What is Holism?

Holism is the principle that a system must be understood as a whole, because its properties and behavior cannot be fully predicted by examining its parts separately. The classic systems thinking phrase for this is that the whole is greater than, and often qualitatively different from, the sum of its parts.

Holism does not reject analysis of the parts; it insists that analysis be paired with attention to relationships, context, and emergent behavior. A car engine dismantled on a workbench tells you a great deal about its components and nothing about how it drives, and the same is true of teams, ecosystems, and economies.