In Part 1, System Structure and Behaviour, Meadows uses two graphical tools to analyse systems: stock and flow diagrams to show system structure and charts mapping stock or flow levels over time to explore system behaviour for specific scenarios.
Published after Donella Meadow's death, it introduces Systems Thinking by way of definition, illustration and application. I recommend Thinking in Systems because it has changed the way I understand and relate to my world. Moving forward is a slow and difficult process, but thanks to Mrs Meadows we might be at least slightly confident that our effort is in the right direction. It's okay though, because that is how it works. Even with the right tools and a hope that we indeed can successfully intervene in big, complex problems she makes it clear that it won't be easy, it won't take only a few weeks, we might not get it right the first three times and we might even make it worse before we improve anything. Mrs Meadows also does another thing: she manages our expectations. Yet in its description of complexity, its admission of "it's effing difficult", its many examples of how easy it is to get it wrong when trying to solve big, complex problems one does not find a sense of despair and futility of effort, no, one finds a sense of empowerment in understanding how "everything relates to everything" which is why it is so so difficult to design workable solutions without the systems view of the problem. But beware, unlike many others, this book offers no easy solutions. If you are interested in how the world works then you are in the right place. The Systems Traps explained in the book are something that if we all understood them-especially our politicians and legislators-we'd have a far more equitable, peaceful and sustainable society in this global village of ours.Ī primer to systems thinking indeed! I gave this book 5 stars not just because the contents are incredibly useful, but also because it reads as smoothly as any well written novel.
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The insights on how to understand system structures, flows, behaviours and where to intervene (effect change) in a system are profoundly useful. This book is universally useful, due to that perspective. The definition of a 'system' includes not just the typical business or technological view of what a system is everything is a system: the planet's ecosystem, a cell, the human body, an organ within a body, a political party, a room's temperature control, a family, inventory levels in a business. Systems thinking and systems modelling is the closest methodology you will find that "explains how the world works" (including "why aspects of society are not working").Īlthough heavy-going in parts, the wisdom in this book is worth persevering to the end. 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. She reminds readers to pay attention to what is important, not just what is quantifiable, to stay humble, and to stay a learner. Donella Meadows was known as much for nurturing positive outcomes as she was for delving into the science behind global dilemmas. While readers will learn the conceptual tools and methods of systems thinking, the heart of the book is grander than methodology. 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. Some of the biggest problems facing the world'war, hunger, poverty, and environmental degradation'are essentially system failures. 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. Thinking in Systems, is a concise and crucial book offering insight for problem solving on scales ranging from the personal to the global.
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.
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