Free words on "Thinking in Systems" by Donella Meadows

I recently read this book because suggested by a team mate as introduction to System Thinking. As you maybe know, THE book on System Thinking has been considering “The fifth discipline” by Peter Senge and I was interested in making a comparison with it.

Here you will not find a “spoiler” on content or a summary of the book or any kind of judgement, it is just a collection of thoughts about this as personal notes to keep in mind for future. Maybe you can find them useful if you are interested in this subject or if you are evaluating to read this book.

One initial note: the book has been published after Donella’s death so it has been revised and completed by someone else (Diana Wright) collecting a mass of material left by her in many years of her activity.

The book is divided in 3 parts:

1. An introduction to System Thinking
2. How System Thinking can describes the world
3. How System Thinking could help to “rule” the world

The first part is the more educational because put the basis on how systems work and can be observed. We move from basic (very theoretical) systems and gradually we are introduced to more complex (in any case still theoretical). We talk about flows and stocks, feedback and finally we are introduced to sub-systems. This part ends with few examples explained with the tools described in the previous page to show how to apply the basis.

Now that you have the basis, you can use them to observe the world around you with a different lens and discover that systems are really everywhere and that we miss part of the story when we simplify and analyse only a part of them (and we did this for centuries). Here you see how feedbacks are essential part of the systems, because they are made to respond to change if they want to survive (think about difference between Resilience and Resistance). Here is where archetypes are introduced. This part is as big as the previous but it is harder to understand so it will take more time (and maybe some re-read).

What has been described in second part is the basis for the third section to show how to approach the dilemma of controlling a system. There are different examples and all situations seen before described in terms of control (or in terms why applied controls did not work) but the most relevant point here is that understanding how to control a system is different from APPLY effectively that control. This section is well mapped with the previous, so reading is pretty straightforward even if from time to time had better to go back and review what we have seen in part 2.

This section is probably the most interesting because it is full of failures and opportunities, and, in the end, has a long conclusion (in my opinion of the whole book) with a collection of 15 lessons about how to “rule” a system, practically her vision of "what the world is".

Finally you have a glossary, maybe not useful at the end, but more necessary at the beginning if you need to remember something (keep in mind this while reading the first section).

Conclusions

This book is pretty easy to read and it is a perfect introduction for who want to understand about System Thinking from scratch. It is very focused and full of interesting examples and these make it very vivid and often really enlightening. Perhaps this is also its limit when comparing it with Senge’s work that is much more academic and “scientific” and maybe useful for real cases. In my opinion anyone could start with Donella and continue with Peter, if s/he is interested in the subject, but should be prepared that the gap between the two is not trivial.

Finally a personal comment: I really would have met Donella and discuss with her about the “systems view in our life” very probably she was a great person and educator and simple conversation could turn to complex ones. Below just a taste of her vision and the link to her legacy website (automatic rendering from LinkedIN is not the best).

If you have no idea what a System is and what System Thinking means, you can spend 10 minutes watching this video

Thanks Dana.

Corrado De Sanctis is Agile Coach and operates in UK as Agile Engagement Manager for Tata Consultancy Service (TCS). Corrado has been involving in some of the largest enterprise transformations at international level in different industries. Project Manager with almost 20 years of experience, he has been promoting Agile since 2012 and has different certifications at team and enterprise level. Corrado is a known member of Agile community in London where he manages "Digital Transformation in London" meetup group and he is speaker on Agile themes. In his "short" free time, he uses to practice triathlon.

DISCLAIMER. All comments here are personal notes and cannot be related to Tata Consultancy Service in any way. 

Tag: #SystemThinking, #ecology, #sustainability, #problemSolving, #feedback