Iceberg model
Summary
TLDRThe video script delves into the Iceberg Model, a systems-thinking tool that illustrates the layers of abstraction in any situation, from observable events to underlying mental models. It emphasizes the unseen systemic structures and mental models that cause behaviors, suggesting that understanding these deeper layers is crucial for addressing issues effectively. The model uses the analogy of an iceberg to highlight that most of the system's mass lies hidden beneath the surface, much like the majority of a situation's complexity is not immediately apparent.
Takeaways
- 🧊 The Iceberg Model: It's a metaphor for understanding the deeper layers of a situation or organization beyond the observable surface events.
- 🔍 Expanding Perception: The model encourages individuals and organizations to see the whole system, not just isolated activities or events.
- 🌐 Systemic Structures: The model suggests that events and patterns are caused by underlying systemic structures and mental models, often hidden from view.
- 📉 Patterns and Trends: It's important to identify patterns as they indicate recurring issues and can help in anticipating, planning, and forecasting.
- 🏗️ System Structure: The 'rules of the game' that influence patterns, which can be explicit or implicit, visible or invisible, and are part of the cause-and-effect relationships.
- 🤔 Mental Models: These are the deeply held beliefs and assumptions that drive behavior and ultimately generate the structures and patterns observed.
- 🌐 Structure Causes: A fundamental concept is that structure causes 80 to 90% of issues, not people, emphasizing the importance of understanding systemic structures.
- 👀 Hidden Nature: Like an iceberg, most of what is happening in the world is hidden, and the model helps to make this hidden aspect explicit.
- 📈 Observing Patterns: Recognizing patterns allows for more effective reactions to problems and the ability to adapt to changes.
- 🌟 Mental Models Influence: Mental models shape people's perception and are often subconscious, learned from society or family.
- 🔑 Identifying Mental Models: They are typically difficult to identify and involve many unspoken assumptions, key to understanding systemic behavior.
Q & A
What is the Iceberg Model in the context of systems thinking?
-The Iceberg Model is a conceptual tool used in systems thinking to illustrate the various levels of abstraction in a situation or organization, from observable events to underlying patterns, supporting structures, and mental models.
How does the Iceberg Model help in understanding a situation?
-The Iceberg Model helps by encouraging individuals and organizations to expand their perception of a situation, seeing it within the context of the whole system rather than focusing on just a single activity or event.
What does the term 'tip of the iceberg' signify in the Iceberg Model?
-The term 'tip of the iceberg' signifies the small, visible part of a whole situation, implying that there is much more hidden below the surface that may be surprising or not immediately apparent.
According to the Iceberg Model, what causes 80 to 90% of issues in a system?
-According to the Iceberg Model, systemic structures and mental models, which are often hidden, cause 80 to 90% of issues, not the people within the system.
What are the four basic levels identified by the Iceberg Model?
-The four basic levels identified by the Iceberg Model are events, patterns, system structure, and mental models.
What are 'events' in the context of the Iceberg Model?
-In the Iceberg Model, events are the observable, discrete activities or facts about the state of things in the system, such as catching a fish or a news report on the evening news.
What is the significance of identifying 'patterns' in the Iceberg Model?
-Identifying patterns is significant because they indicate that an event is not an isolated incident and can help in anticipating, planning, and forecasting, allowing for more effective reactions to problems.
How are 'structures' in the Iceberg Model defined?
-Structures in the Iceberg Model are the rules, norms, policies, guidelines, power structures, distribution of resources, or informal ways of work that have been tacitly or explicitly institutionalized and support, create, and influence the patterns seen in events.
What role do 'mental models' play in the Iceberg Model?
-Mental models in the Iceberg Model are the deeply held assumptions and beliefs that drive behavior and ultimately generate the structures and patterns observed in events.
Can you provide an example of how the Iceberg Model might be applied to personal health?
-An example of applying the Iceberg Model to personal health could be catching a cold as an event, catching colds more often when tired as a pattern, lack of rest from excessive work as a systemic structure, and the mental model being an identity as a hardworking person.
