CST sees systems thinking as essential to managing multidimensional 'messes' in which technical, economic, organizational, human, cultural and political elements interact.
It is critical in a positive manner because it seeks to capitalize on the strengths of existing approaches while also calling attention to their limitations.
[6][3] CST was largely developed at the Centre for Systems Studies, University of Hull, based on research by Michael C Jackson, Paul Keys, and Robert L Flood.
Since 1991, CST has been taken forward by authors such as Robert L Flood,[10][11] Michael C Jackson,[12][13][14] John Mingers[15] and Gerald Midgley.
[14] Adopting a pragmatist orientation,[17] Jackson has set out, in a series of papers, how the four commitments of CST can be applied in practice.