Sublime

Determinism and analytical thinking break down a problem into tiny pieces, whereas non-determinism and systems thinking look at a problem’s bigger picture. Analytical thinkers say, “Mission accomplished. Now, let’s go home.” Systems thinkers say, “What were the results? Now, let’s make it even better.”

But for ordinary people to do extraordinary things, a system—“a way of doing things”—is absolutely essential in order to compensate for the disparity between the skills your people have and the skills your business needs if it is to produce consistent results.

Mental Models.

loops should be relevant and important to the story. Theoretically, you could keep adding potential causes and effects to any systems story, until the diagram begins to resemble a plate of spaghetti. But after a few interdependencies become apparent, your team will find itself facing the underlying question: “What theme is emerging? What are the im

As Charles Betz, author of Architecture and Patterns for IT Service Management, Resource Planning, and Governance: Making Shoes for the Cobbler’s Children, says:4 Because it is the best-understood area of IT activity, the project phase is often optimized at the expense of the other process areas, and therefore at the expense of the entire value cha

The essence of the discipline of systems thinking lies in a shift of mind: seeing interrelationships rather than linear cause-effect chains, and seeing processes of change rather than snapshots

Departments, Responsibilities & Team Chart (DRTC): A SYSTEMology tool used to assign roles and responsibilities and identify knowledgeable workers who will play a key part in the development of systems. Download template: www.SYSTEMology.com/resources.