Outlines
🧊 Iceberg Model of System Change
The first paragraph introduces the Iceberg Model, a systems-thinking framework that illustrates the various levels of abstraction in a situation or organization. It emphasizes the importance of looking beyond observable events to understand underlying patterns, systemic structures, and mental models. The model uses the analogy of an iceberg to convey that a small part of the issue is visible, while the majority lies hidden beneath the surface. It suggests that systemic structures and mental models are the root causes of events and patterns, and understanding these can lead to more effective problem-solving and adaptation. The paragraph also touches on the idea that structure causes most of the issues, not the people within them, and that mental models are the beliefs and assumptions that shape our perception and behavior.
🌱 Mental Models and Systemic Structures
The second paragraph delves deeper into the concept of mental models and systemic structures. It explains that mental models are the deeply held assumptions and beliefs that drive behavior and maintain the status quo of structures. These models are often subconscious and can be influenced by societal or familial values. The paragraph provides examples of how patterns and structures are interconnected, such as the relationship between the number of cows and the amount of milk produced, and the systemic issue of oil spills linked to our dependence on fossil fuels. It also discusses the challenge of identifying mental models due to their implicit nature and the assumptions that are rarely made explicit. The paragraph concludes with a personal health example, illustrating how an immediate event like catching a cold can be part of a larger pattern influenced by underlying structures and mental models related to lifestyle and identity.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Iceberg Model
💡Observable Events
💡Patterns
💡Systemic Structures
💡Mental Models
💡Systemic Thinking
💡Cause-and-Effect Relationships
💡Perception
💡Supporting Structure
💡Current Affair
💡Global Issues
Highlights
The iceberg model is a fundamental tool for understanding system change, illustrating the various levels of abstraction from observable events to underlying patterns and mental models.
The model helps to expand perception by seeing a situation within the context of the whole system rather than focusing on single activities or events.
An iceberg analogy is used to represent the underlying structures that generate perceived events and issues, with only 10% visible above the waterline.
The expression 'tip of the iceberg' signifies that the visible part of a situation is small compared to the hidden aspects.
Systemic structures and mental models often remain hidden, yet they cause 80 to 90% of issues, emphasizing the importance of understanding these structures to change behaviors.
The iceberg model identifies four basic levels: events, patterns, system structure, and mental models, each representing different aspects of a situation.
Events are discrete activities or facts about the state of things in the system, observable at the tip of the iceberg.
Patterns represent trends over time and are crucial for understanding recurring events or changes.
System structure is the set of rules, norms, and relationships that influence the patterns observed in events.
Mental models are the deeply held beliefs and assumptions that shape people's perception and drive behavior within a system.
The iceberg model suggests that different people in the same structure will produce similar results, highlighting the impact of structure over individuals.
Understanding systemic structures is essential for addressing long-term, sustainable solutions to problems.
Mental models are often subconscious and can be difficult to identify, yet they are the driving force behind systemic structures.
The iceberg model can be applied to various contexts, including global issues and personal health, to understand underlying causes and patterns.
The model encourages stepping back from immediate events to identify and address the systemic structures and mental models that influence them.
By understanding patterns and structures, individuals can anticipate, plan, and react more effectively to problems.
The iceberg model underscores the importance of looking beyond the surface to uncover the hidden causes and dynamics of a situation.
