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Systems intelligence is human action that connects sensitivity about a systemic environment with systems thinking
Systems thinking

Systems Thinking is any process of estimating or inferring how local policies, actions, or changes influences the state of the neighboring universe....
, thus spurring a persons problem solving
Problem solving

Problem solving forms part of thought. Considered the most complex of all intelligence functions, problem solving has been defined as higher-order cognitive process that requires the modulation and control of more routine or fundamental skills....
 capabilities and invoking performance and productivity in everyday situations. Systems intelligence, abbreviated SI, is intelligent behavior in complex system
Complex system

A complex system is a system composed of interconnected parts that as a whole exhibit one or more properties not obvious from the properties of the individual parts....
s, that are often human in nature. Key concepts a person uses when acting systems intelligently are perception
Perception

In psychology and the cognitive sciences, perception is the process of attaining awareness or understanding of sense information. It is a task far more complex than was imagined in the 1950s and 1960s, when it was predicted that building perceiving machines would take about a decade, a goal which is still very far from fruition....
 of systemic occurrencies, feedback
Feedback

Feedback describes the situation when output from an event or phenomenon in the past will influence the same event/phenomenon in the present or future....
 from the system's structure and interaction
Interaction

Interaction is a kind of action that occurs as two or more objects have an effect upon one another. The idea of a two-way effect is essential in the concept of interaction, as opposed to a one-way causal effect....
 with the system's agents and subsystems.

Origins of Systems Intelligence
The concept was formulated in the Laboratory of Systems Analysis at the Helsinki University of Technology
Helsinki University of Technology

Helsinki University of Technology is the premier technical university in Finland. It is located in Otaniemi, Espoo in the area of Greater Helsinki....
, Finland
Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland , is a Nordic countries situated in the Fennoscandian region of northern Europe. It borders Sweden on the west, Russia on the east, and Norway on the north, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland....
, fall 2002.






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Encyclopedia


Systems intelligence is human action that connects sensitivity about a systemic environment with systems thinking
Systems thinking

Systems Thinking is any process of estimating or inferring how local policies, actions, or changes influences the state of the neighboring universe....
, thus spurring a persons problem solving
Problem solving

Problem solving forms part of thought. Considered the most complex of all intelligence functions, problem solving has been defined as higher-order cognitive process that requires the modulation and control of more routine or fundamental skills....
 capabilities and invoking performance and productivity in everyday situations. Systems intelligence, abbreviated SI, is intelligent behavior in complex system
Complex system

A complex system is a system composed of interconnected parts that as a whole exhibit one or more properties not obvious from the properties of the individual parts....
s, that are often human in nature. Key concepts a person uses when acting systems intelligently are perception
Perception

In psychology and the cognitive sciences, perception is the process of attaining awareness or understanding of sense information. It is a task far more complex than was imagined in the 1950s and 1960s, when it was predicted that building perceiving machines would take about a decade, a goal which is still very far from fruition....
 of systemic occurrencies, feedback
Feedback

Feedback describes the situation when output from an event or phenomenon in the past will influence the same event/phenomenon in the present or future....
 from the system's structure and interaction
Interaction

Interaction is a kind of action that occurs as two or more objects have an effect upon one another. The idea of a two-way effect is essential in the concept of interaction, as opposed to a one-way causal effect....
 with the system's agents and subsystems.

Origins of Systems Intelligence


The concept was formulated in the Laboratory of Systems Analysis at the Helsinki University of Technology
Helsinki University of Technology

Helsinki University of Technology is the premier technical university in Finland. It is located in Otaniemi, Espoo in the area of Greater Helsinki....
, Finland
Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland , is a Nordic countries situated in the Fennoscandian region of northern Europe. It borders Sweden on the west, Russia on the east, and Norway on the north, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland....
, fall 2002. The author-editors of the first publications on SI were professors Raimo P. Hämäläinen
Raimo Hämäläinen

Raimo P. H?m?l?inen is a professor of Applied Mathematics and Operations Research at the Helsinki University of Technology , Finland. Professor H?m?l?inen is the founder and director of the Systems Analysis laboratory at TKK, and his research interests cover game theory, decision sciences, energy model and resource management....
 and Esa Saarinen
Esa Saarinen

Esa Saarinen is a Finnish philosophy who is currently on a five-year appointment as professor of System theory at the Systems Analysis Laboratory of the Helsinki University of Technology, teaching applied philosophy, systems intelligence and creative problem solving....
. In spring 2006, numerous publications and three books have been written from this field, which by the influence of Hämäläinen and Saarinen, applies an open source
Open source

Open source is an approach to design, development, and distribution offering practical accessibility to a product's source . Some consider open source as one of various possible design approaches, while others consider it a critical Strategy element of their business operations....
 spirit, or Socratic accessible-to-all-philosophy, to further the field of SI research. The original authors allow students and scholars contribute to the field in various seminars and interdisciplinary research groups to bring intuition and experience from various aspects of life.

