8.1.3 Applying Engineering Principles to Human Components in Complex Systems

Systems engineers must understand the workings within and the relationships among human as well as non‐human subsystems in the larger systems they're engineering. To be systems thinkers, we must easily and comfortably integrate human subsystems into complex systems. A key to approaching the human subsystems is to incorporate solution‐focused thinking that is based on circular and mutual causality rather than cause and effect. However, systems engineers can quite well apply their engineer's laws of physical science to human subsystems. The fundamental building block for systems that include humans is the dyad (two people). When anxiety rises in a dyad, the two people will attract a third human or non‐human subsystem to form a triangle. We can diagram dyads and triangles to better analyze, design, and implement complex systems containing human subsystems.