Further ResourcesGrowing Wings On The Way lists a range of additional resources on Systems Thinking. Here are some links to them:
The Internet The Internet provides some very useful resources as well as plenty of low-quality material. The following are useful offerings whose web addresses may change but look likely to have some longevity. • OpenLearn at the (UK) Open University provides extracts from a range of Open University systems-thinking courses • Principia Cybernetica is somewhat academic but provides a very useful Web Dictionary of Cybernetics and Systems • The BBC has a systems-practice website • The American Society for Cybernetics has lots of systems related materials and discussions • Mind Tools have quick tools available for download Books There are many, many books on systems thinking although the range runs from the populist-but-useless to the impenetrably academic with variable quality characterising the whole range. I have cited the books that are important to me in the notes at the end of each chapter but you might also want to explore the work of some of the following: Chris Argyris (learning in organisations, learning as a systemic phenomenon) Overcoming Organizational Defenses: Facilitating organizational learning Reasoning, Learning, and Action Gregory Bateson (cybernetics, psychology and systems theory) Steps to an Ecology of Mind: Collected Essays Mind and Nature: A Necessary Unity Mary Catherine Bateson (life-long learning, making sense of lived experience) Composing a Further Life: The Age of Active Wisdom Willing to Learn: Passages of Personal Discovery Stafford Beer (the viable system model, another systems core concept) The Chronicles of Wizard Prang In Conversation with Prof. Dr. Stafford Beer The Heart of Enterprise Fritjof Capra (emerging systemic paradigms in physics) The Hidden Connections: A Science for Sustainable Living The Turning Point Jay Forrester (systems dynamics) Designing the Future System Dynamics: The Foundation Under Systems Thinking Ray Ison (systems practice ) How to Act in a Climate Change World Starting Off Systemically in Environmental Decision Making Michael C. Jackson (methodologies) Systems Thinking: Creative Holism for Managers Systems Approaches to Management Kambiz Maani and Bob Cavana (systems dynamics) Systems Thinking, System Dynamics: Managing Change and Complexity Gerald Midgley (methodologies) Systems Thinking Magnus Ramage and Karen Shipp (the contributions of systems thinking’s founding parents) Systems Thinkers Donald Schön (reflective learning from professional experience) The Reflective Practitioner Organizational learning II: Theory, method and practice (with Chris Argyris) John Seddon (systems thinking in the public sector) Systems Thinking in the Public Sector Delivering Public Services that Work Peter Senge (systems dynamics and learning in organisations) The Fifth Discipline The Necessary Revolution Conferences Systems-thinking conferences happen regularly. International bodies such as theAmerican Society for Cybernetics, the Australia and New Zealand Systems Society, theInternational Society for the Systems Sciences and the UK Systems Society run some of the best. Many other international organisations host conferences in languages other than English. |
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Buy the book Diagrams/Images from the Book Tools & Techniques (Extracted from the book): Rich Pictures Mental Traps Diagrams Complexity Identifying Themes Snappy Systems System Definitions Systems Thinking Skills (Extracted from the book): Enthusiasm Humility Respect Further Resources The Author Author video Read the Introduction Related Titles: The Search for Leadership |