Systems thinking

They are asking us to help them understand what's the best way to get there.

And so by sort of illuminating what all of the options are and actually paying closer attention to not just checking one box, but looking at systems thinking approach and understanding a net benefit.

Part of it's just laying it out there, right? And I think that's a thing we're doing better on the engineering side in the industry, partially because of the way that thinking has changed within the industry, partially because of the tools and technologies that we have available to better understand that and to come to answers on it a little bit more quickly, it allows us to highlight that and really educate our clients so that they can be making informed decisions.

And then I think that the reason that we were starting to see more of that is because when you're making those informed decisions, they're kind of no-brainers, right? It's easy to say this solution that's a little bit more systemically integrated that provides that net benefit that is more sustainable is that typically doesn't cost more is easy to do.

And that's where I feel like more of the training will need to go is in that ability to think through that.

I will yes and that, like yes and systems thinking.

This is like a term very hot in the AI academic space of like, how can we teach people to think in terms of systems of like all of the different tools, products, elements of the business that would go into an AI agent to like help improve its output and performance.

And what I have observed, I'm mentoring this brilliant young AI whiz.

I met her at a couple of cloud workshops.

And...

She is great at systems thinking in that she likes looking at a product and then her brain is like, if I was going to rebuild this as an AI, like how would I do it? And she literally just like builds out like a little visualization of like each step of a process, which is a remarkable skill.

She's very product oriented.

My guest today is Michael Herkomer, joining us from Zurich, Switzerland.

Michael is a strategist, executive advisor, and systems thinker with decades of experience operating at the intersection of technology, leadership, and institutional complexity.

Michael has worked across strategy, digital transformation, and innovation, including working with and advising global organizations such as IBM, SAP, Accenture, and public sector institutions at European level.

He has operated both as a builder and a critical advisor supporting organizations through large-scale transformation, governance challenges, and moments of structural pressure.

And the thing about, what was interesting about the initiative was that it wasn't about resilience of that, like the result of a risk management approach.

They were trying to use systems thinking and complexity science to connect these worlds.

Number of Resilient Cities was and still is kind of like an interesting initiative with its good things and things that in learnings, for sure.

But in my particular case, it got me to think certain things.

And you can kind of like intervening all of those threes, all of those three components with certain limitations.

But when you address the function of a system and you start looking at your paradigms, then you can really create this proportionate change in systems.

This comes from Vanilla Meadows and complex systems thinking and so

on.

Yeah.

And I love the way that your brain works because you are a systems thinker.

When I read the book, it is a process.

I'm flattered.

I aspire to grow up to be a systems thinker.

So I am very flattered.

And I will be playing that clip for my team to let them know that the expert on systems thinks I'm a systems guy.

How does a digital twin help with traffic flow?

I would say that when it comes to the roadway transportation system in general, taking what's happening in the real world and putting it into a digital environment lets us analyze that and get insights from that in a way that you couldn't do if you were just standing on the street corner, right? So this is also where systems thinking comes in, because yes, I could improve, I can improve safety, I can get to zero injuries, zero deaths, zero collisions if I make everyone drive at one mile per hour, right? Like if we go to an extreme, obviously if I over optimize for one thing, then I'm gonna impact another thing, right? So this is what systems thinking means.

I have to find that balance and difficult to do unless you can try different things, right? I don't think anyone can say, here's the perfect solution.

I don't need to test it.

And I say that, um, In addition, because there's, I know in China, there were those robots that were racing at this AI robot, I don't know, Olympics or something that was last month sometime.

However, there's also this other human advantage or advantages where systems thinking and true entrepreneurship that Dr. Joseph mentions also.

So listen to this.

Dr. Joseph comes up with the systems thinking, but it's holistic.

Dr. Joseph argues that machines are brilliant at analyzing the parts but struggle to understand the integrated whole.

An algorithm can tell you why a single stock is dropping.