The systems view is presented as a complement to the more traditional scientific approach to help reduce and mitigate risk in high risk systems. Implications for this systemic approach are described, principally in the areas of control and information. Most generally, we investigate how high risk systems use information to maintain control, and how IT systems should be designed to support this activity. Two variations in the systems view -the objective and constructive -are distilled and compared, and for each, the implications for crisis IT systems design are discussed. The limitations of the two variations of the systems view are presented, as is a brief annotated bibliography for further reading about the systems view.