antlerboy - Benjamin P Taylor 4:16 pm on November 14, 2023

Tijn Tjoelker on LinkedIn – ‘I’m creating a systems-thinking starters kit. What are your favourite systems-thinking tools and resources? Here are some of mine (I actually use)’

[171 comments in 15 hours – that is fasinating. And so. Many. Bad. Takes. (I guess I’m tired tonight)]

I’m creating a systems-thinking starters kit 🌟 What are your favourite systems-thinking tools and resources? Here are some of mine (I actually use) 👇

See more at:
Post | LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/tijntjoelker_systemsthinking-sharingiscaring-collectiveintelligence-activity-7130064373363990528-_dcM/

antlerboy - Benjamin P Taylor 5:30 pm on November 14, 2023

I couldn’t resist quote-tweeting:
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/antlerboy_systemsthinking-sharingiscaring-collectiveintelligence-activity-7130307867105972224-5SKO

And my comments are here:
I am once again reflecting that so much that goes under the ‘systems thinking’ label has very little, if any, connection to systems | cybernetics | complexity and, in fact, serves to bring the whole field into disrepute 😦

And that the communications challenge for curmudgeons like me – to communicate this without doing more harm than good – is significant.

And don’t get me wrong, there is a lot of good stuff in there in the first place…

Thinking in Systems is superb – remember Meadows meant it as a starting point not an end point – such a tragedy she died so young. But Systems Dynamics is a really tough and easily-got-wrong place to start in systems thinking.

The Systems View of Life is also great; it’s advocacy for a particular worldview though.

Theory U is great, fascinating stuff, not really systems thinking but aligned.

A Definition of Systems Thinking: A Systems Approach – this is a 2015 Systems Engineering conference paper which credits Barry Richmond ‘with coining the term “systems thinking” in 1987’. No.

Leverage Points – useful and interesting stuff broadly refuted by Meadows in Dancing with Systems. But I wouldn’t criticise Meadows and all three are essential reading.

The Laws of Systems Thinking – not laws, just Senge dropping some aphorisms. For me, a very confusing way in.

The Systems-thinking Series from Disruptive Design – Acaroglu is someone worth learning from. I would learn from her about design and sustainability but her take on system is practical and wise.

Introduction to Systems-thinking by Daniel Kim – this article kicks off with a very specific narrow definition of ‘a system’ and IF you read it in those terms, I suspose it’s fine, but the starting point is wrong.

Systems Practices – Anna Birney another wise person who does real practice and has a hell of a lot to offer. This is advocacy for a worldview, though – a worldview I support, but it’s something different from systems thinking per se.

Everything produced by Systems Innovation – a thriving, enthusiastic community which does, in fact, regularly produce things which are misinformed, over-simplified, wrong, or not at the core of systems thinking or irrelevant to it.

Kumu – a useful tool and platform, especially if you want to dive into Systems Dynamics.

Nobody need listen to me, obviously. But systems thinking is poorly served by most of this content and most of the response to the original post.

Here’s the SCiO (systems practice) competency framework and professional standard:
https://www.systemspractice.org/page/scio-competency-framework-professional-qualification

Here is a list of the associated resources:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/sk338l2kwzisua86j1gx1/SCiO-CF-Resources-v8-Oct2023.pdf?rlkey=l52h5h3wjvqrpw05klkvd4g45&dl=0

Here’s a book – Patrick Hoverstadt’s The Grammar of Systems – which attempts to map out the basis of the field:

Here’s my own reading list:

A very rough and partial draft systems thinking reading list

And here’s me sticking my neck out and saying what systems thinking means TO ME (about ten minutes or less in a longer presentation)
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