Author: Magnus Ramage Publisher: Springer Nature ISBN: 1447174755 Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 319
Book Description
This book presents a biographical history of the field of systems thinking, by examining the life and work of thirty of its major thinkers. It discusses each thinker’s key contributions, the way this contribution was expressed in practice and the relationship between their life and ideas. This discussion is supported by an extract from the thinker’s own writing, to give a flavour of their work and to give readers a sense of which thinkers are most relevant to their own interests.
Author: Albert Rutherford Publisher: Vdz ISBN: 9781951385149 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 340
Book Description
Find the optimal solutions to your problems. Gain a deep understanding of the "what, why, how, when, how much" questions of your life. Become a Systems Thinker and discover how to approach your life from a completely new perspective. What is systems thinking? Put it simply, thinking about how things interact with one another. Why should this matter to you? Because you are a system. You are a part of smaller and larger systems - your community, your country, your species. Understanding your role within these systems and how these systems affect, hinder, or aid the fulfillment of your life can lead you to better answers about yourself and the world. Information is the most precious asset these days. Evaluating that information correctly is almost priceless. Systems thinkers are some of the bests in collecting and assessing information, as well as creating impactful solutions in any context. The Systems Thinker will help you to implement systems thinking at your workplace, human relations, and everyday thinking habits. Boost your observation and analytical skills to find the real triggers and influencing forces behind contemporary politics, economics, health, and education changes. Systems thinking clears your vision by teaching you not only to find the differences between the elements but also the similarities. This bi-directional analyzing ability will give you a more complex worldview, deeper understanding of problems, and thus better solutions. The car stopped because its tank is empty - so it needs gas. Easy problem, easy solution, right? But could you explain just as easily why did the price of gas raise with 5% the past month? After becoming a systems thinker, you'll be able to answer that question just as easily. Change your thoughts, change your results. -What are the main elements, questions and methods of thinking in systems? -The most widely used systems archetypes, maps, models, and analytical methods. -Learn to identify and provide solutions even the most complex system problems. -Deepen your understanding about human motivation with systems thinking. The past fifty years brought so many changes in our lives. The world has become more interconnected than ever. Old rules can't explain the new world anymore. But systems thinking can. Embrace systems thinking and become a master of analytical, critical, and creative thinking.
Author: Donella Meadows Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing ISBN: 1603581480 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 242
Book Description
The classic book on systems thinking—with more than half a million copies sold worldwide! "This is a fabulous book... This book opened my mind and reshaped the way I think about investing."—Forbes "Thinking in Systems is required reading for anyone hoping to run a successful company, community, or country. Learning how to think in systems is now part of change-agent literacy. And this is the best book of its kind."—Hunter Lovins In the years following her role as the lead author of the international bestseller, Limits to Growth—the first book to show the consequences of unchecked growth on a finite planet—Donella Meadows remained a pioneer of environmental and social analysis until her untimely death in 2001. Thinking in Systems is a concise and crucial book offering insight for problem solving on scales ranging from the personal to the global. Edited by the Sustainability Institute’s Diana Wright, this essential primer brings systems thinking out of the realm of computers and equations and into the tangible world, showing readers how to develop the systems-thinking skills that thought leaders across the globe consider critical for 21st-century life. Some of the biggest problems facing the world—war, hunger, poverty, and environmental degradation—are essentially system failures. They cannot be solved by fixing one piece in isolation from the others, because even seemingly minor details have enormous power to undermine the best efforts of too-narrow thinking. While readers will learn the conceptual tools and methods of systems thinking, the heart of the book is grander than methodology. Donella Meadows was known as much for nurturing positive outcomes as she was for delving into the science behind global dilemmas. She reminds readers to pay attention to what is important, not just what is quantifiable, to stay humble, and to stay a learner. In a world growing ever more complicated, crowded, and interdependent, Thinking in Systems helps readers avoid confusion and helplessness, the first step toward finding proactive and effective solutions.
Author: David Peter Stroh Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing ISBN: 1603585818 Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 266
Book Description
"David Stroh has produced an elegant and cogent guide to what works. Research with early learners is showing that children are natural systems thinkers. This book will help to resuscitate these intuitive capabilities and strengthen them in the fire of facing our toughest problems."—Peter Senge, author of The Fifth Discipline Concrete guidance on how to incorporate systems thinking in problem solving, decision making, and strategic planning—for everyone! Donors, leaders of nonprofits, and public policy makers usually have the best of intentions to serve society and improve social conditions. But often their solutions fall far short of what they want to accomplish and what is truly needed. Moreover, the answers they propose and fund often produce the opposite of what they want over time. We end up with temporary shelters that increase homelessness, drug busts that increase drug-related crime, or food aid that increases starvation. How do these unintended consequences come about and how can we avoid them? By applying conventional thinking to complex social problems, we often perpetuate the very problems we try so hard to solve, but it is possible to think differently, and get different results. Systems Thinking for Social Change enables readers to contribute more effectively to society by helping them understand what systems thinking is and why it is so important in their work. It also gives concrete guidance on how to incorporate systems thinking in problem solving, decision making, and strategic planning without becoming a technical expert. Systems thinking leader David Stroh walks readers through techniques he has used to help people improve their efforts on complex problems like: ending homelessness improving public health strengthening education designing a system for early childhood development protecting child welfare developing rural economies facilitating the reentry of formerly incarcerated people into society resolving identity-based conflicts and more! The result is a highly readable, effective guide to understanding systems and using that knowledge to get the results you want.
