A system is a set of interdependent parts that interact to produce outcomes none of the parts could produce alone. Systems have boundaries but exist in environments with which they interact through those boundaries. They’re characterized by feedback loops, emergence, and adaptation – which means what happens within a system shapes its ongoing operation and what becomes possible next. You can’t fix a system you’re part of as though you stood outside it. You work on it from within, as part of it.
As a type of system, collaboration and conflict are interaction systems whose participants are people and whose outcomes arise from how those people engage with each other. These systems are shaped by participants’ meanings, intentions, and interpretations, not just their observable actions.
« Back to Glossary Index