Systems thinking is en vogue these days as we increasingly realize how complex the world really is. Too many manage enterprises based on small rules and adages, but neglect to see how the bigger picture works. Then they are surprised when their interventions end up with a different effect. That’s because the rest of the world works systemically through feedback loops. The small game is not the only relevant factor.
Before she died, Dartmouth professor Donella Meadows compiled this manuscript to encapsulate this perspective. This book, compiled posthumously by Diana Wright, offers the best, most concise introduction to this field of systems thinking. It enlightens by giving readers access to an Ivy League course through its contents.
Any worker, knowledge worker or otherwise, can deeply benefit from seeing the life systems around themselves. Meadows focuses on examples in economic and environmental systems, but this philosophy can also apply to engineering and information systems. The world gives us plenty of feedback, and the challenge becomes identifying the correct measurables and values. Systems thinkers have emphasized the different way systems universally operate and how we can make use of them for individual and common good.
This book takes an academic, even philosophical, approach to this topic. It does not deal with many industry specifics. That perspective may turn some folks off, but it teaches us how to think about the systemic structures around us. Meadows identifies abstract principles like feedback loops that normally return to baseline or approach a goal. She helps us care for everything that goes on around us, whether in the business, personal, or personal domains.
Thinking in Systems: A Primer
By Donella H. Meadows
Edited by Diana Wright
Narrated by Tia Rider Sorensen
Copyright (c) 2018
Chelsea Green Publishing
ASIN B07FW9Z4KG
Length: 6:26
Genre: Economics, Management
www.amazon.com