Systems Thinking - The Cognitive Skill of the 21st Century: Webinar by Professor Ed Crawley, MIT Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics and of Engineering Systems: Summary & Review

     The introduction to the webinar notes that:

“Systems thinking is a powerful way to understand complexity.”

     It also notes that systems thinking has become an essential skill for modern problem-solving. This is an introductory webinar to a complex topic that involves changing the way one thinks about solving problems.

 

What is Systems Thinking?

     Systems thinking is a way of thinking. Critical thinking aids bias detection. Creative thinking aids in putting things together in creative ways. Systems thinking means thinking of things like systems. Systems have relationships between components and features. Emergence in AI can be detected by systems thinking. The main feature of systems thinking is complexity. Complexity lowers complicatedness.

    

Who Uses It and How?

     Systems thinking is mainly used for understanding complex technical systems. AI/Machine learning requires it. Work groups are systems of people. Thus, it can be used for art, architecture, design, and other things that address human systems. Systems thinking is used by leaders and individual contributors. As humans, we work both in groups and as individuals. People who need a broad view and the people who build the components that enable that broad view both use systems thinking.

 

What Pedagogical Methods Are Used to Teach Systems Thinking?

     Principles, methods, and tools. Methods are how a principle is enabled. Tools build it. Principles are the underlying laws of truth. Methods make a principle understandable and realizable. Tools might be the software that enables the methods. Example: Decomposition is a principle and a method. Networks are another example. Systems dynamics and engineering utilize decomposition and networks.  

 

Challenges in Learning Systems Thinking

     The brain is being trained to think in a new way. Information is organized in a new way. The brain is retrained. He says it is a hard skill. Retraining the brain means developing new neural pathways, enabled by our inherent neuroplasticity. The goal is get the brain to think in a new way.

 

What Would You Say to Those Learning Systems Thinking?

     This is the way of the future. It is important to learn about to advance many new technologies.

 

MIT Offers a Systems Thinking Course

     Utilizes a project management simulator. The course is a five-week self-paced course. The goal will be to increase project efficiency. Who should enroll? A diverse range of professionals.

 

Q&A

How Does One Account for Human Behavior?

     Hard to model and impossible to predict, he says. He gives an example of human motion, locomotion, or relocation. He says culture is a better example. Human behavior can be modeled.

Are There Signals That Structure or Behavior is the Main Problem?

     He refers to the upcoming course, which will uncover the issue of structure vs. how humans use the structure, ie., human behavior.

Where Does Systems Thinking Break Down in Civics and Human Interaction?

     Really complex or technical problems are inside subtle or complex social problems.

Difference Between Design Thinking and Systems Thinking

   Design thinking puts more emphasis on creativity, while systems thinking is more likely to focus on an incremental process. Systems thinking depends on established norms.

Governments

     A constitution for a government is a systems thinking issue. Systems thinking can be applied to the drafting of such documents.

 

 

 References:

System Thinking - The Cognitive Skill of the 21st Century: Webinar by Professor Ed Crawley, MIT Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics and of Engineering Systems. Webinar. January 15, 2026.