Although systems intelligence has received wide academic research interest in its part, the original authors do not intend to confine systems intelligence research into academic circles only, but allow a rather non-canonical attitude towards development of the field. A central idea in development of the SI concept is attracting ideas and insights from different aspects of professional and private human lives.

Key ideas

Systems intelligence is an innate trait
Trait

Trait may refer to:* Trait, a characteristic or property of some entity.* Trait , which involve genes and characteristics of organisms.* Trait theory, an approach to the psychological study of personality....
 in all humans. It is a capacity that anyone can reveal, if one

  • accepts that the world consists of a complex web of interacting relationships, to which everyone contributes
  • engages the holistic feedback mechanism of the environment, and in this way, accepts the presence of systems by systems thinking
  • sees the environment as feedback intensive, and manages to act intelligently, or rationally
    Rationality

    Rationality as a term is related to the idea of reason, a word which following Webster's may be derived as much from older terms referring to thinking itself as from giving an account or an explanation....
    , in it
  • interacts with the environment in a way that makes minor corrections in the systems, generating huge effects due to the nonlinear dynamics
    Dynamics

    Dynamics may refer to:In Physics:*Dynamics , in physics, dynamics refers to time evolution of physical processes*Analytical dynamics refers to the motion of bodies as induced by external forces...
     of the system


Thus, two main themes in systems intelligence are producing great positive outcomes, and avoiding negatives. The negative outcomes usually emerge accidentally from the dynamics of the systems; in other words, if action were more systems intelligent, the negative outcomes wouldn't have occurred at all. These outcomes ordinarily occur because human actors are inflected to approve their existence in the first place, thus being blind for betterment. Being systems intelligent is as easy as driving an automobile in a curve, but being blind for the dynamics of the system (that is, not knowing that you must turn the wheel to control the system) may lead the driver into the roadside. The paradox with humans acting in natural systems, such as relationships and organizations, is that they are more prone to drive out from the road than be clever enough to turn the wheel for safety.

One must also recognize the inverse opportunity: an impetus given, however petite, may entail giant positive outcomes, stemming from the invisible dynamics of the environment and people engaged into it. This phenomenon, entitled super-productivity, again requires awareness of the systemic environment.

Systems intelligence is not a tool
Tool

A broad definition of a tool is an entity used to interface between two or more domains that facilitates more effective action of one domain upon the other....
 one can acquire for some specific task, but rather a behavioral axiom that one uses without knowledge about it. The symptom that systems intelligence is not usually present in different situations (see Examples) is to be blamed of the systemic environment itself. Systems intelligence is also a form of intelligence
Intelligence

Intelligence is an umbrella term used to describe a property of the mind that encompasses many related abilities, such as the capacities to reason, to plan, to problem solving, to think abstraction, to comprehend ideas, to use language, and to Learning....
 in a human, that is measurable and comparable; if one knows how to engage in super-productivity, they are more systems intelligent than those who are trapped in producing only negative outcomes and ordinary performance.

Examples

  • Mathemathics of marriage
  • Systems intelligence in everyday life
  • Super productivity


Systems intelligence vs. systems thinking

One often encountered criticism of systems intelligence is its vocabular similarity to systems thinking. Systems intelligence has its foundations on systems thinking, especially in the research conducted by Peter Senge
Peter Senge

Peter Michael Senge is an American scientist and director of the Center for Organizational Learning at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He is known as author of the book The Fifth Discipline from 1990 ....
, but while systems thinking is a mental model
Mental model

A mental model is an explanation of someone's thought process for how something works in the real world. It is a representation of the surrounding world, the relationships between its various parts and a person's intuitive perception about their own acts and their consequences....
 that one can use as a tool, systems intelligence is an intrinsic type of intelligence in a human being.

Hämäläinen and Saarinen enlighten the difference between systems thinking and systems intelligence via a hierarchical five-level model of systems intelligence. The levels for the amount of systems intelligence in a person are

  1. Seeing oneself in a system, or being aware of the systemic environment with systems thinking.
  2. Thinking about systems intelligence, or being aware that possibilities for productivity stem from the interaction with oneself and the system.
  3. Managing systems intelligence, or exercising productive ways of behaviour in the system.
  4. Sustaining systems intelligence, or exercising productivity in the long run.
  5. Leadership with systems intelligence, or initiating and leading organizations that are systems intelligent.


The more levels a person is able to handle, the more systems intelligent he or she is. A person equipped only with the mental model of systems thinking is left at level 1, while systems intelligence is needed in every level after that.

