Clarke Ching on the TOC Thinkers blog has republished an article by Tony Rizzo. Rizzo takes us through a beautiful explanation of how we adapt to the contexts we exist in, and how those adaptations can be seen in how we behave. Just like we can learn about the rules of flying by observing how […]
Category Archives: Systems Thinking
Books That Have Influenced Me
Henrik Mårtensson has published a list of business books that have influenced him. He also encouraged us readers to create our own lists. So here’s my list, in no particular order, not complete (I’ll add to it as I come to think of more books), and as of now without any motivation of why a […]
Amplifying Your Effectiveness
Last friday, I found myself sitting alone on the patio of the Embassy Suites hotel in northern Phoenix, looking out over an expansive pool area filling up with families most likely in town for the upcoming Nascar races. I, on the other hand, was just about to fly back home to Sweden, had no interest […]
Code as Design
When I first read it a number of years ago, I immediately found Jack Reeves’ article “What Is Software Design?” useful, intelligent and correct. In the article, Reeves presents his arguments for why the source code is the artefact that constitutes the ultimate design of software. Apparently, this article resurfaced with the publishing of Robert […]
A Little Site on Systems Thinking
Here’s a neat little site on the topic of systems thinking, presented by the BBC and Open University.
Russell Ackoff on Systems Thinking
UPDATE, JAN 11, 2009 Three short clips with Russell Ackoff have been posted to YouTube. UPDATE, OCT 26, 2008: Kevin, who first pointed out to me that the video links in this post were broken, have managed to get in touch with Chicago-Kent. He received the direct links to the missing Ackoff lectures, and passed […]
Disagreement on Common Sense Caused by Change of Age?
Why do some people see agile methods as common sense, while others see them as senseless? Why is it so natural for some people that development processes need to be broken down into stepwise descriptions of each step to take to arrive at a solution, while others say that this approach does not make sense? […]
Thinking Tools
In the article pointed to in my last post, Pascal van Cauwenberghe used the “Evaporating Cloud” technique to attack a dilemma. Frank Patrick writes more about this and other thinking tools.
Is it the people or the process?
Pascal Van Cauwenberghe writes on how the characterization of problems as having to do with either people or process is a false dichotomy, and explores how we can sneak a liberating third option into this dilemma: http://blog.nayima.be/blog/Entry20060121.html.
Rusell Ackoff om system
Systemtänkande är ett ofattbart spännande ämne, tycker jag. Rusell Ackoff presenterar i det här videoklippet ämnet på det engagerade sätt det förtjänar.