Systems Thinking, A Primer: Terraforming Mars (Systems Thinking and Design, Part 1)

Living in Los Angeles, traffic is a constant thorn in my side. We’ve all been there: stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic with no end in sight. After crawling along for miles, the road suddenly clears—yet there’s no accident, no lane closure, no obvious cause. That’s because traffic is an interconnected system. No single event dictates the outcome; instead, small actions ripple outward to shape the larger flow.

Business problems work the same way. They rarely exist in isolation, which makes solving them frustrating until leaders uncover the root causes and influence the right leverage points.

At its core, a system is a set of interconnected parts that produces its own behavior over time. Smart managers move beyond linear thinking to systems thinking when tackling complex challenges.

• Linear Thinking: Simple cause and effect. A happens because of B. Change B, and A changes.

• Systems Thinking: A and B are part of a larger whole. The question isn’t just what caused A, but how the entire system created it—and which levers can shift the outcome.

Systems thinking emphasizes interdependencies, feedback loops, and emergent outcomes. Good managers understand that a system is more than the sum of its parts, and they appreciate how each part influences the others.

Everyday Examples of Systems Thinking

• Traffic jams: One driver taps the brakes, creating a chain reaction that slows everyone behind them.

• Fragile ecosystems: Remove mosquitoes and you might have a more enjoyable summer, but you also disrupt the food chain of animals that rely on them.

• Manufacturing bottlenecks: If task A can only be completed 20 times per hour, while other steps can run faster, the entire line is capped at 20 cycles per hour.

Terraforming Mars: Systems at Play In Terraforming Mars, no action exists in a vacuum. Place an ocean tile, and you don’t just gain resources—you also raise the global oxygen level, making the planet more habitable for all players. Build a city, and you not only earn victory points, but you also alter adjacency bonuses and compete for limited space. Success doesn’t come from maximizing a single variable, but from balancing multiple interconnected levers—just like in business.

Failure to Launch 

Imagine your company launched a great new product six months ago. Today, the management team is locked in a tense meeting trying to explain why sales have been dismal. Operations blames Marketing, Marketing blames Sales, and Sales blames Operations.

In reality, the system had multiple points of failure:

• Supply chain bottlenecks delayed delivery.

• Customers hesitated due to an unclear value proposition.

• Competitors outmaneuvered with better timing and complementary offerings.

The product itself may have been strong. But in context, the surrounding system—distribution, customer adoption, and market dynamics—determined its fate.

Conclusion 

Systems thinking shifts our perspective from isolated fixes to holistic solutions. By learning to see the connections between people, processes, markets, and environments, leaders can anticipate unintended consequences and design interventions that last. Just as board game players learn to weigh the ripple effects of each decision, business leaders who embrace systems thinking build resilience and foresight into their organizations.

Come back next week for Gizmos: The Power of Feedback Loops (Part 2 of Systems Thinking and Design)