What is Systems Thinking?
Systems thinking is a way of viewing an organization holistically, and being able to examine and connect the linking parts. By examining your organization systemically, you will be able to create efficient processes and avoid practices with unintended, and potentially negative, outcomes.
A great leader creates sustainable standard processes for ongoing tasks and organizes the work of others in a systemic and consistent manner, including defining people's roles to avoid overlapping responsibilities or ambiguous functions.
Articles on Systems Thinking
These articles offer an overview of systems thinking in organizations, and explain why this skill is vital for organizational growth in our fast-paced and constantly changing world. One of the articles also gives practical advice on how to make your organization successful in the long run by introducing and implementing systems thinking.
Systems Thinking: A Cautionary Tale (Cats in Borneo)
Books on Systems Thinking
The Fifth Discipline by ISBN: 0385260946Publication Date: 1990-08-01An MIT Professor's path breaking book on building "learning organizations" -- corporations that overcome inherent obstacles to learning and develop dynamic ways to pinpoint the threats that face them and to recognize new opportunities. Not only is the learning organization a new source of competitive advantage, it also offers a marvelously empowering approach to work, one which promises that, as Archimedes put it, "with a lever long enough... single-handed I can move the world."
The Complete Guide to Systems Thinking and Learning by ISBN: 9781599967455Publication Date: 2000-01-01The Complete Guide to Systems Thinking and Learning uses the Systems Thinking Approach to guide transformative change in our personal lives and organizations. Systems Thinking was first popularized in 1990 by Peter Senge with his best-selling book, The Fifth Discipline. Unlike Analytical Thinking where the parts are primary and the whole is secondary, in Systems Thinking the whole is primary and the parts are secondary.
