Systems
Systems are what we have around us, and instead of focusing on the thing itself, is about how things interact with other things. I got introduced to thinking in systems from the book Thinking in Systems and I have tried to explore those topics more in detail later.
Understanding systems is a tremendous advantage when it comes to understanding the world. This is especially true for social systems such as organizations, businesses, and other human social structures.
Systematics
The term systemantics is a commentary on prior work by Alfred Korzybski called general semantics , which conjectured that all systems failures could be attributed to a single root cause – a failure to communicate.
- Everything is a system.
- Everything is part of a larger system.
- The universe is infinitely systematized, both upward (larger systems) and downward (smaller systems).
- All systems are infinitely complex.
Reading list for System Thinkers
First, i think the best way to start is the book Systematics, as it is short and concise and really hammers down the point of system thinking. Then, I think a deeper exercise would be to take on Thinking in Systems, as it is more technical in nature and explains the core concepts well. After that, reading The Fifth Discipline is a nice follow up, where the focus is more on the organization in the system thinking context.
Links
- The purpose of a system is what it does.
- Systematics
- Shirky Principle
- How to change a system
- Dont scar on the first cut.
Thoughts
- I would like to be better at system thinking, but I lack the experience and training. How to get this training?
- "Eighty-five percent of the reasons for failure are deficiencies in the systems and process rather than the employee. The role of management is to change the process rather than badgering individuals to do better." - W Edwards Deming