Meadow's book was a top choice on many lists of books about systems thinking. That and Peter Senge's book, which will get added to the queue as soon as I stop going off on book tangents. (The queue is deep at the moment and the boss is on to me. I thought I could get away with a long queue because instead of piles of books, I just have a Kindle app. But the boss still checks the bank account. :) ).
Check this out - my highlighted notes direct from my Kindle app. This is perhaps THE coolest function ever. I do love to highlight and annotate. The link will take you to my highlights. You can also click in there and see everyone with public highlights. Way cool.
The first thing that jumped out at me about systems thinking is how similar it is to Buddhism. That is another topic in which I am interested. Everything is connected. I love the dichotomy of how simple that statement is combined with its sheer complexity. Which is another point of the book, systems thinking is fluid. Your understanding of a complex system is always changing. There are always new factors affecting the system in question. It is a practice of studying, refining, and studying some more. Continuously.
All of this ties back to the Standout profile I have been writing about. Here is Meadow's definition of a system:
A system is an interconnected set of elements that is coherently organized in a way that achieves something. If you look at that definition closely for a minute, you can see that a system must consist of three kinds of things: elements, interconnections, and a function or purpose
She has a great way of visualizing systems. Here is an example of a very simple system:
I really enjoyed this book. It is D.E.E.P. It is one of those books that is a breeze to read but then starts to eat at you a little. I find myself thinking "oh, there's a system" in the most random instances. The deep-ness is its Buddhist-like approach. Everything is connected.
Systems thinking is directly tied to being a LEARNER. A CONTINUOUS learner. You have to open yourself up (there's that Buddhism again.) Meadows says:
Remember, always, that everything you know, and everything everyone knows, is only a model. Get your model out there where it can be viewed. Invite others to challenge your assumptions and add their own. Instead of becoming a champion for one possible explanation or hypothesis or model, collect as many as possible. Consider all of them to be plausible until you find some evidence that causes you to rule one out. That way you will be emotionally able to see the evidence that rules out an assumption that may become entangled with your own identity.
She goes on:
Stay Humble— Stay a Learner Systems thinking has taught me to trust my intuition more and my figuring- out rationality less, to lean on both as much as I can, but still to be prepared for surprises. Working with systems, on the computer, in nature, among people, in organizations, constantly reminds me of how incomplete my mental models are, how complex the world is, and how much I don’t know. The thing to do, when you don’t know, is not to bluff and not to freeze, but to learn. The way you learn is by experiment—or, as Buckminster Fuller put it, by trial and error, error, error. In a world of complex systems, it is not appropriate to charge forward with rigid, undeviating directives. “Stay the course” is only a good idea if you’re sure you’re on course. Pretending you’re in control even when you aren’t is a recipe not only for mistakes, but for not learning from mistakes. What’s appropriate when you’re learning is small steps, constant monitoring, and a willingness to change course as you find out more about where it’s leading. That’s hard.
Sorry for the long quotes, but that is awesome guidance. Be a learner.
No comments:
Post a Comment