1.3) Systems Thinking (cont'd)

The system thinking approach to a problem is intended to make them amenable to a rigorous, scientific analysis. Developing a model the ‘systems thinking’ way takes the following four steps:

1. Definition of the system: what is inside (endogenous) and outside (exogenous), determine the system boundaries
2. Identify system properties, what variables describe the behaviour of the system
3. Simplify by determining key variables, reduce system complexity so relationships between system variables and behaviour can be studied
4. Identify causal relationships between variables – direct and indirect influence, feedback loops

In the following section, we will look in detail at the types of causal relationships that can exit between variables. These relationships are represented as "casual loop diagrams".