Transcripts
there are a few basic models that are
very helpful for thinking about system
change one of the most popular V's is
what is called the iceberg model the
iceberg model tries to illustrate the
various levels of abstraction to a
situation or organization from the
observable events to underlying patterns
that generate these to the supporting
structure and ultimately the mental
models used by an organization the
iceberg model helps individuals and
organizations to expand their perception
of a situation to see it within the
context of the whole system and not
limit themselves to looking at just a
single activity or event it is designed
to help people to step back and identify
the different patterns that the event is
part of the possible structures that
might be causing it to occur and finally
the model that is creating those
structures an iceberg is used as an
analogy to represent the underlying
structures generating perceived events
and issues as it is known to have only
ten percent of its total mass above the
water while ninety percent of it is
under water the expression tip of the
iceberg is used to connote that what one
can see is only a small part of a whole
situation ie there is much more below
the surface and what it looks like may
be surprising just like with an iceberg
a large percentage of what is going on
in our world is hidden from view and the
iceberg model tries to make this
explicit by depicting it as a series of
layers that sit beneath the everyday
phenomena observed the iceberg model
argues that events and patterns which
are observable are caused by systemic
structures and mental models which are
often hidden
a fundamental systems-thinking concept
is that different people in the same
structure will produce similar results
that is to say structure causes 80 to
90% of all issues not so much the people
thus to understand behaviors we must
first identify and then understand the
systemic structures and underlying
mental models that cause them
the iceberg model typically identifies
four basic levels to situations events
which represent the manifest components
and actions observable to us the
patterns of behavior beneath this
described trends over time system
structure describes how the parts are
interrelated to influence the patterns
finally the mental models that support
everything else in the system through a
set of beliefs values and assumptions
shaping people's perception
the 1-minute snapshot of a Current
Affair that we might see in the evening
news is an example of an event within
the iceberg model above the waterline
are the events events are markers in
time where multiple variables are
observed
they are the what's happened or what we
saw they are discrete activities or
facts about the state of things in the
system like catching a fish if we apply
the iceberg model to global issues we
could say that at the tip above the
water are events or things that we see
or hear about happening in the world
every day that there is a new president
in Italy or that the price of
commodities is up the events that we
hear about in the news represent the
iceberg tip most of the world spends its
time at the event level it is how we
perceive the world while being occupied
with our daily activities
patterns are the changes and variables
that occur over time they are the trends
that we perceive taking place over time
if we look just below the water line
we often start to see patterns or the
recurrence of events this might be for
example recurring oil spills or once
computer periodically breaking down
patterns are important to identify
because they indicate that an event is
not an isolated incident patterns answer
the questions what's been happening or
what's changing when we make a statement
like it seems to be getting warmer in
winter or the price of gas is going down
these are patterns that we are observing
a series of relationships between events
when we get to the pattern level we can
anticipate plan and forecast it allows
us to adapt to problems so we can react
more effectively to them
the structure supports creates and
influences the patterns we see in the
events structures can be understood as
the rules of the game they can be
written or unwritten they can be
physical and visible or invisible they
are rules norms policies guidelines
power structures distribution of
resources or informal ways of work that
have been tactile or explicitly
institutionalized they answer the
question what might explain these
patterns
it may not be easy to see the structure
but the patterns we can see tell us that
the structure must be their structures
are composed of cause-and-effect
relationships these are connections
between patterns for example a farmer
might say if I increase the number of
cows I will get more milk she is saying
there is a connection between an
increasing number of cows a pattern and
an increasing amount of milk another
pattern or for example the underlying
structure of a problem such as recurring
oil spills might be our dependence on
fossil fuels but if you look at the root
cause of such spills you can start to
understand and address long-term
sustainable solutions such as developing
alternative energy sources that do not
rely on oil shipment
the mental model used to perceive the
world is ultimately what generates the
structures patterns and events below the
structures are the mental models these
define the thinking that creates the
structures that then manifest themselves
in the patterns of events mental models
are people's deeply held assumptions and
beliefs that ultimately drive behavior
there is typically not just one pattern
or structure or mental model at play
there can be many mental models are the
attitudes beliefs morals expectations
values or culture that allow structures
to continue functioning as they are
these are the beliefs that we often
learn subconsciously from our society or
family and are likely unaware of mental
models are ultimately what keep the
structure doing what it does they are
the thoughts and processes of reasoning
that need to exist to cause the
structure to be the way it is these
ideas exist in the minds of the
structures stakeholders the people who
set up the structure or those that play
a role in the way it operates mental
models are typically difficult to
identify and that they engender many
assumptions that are never made explicit
an example of the iceberg model may be
seen in one's own health catching a cold
would be an event catching colds more
often when we are tired is a pattern the
systemic structures or causes for
getting tired might include lack of rest
from excessive work which might in turn
be a product of a mental model
surrounding our identity as a
hardworking person one tends to get
caught up in the immediate event of
suffering from a cold and typically
forgets that it is part of a pattern of
events that is caused by the underlying
structures of our lifestyle and
perception
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