UID:
kobvindex_INT0002382
Format:
xix, 265 pages
,
illustrations
,
22 x 13.5 cm
ISBN:
9780722534427
,
0722534426
Content:
"A look at systems thinking offering practical suggestions, exercises and tips to help: problem solving, lateral thinking, getting huge results from small efforts, managing and negotiating with ease, revolutionising your business or your life, and gaining essential skills to promote creativity."
Content:
"What is Systems Thinking? Systems thinking goes beyond logic, because people are not always logical. Systems thinking sees beyond isolated events to the deeper patterns and connections. This book explains the principles of systems thinking in a straightforward way with practical applications, exercises and examples that will help you become more influential and successful in managing your health, work, finances and relationships. This book will show you how: you can get a huge result for a small effort, obvious solutions can often do more harm than good, to avoid recurrent misfortunes that seem to happen automatically, to know the best time to change strategy, your attempted solution can cause the problem you are trying to solve, and you can never do just one thing because there are always side effects."
Content:
"Why is this an important book for our time? It is important because of the understanding it can help us develop - understanding why the world we have created has become apparently so complicated, and what to do about it. Over rime we have woven the fabric of our existence ever tighter, and with ever more rapid interactions. And, when we do not understand the complexity we have created, we feel helpless, and become victims of what we do not understand. Systems thinking is a perspective that we can all relate to, as examples of it can be repeatedly found in our everyday lives. The Art of Systems Thinking enables us to develop an understanding of systems thinking, why it's so important to us in our daily lives, and how one and all can benefit from the understanding. Once we embrace the complexity we have created, and find the simplicity on the other side, we no longer need be victims, for we can use our understanding to change our actions, and thereby our world."
Note:
Foreword -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- PART ONE - THINKING PAST THE OBVIOUS : WHAT IS A SYSTEM? : Emergence - whirlpools and rainbows ; Simple and complex systems ; The system as a web ; Stability and leverage ; Side-effects -- THINKING IN CIRCLES : Feedback loops - the essence of systems ; Reinforcing feedback ; Balancing feedback ; Feedforward - back to the future ; When we do not learn from experience -- PART TWO - MAKING MENTAL MAPS : MENTAL MODELS : How we make our mental models ; Mental models as a system ; Challenging mental models -- CAUSE AND EFFECT : Three fallacies ; The two sides of chaos -- BEYOND LOGIC : Taking time ; Self-reference and recursion ; Limiting mental models ; Mental models as a leverage point -- PART THREE - THINKING IN NEW WAYS : LEARNING : Learning as a system ; Generative learning ; What prevents us learning? -- PERSPECTIVES : Inside out or outside in ; Flat Earth thinking or global thinking ; The road to hell -- PART FOUR - DRAWING CONCLUSIONS : Mapping your intuitions ; Storytime ; Running on the spot ; Limits to natural resources ; Inner and outer limits ; Weight control ; Moving the goal posts ; Credit and debt ; Repairing the damage, again and again... ; When the cure is worse than the disease ; Life is like a poker game ; The monopoly pattern ; The tragedy of the commons -- PART FIVE - CLOSING THE CIRCLE : Make connections ; You never just do one thing ; Results are not proportional to effort ; A system works as well as its weakest link ; Time delays -- PART SIX - RESOURCES : A brief history of systems thinking ; Bibliography ; Resources ; Glossary ; Training -- Index -- About the Authors
Language:
English
Keywords:
Handbooks and manuals
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