A system is a set of interdependent parts that interact to produce outcomes none of the parts could produce alone. Systems have boundaries but exist in an environment that interacts through those boundaries. They’re characterized by feedback loops, emergence, and adaptation – which means actions taken within a system change the system, and the system changes what actions are possible next. You can’t step outside a system to fix it. You work on it from within, as part of it.
Collaboration and conflict are interaction systems – a paraticular type whose parts are people, and whose outputs are produced by how those people engage with each other. Interaction systems are shaped by meaning, intent, and interpretation, unlike mechanical or biological systems which operate independently of what participants think or feel.
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