Finding Patterns

In systems thinking there is what is known as the systems thinking iceberg. It represents the layers of a system that often go unnoticed.

The use of an iceberg is deliberate. Only 10% of the iceberg is seen from the surface. That means that most (90%) of the frozen ice is beneath the surface and less detectable.

With systems thinking, most systems fall beneath the awareness of people. We tend to see the top layer, events, and form our opinions based solely on that, never diving deep enough to gain real understanding.

But if we discipline our mind to become aware of those buried aspects, we gain so much more insight. The first layer below the water line is the patterns layer. This is when we see that something isn’t just a one-time event. Maybe we notice that we keep struggling with certain topics in school or we have a friend that always seems to ask to borrow money.

The pattern is important because it often alerts us that there is more to the story. If we continue down, we will notice the structures layer. This is often the reason the patterns exist in the first place. If there are rules or laws in place to curb behavior, that will likely create a new patterned behavior.

The deepest layer are mental models. This focuses on the beliefs we hold. The beliefs we hold individually form our decision-making. The beliefs we hold as a society shape our governments, laws, and occupations.

I was recently reading Resilience: The Science of Mastering Life’s Greatest Challenges. The book provides research on being tougher and more resilient in the face of challenges and adversity. The book presents scientific insight as well as anecdotal stories where humans fought through terrible circumstances to come through stronger and wiser.

The book gave an account from a POW and the POW mentioned that a quote from the Bible helped him. In Ecclesiastes, the Bible states “I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.”

It was the first time I heard of that quote and researched more. The more I read Ecclesiastes the more I felt it mirrored the Tao Te Ching. I was amazed that they were so aligned, despite not being written in the same time period in history or by people of the same culture.

Using the systems thinking iceberg, the pattern layer jumped out to me. This pattern revealed itself and as I dug deeper I found more and more ancient texts with similar perspectives.

I’ve learned to search for patterns but sometimes they jump right out at us and make it hard to miss. But finding the pattern always leads to more insight and knowledge than if we remain at the surface layer. Often the pattern holds key wisdom if we are willing to explore and open our mind to the systematic organization in the world around us.