In 1974, the gray wolf was listed as endangered.

Yet for most of the last century, the United States government actively encouraged the killing of wolves as part of a larger effort to eradicate the species across the country. Wolves were widely seen as a threat to livestock and a nuisance to ranchers and hunters.

In Yellowstone National Park, the Park Service offered $20 bounties for each dead wolf. By the mid-1930s, the wolf population in the park dwindled. The Park Service then hired Frank Heath, a federal trapper, to kill the remaining 21 wolves.

In 1995, the park service—changed course and reintroduced the grey wolf to Yellowstone National Park. Several surprising things happened:

The elk population tripled. Then, the willow, aspen, and cottonwood trees the elk forage on rebounded. Why? Wolves keep elk on the move, so they don’t have time to feed on the trees as intensely.

With more trees, beaver populations grew—from one lone colony to nine. Counterintuitively, beavers increase the growth and health of trees as well. Also, as beavers built new dams and ponds that pool more water, they created more shaded water for fish and more habitat for songbirds.

Scavengers now have a more dependable food source in the remains of wolf-killed elk. This more reliable food source benefits beetles, lynxes, ravens, eagles, magpies, coyotes, and bears, to name just a few.

The cascading effects—direct and indirect—of reintroducing wolves are as astonishing as they are beneficial.

How can we use this to be better problem solvers? We need to think more in systems. Think about patterns, relationships, and interactions between different parts of a system rather than individual or siloed parts. Thinking in systems gives you a comprehensive, complex, and nuanced understanding of complex phenomena. 

You'll make better decisions and solve complex problems—rather than create them.