation, for example, the architectural drawings before a building is constructed.
After the system is built, the design drawings of the system still exist as a kind of metalevel or more abstract level of the system.
In the design of a process, for instance, a manufacturing process, or a office procedure process, there is always a need for improving that design level or mental model of the process, to make the work flow accomodate the human element, resource funding levels, constant changes in technology, etc.
If every work process is thought of as a flowchart, this is easy to maintain.
When you are working within a system, you are afraid to make waves, afraid to "buck the system", afraid to suggest improvements. You let the bosses tell you what to do, and you don't feel like making original contributions.
When you are working on the system, you feel free to suggest improvements, to help influence others to adopt newer mental models, and to make adjustments to the system.
This would be a less hierarchial and flatter organizational structure, where the workers would feel empowered to help guide the organization creatively. If each worker feels free to express himself, when he has an idea about how the process could be improved, and to work at his highest level of productive creativity, the whole organization will benefit.
An organizational culture where the workers feel this freedom would be more likely to survive the winds of technological and economic change, able to grow beyond the boundaries, to adapt to changing times.
The tools that I feel are the most effective for me, personally, are the visual type software packages, like Visio, or the table in WordForWindows, perhaps because the CAD-type programs enable the spatial side of my brain.
As I experienced the changes in myself, with taking CAD-KEY in Weed in Fall of 1994, and then 2 semesters focusing on AutoCAD, I understand the RightBrain keeping that spatial mental model of the drawing, and the LeftBrain learning the program. CAD drawing is useful for developing whole-brained thinking.
I also use WordforWindows extensively, and the HTML level of writing is very mind-expanding for me. Knowing that I can "publish" my writings on the Internet, where others can find them with a search engine, instead of just sitting in my room, lends a different kind of thinking.
Often, after I do all I can at the writing level, with WFW, I convert it to HTML, and then I can go hypertext, linking in other files, for thoughts that are digressions, and which break the train of thought, if fully expressed in the same document. Being a writer, I think best thru writing.
The team-building group dialogue and discussion techniques help to create a group consciousness, a joint layer of reality, that takes on alife of its own.
A good way to document this evolution is to have some kind of text messaging system, like an Internet newsgroup, or a WWWboard message thread system.
In a business environment, a newsletter could suffice.
Any system that seeks to survive must grow to larger than its original boundaries.
It must TRANSCEND its original definition, growing into higher and higher layers of itself, growing new layers of itself. If it doesn't grow, it will dys-integrate, because the overall universe is constantly changing, and we must constantly pour ourselves into new alternative universes (uni-verse = one-story).
Life is constantly evolving and changing. To keep up, our societial systems must adapt, or be shed like a snake sheds its skin.
Introvert stronger on the inner level of awareness
Extrovert stronger on the outer level of awareness
Thinking inclined to live in his head
Feeling inclined to live in his heart
Sensing knows by tuning in to the physical senses
Intuitive knows by tuning in to the vibrational preverbal level of thought
Perceiving tends to seek understanding thru inner inquiry
Judging tends to jump to conclusions before the end of the sentence
We all have symptoms of both ends of the spectrum, on each axis.
Striving to be more balanced and less one-sided, we should all seek the middle.
Each team benefits from having different viewpoints and communication styles.
That way, one person's weaknesses don't pull down the whole group.
For instance, a strong dominating leader would stiffle the creativity of the other workers.
Together, they become stronger, and team group learning leads to more dynamic, less stagnant thinking. The whole is more than the sum of the parts.