Author: John Boardman Publisher: CRC Press ISBN: 1420054929 Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 242
Book Description
By examining the links and interactions between elements of a system, systems thinking is becoming increasingly relevant when dealing with global challenges, from terrorism to energy to healthcare. Addressing these seemingly intractable systems problems in our society, Systems Thinking: Coping with 21st Century Problems focuses on the inhere
Author: Virginia Anderson Publisher: ISBN: Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 258
Book Description
Systems Thinking Basics is a self-study, skill-building resource designed to introduce you to the power of systems thinking tools. With an emphasis on behavior over time graphs and causal loop diagrams, this workbook guides you step by step through: Recognizing systems and understanding the importance of systems thinking Interpreting and creating behavior over time graphs and causal loop diagrams Applying and practicing systems thinking day-to-day Each of the book's six main sections contains a wealth of examples from the business world, as well as learning activities that reinforce concepts and provide you with the opportunity and space to practice. An array of appendices offers: Extra practice activities A summary of key points and suggested responses to the learning activities A table showing the "palette" of systems thinking tools available A glossary of systems thinking terms A list of additional resources A summary of the systems archetypes The many diagrams within the book clarify concepts and visually reinforce key principles. Systems Thinking Basics is ideal for aspiring systems thinkers eager to try their hand at using these powerful tools
Author: Albert Rutherford Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 262
Book Description
Think with clarity, depth, and speed. Become an effective problem solver and decision maker. We often have blind spots for the actual reasons that cause problems in our lives. So we try to fix our issues based on assumptions, false analysis, and mistaken deductions. This can bring a lot of misunderstanding, anxiety, and frustration into our personal and work relationships.Tools of Systems Thinkers shares powerful strategies to organize your thoughts into transparent patterns and find the real roots of your problems and fix them once and for all.Notice details others miss. See through complexity. Resist jumping to conclusions prematurely. Evaluate information correctly and consistently to make better decisions. Stop sabotaging your self-interest. Overwrite your autopilot with logical and analytical tools. This unique book will give them to you. Learn to utilize mental models and system maps to your greatest advantage.Mental models provide transparency, order, deeper understanding, and context to your problem. System maps can become your leading cognitive tool to find a clear solution that lasts. Change your thinking, change your results.Albert Rutherford is an internationally bestselling author and a retired corporate executive. His books draw on various sources, from corporate system building, organizational behavior analysis, scientific research, and his life experience. He has been building and improving systems his whole adult life and brings his proven strategies to you. Regain focus. Discover relevant information. -Find out the 5 most powerful mental models and system maps.-Learn to create a visual representation of complex problems with dynamic systems.-Use system tools to fix your everyday problems.-Find real-life examples and exercises to deepen your knowledge at the end of each chapter. Make smart and clear decisions. Change your way of thinking. Master analytical, critical, and creative thinking. Become a systems thinker and discover how to approach your life from an entirely new perspective.
Author: Moti Frank Publisher: Nova Science Publishers ISBN: 9781634852234 Category : Decision making Languages : en Pages : 0
Book Description
Systems-thinking, a holistic approach that puts the study of wholes before that of parts, is an effective means of dealing with real-world situations. Emphasizing the interrelationships between the system's components rather than the components themselves, systems thinking allows us to increase our personal and professional effectiveness, and transform our organizations. Specifically, systems thinkers are able to conceptually analyze the system without knowing all the details, metaphorically recognizing the forest through the trees. They can see beyond the surface to the deeper patterns that are really responsible for creating behavior. This book provides a wealth of knowledge about systems thinking, enables readers to deeply understand what systems thinking is, and why it is so important in their work. Readers will learn the conceptual foundations of systems thinking, as well as its tools and the proper ways to use them. These tools will facilitate defining problems and designing solutions in an environment increasingly characterized by chaos and complexity. Since systems thinking is not a discipline, but rather an interdisciplinary conceptual framework used in a wide range of areas, this book presents the applications of systems thinking in different domains, including systems engineering, project management, healthcare, psychology and education. The editors, who are experts in the field of systems thinking due to numerous studies they conducted on this subject, have skillfully created a multidimensional view on systems thinking, including theory and practice, research and application, in a wide variety of fields. Therefore, this book will be useful for researches and practitioners, as well as suitable for beginners and specialists alike.
Author: Magnus Ramage
Author: Albert Rutherford
Author: Donella Meadows
Author: David Peter Stroh
Author: John Boardman
Author: Jay Wright Forrester (Prof.)
Author: Virginia Anderson
Author: Albert Rutherford
Author: Moti Frank
Author: Barry Richmond