Influential work


Systems intelligence follows from the revolutionary research conducted by Peter Senge
Peter Senge

Peter Michael Senge is an American scientist and director of the Center for Organizational Learning at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He is known as author of the book The Fifth Discipline from 1990 ....
 in the field of systems thinking. Other works strongly referred to in the SI research are authors ranging from Howard Gardner
Howard Gardner

Howard Gardner is an United States psychologist who is based at Harvard University. He is best known for his theory of multiple intelligences....
 to Herbert Simon
Herbert Simon

Herbert Alexander Simon was an United States psychologist whose research ranged across the fields of cognitive psychology, computer science, public administration, economics, management, philosophy of science and sociology and was a professor, most notably, at Carnegie Mellon University....
 to Marcial Losada
Marcial Losada

Marcial Losada is the founder and executive director of Meta Learning, a consulting organization that develops high performance teams. As director of the Center for Advanced Research in Ann Arbor, Michigan, he developed a novel approach to study working teams....
. The following research areas have influenced and been referred to in the SI research:

  • systems theory
    Systems theory

    Systems theory is an interdisciplinary field of science and the study of the nature of complex systems in nature, society, and science. More specifically, it is a framework by which one can analyze and/or describe any group of objects that work in concert to produce some result....
     and systems thinking
    Systems thinking

    Systems Thinking is any process of estimating or inferring how local policies, actions, or changes influences the state of the neighboring universe....
  • neuroanatomy
    Neuroanatomy

    Neuroanatomy is the branch of anatomy that studies the anatomical organization of the nervous system. In vertebrate animals, the peripheral nervous system that the myriad nerves take from the brain to the rest of the body , and the internal structure of the brain in particular, are both extremely elaborate....
     of human mind
  • positive psychology and cognitive psychology
    Cognitive psychology

    Cognitive psychology is a branch of psychology that investigates internal mental processes such as problem solving, memory, and language.The school of thought arising from this approach is known as cognitivism which is interested in how people mentally represent information processing....
  • operations research
    Operations research

    Operations Research in the USA, South Africa and Australia, and Operational Research in Europe and Canada, is an interdisciplinary branch of applied mathematics and formal science that uses methods such as mathematical modeling, statistics, and algorithms to arrive at optimal or near optimal solutions to complex problems....
     and applied mathematics
    Applied mathematics

    Applied mathematics is a branch of mathematics that concerns itself with the mathematical techniques typically used in the application of mathematical knowledge to other domains....
  • creative problem solving
    Creative problem solving

    Creative problem solving is the mental process of creating a solution to a problem. It is a special form of problem solving in which the solution is independently created rather than learned with assistance....
     and heuristics
  • bounded rationality
    Bounded rationality

    Some models of human behavior in the social sciences assume that humans can be reasonably approximated or described as "rationality" entities . Many economics models assume that people are on average rational, and can in large enough quantities be approximated to act according to their preferences....


One notable influence comes from action research
Action research

Action research is a reflective process of progressive problem solving led by individuals working with others in teams or as part of a "community of practice" to improve the way they address issues and solve problems....
, which basically means research done inside the research objective, on a continuous basis, learning from one's action.

Application areas


A lot of the tacit knowledge gathered up to SI research comes from real world applications, such as management consulting
Management consulting

Management consulting refers to both the industry of, and the practice of, helping organizations improve their performance, primarily through the analysis of existing business problems and development of plans for improvement....
 and pedagogics. Since systems intelligence is application intensive in nature, one of its main missions is to connect the best practices of various, seemingly nonrelated fields, into one scientifically solid theory. The following fields can benefit from SI research:

  • planning organizational reward and incentive systems
  • leadership of organizations and business teams
  • cultural aspects of organizational behaviour and super-productivity
  • rationality
    Rationality

    Rationality as a term is related to the idea of reason, a word which following Webster's may be derived as much from older terms referring to thinking itself as from giving an account or an explanation....
     in social sciences
  • philosophy of life


Bibliography


English:
  • Raimo Hämäläinen
    Raimo Hämäläinen

    Raimo P. H?m?l?inen is a professor of Applied Mathematics and Operations Research at the Helsinki University of Technology , Finland. Professor H?m?l?inen is the founder and director of the Systems Analysis laboratory at TKK, and his research interests cover game theory, decision sciences, energy model and resource management....
    , Esa Saarinen
    Esa Saarinen

    Esa Saarinen is a Finnish philosophy who is currently on a five-year appointment as professor of System theory at the Systems Analysis Laboratory of the Helsinki University of Technology, teaching applied philosophy, systems intelligence and creative problem solving....
     (2004) : Systems Analysis Laboratory Research Reports


Finnish:
  • Raimo Hämäläinen
    Raimo Hämäläinen

    Raimo P. H?m?l?inen is a professor of Applied Mathematics and Operations Research at the Helsinki University of Technology , Finland. Professor H?m?l?inen is the founder and director of the Systems Analysis laboratory at TKK, and his research interests cover game theory, decision sciences, energy model and resource management....
    , Esa Saarinen
    Esa Saarinen

    Esa Saarinen is a Finnish philosophy who is currently on a five-year appointment as professor of System theory at the Systems Analysis Laboratory of the Helsinki University of Technology, teaching applied philosophy, systems intelligence and creative problem solving....
     (2005) : Systems Analysis Laboratory Research Reports


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