Creating sustainable futures/CSF101/Understanding systems/Systems

Systems are sets of interacting and interconnected components or relationships that together form an integrated whole. Systems are everywhere and they are often complex. Every system is delineated by its spatial and temporal boundaries, surrounded and influenced by its environment, described by its structure and purpose and expressed in its functioning.

Systems thinking is the process of understanding how things, regarded as systems, influence one another within a whole. In nature, systems thinking examples include ecosystems in which elements such as air, water, plants, and animals work together to survive or perish. In organisations, systems consist of people, structures, and processes that work together to make an organisation "healthy" or "unhealthy".