Customer Reviews

The Art of Systems Thinking: Essential Skills for Creativity and Problem Solving

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Overall this is a good effort and a decent introduction to the subject, but it leaves something to be desired in terms of depth. Some of the answers to the excercises are incorrect, so instead of claryfing the concepts they leave the reader confused. I found the notation for the diagrams somewhat simplistic: ok to get an overall idea, confusing if carefully analyzed. For someone who doesn't know anything about systems theory I would recommend this book, but I would also recommend following up with other, less superficial ones.

It's hard to know what to say. There wasn't enough juice to this book that it kept my interest. The writing style is dull and pedantic, the examples are trivial, the illustrations useless. There is something fundamentally wrong with this entire genre of *thinking skills* books. The authors usually show little ability to relate complex, real world problem solving to higher models or theories. It appears that there are two classes of writer: those with much practical experience and good war stories who rely on instinct and intuition, and those who read like they have been up in their ivory towers and do nothing but trade academic papers back and forth. For some reason the two never meet so we are forced to choose between guys who don't know how to translate the thought processes behind their actions into words OR guys who have no idea of how they could bridge their concepts into profitable, concrete action. This book, regrettably, falls squarely into the second category of think-a-mush. Completely uninspiring. Typical of books that are forced on unfortunate college students. Save your money for something better, whatever that might be.

I enjoy the general concept of Systems Thinking, however I found this text to be an overly superfical coverage of the topic. Additionally the book seemed unecessarily tainted by the author's political/religious views and the subtle underpinnings of some quasi-new age culture that seeks to rebel for no particular reason.

In the end, I threw the book out after reading about 3/4 of the way through. (Maybe not the fairest treatment of the work, but I can't stand to have my time wasted.) I recommend those who are looking to learn more about System Thinking find something that treats the topic more seriously.

-Steven

"Art" of Systems Thinking was an illuminating book about the abstract concept of systems, and applying it to different practical instances. Overall it was interesting, but I expected it to be more mathematical and rigorous, instead of being more psychology based.

I think the title of the book sums it up.
For the word Art: read ART. Expect broad brush stokes about concepts, lots of story telling. Ideas, big picture stuff. Great framework for stimulating thought, getting a feel for the ideas and going on to explore them. You may be disappointed if you expect rigorous maths or science or much detail about the mechanics of system dynamics.
Essential skills - expect broad real life applications for the ideas, lots of questions to challenge and update your mental models Maybe don't expect to be able to map the ecosystem in your front garden or solve world hunger (yet)
Creativity and Problem solving - the emphasis here is on applying systems thinking as a skill. The tone is very much 'thinking about thinking'. That is 'what mental model do I hold about thinking'. How does the model of reality I am creating in my head effect the system. Does the reality create my thinking or my thinking create reality (or is this a loop?)
If all of this system's stuff has anything to offer, then the application of its own thinking would suggest more people need to have these thinking skills at their disposal. Hope to see a pop up/colouring in/video game version soon.

If you are a rank beginner in the area of systems thinking then buy this book first. It will hold your hand and walk you through the fundamentals - using simple language and clear concepts. With such help you will be ready to take on more complex texts.

This book is easy to read and gives enough information for any student of practitioner of management. 'Systems Thinking" is a an essential concept to be understood early in a person's life. basically it is a way to iunderstand how systems behave and respond to influences. It can be applied anywhere and to any system - Human and non-human. For a more interested person, one can read Fifth Discipline by Peter Senge.

I give below the "laws" of systems thinking and my understanding of how to use them.

1. Today's problems come from Yesterday's Solutions ( Dont blame your predessor for your problems.. be aware that what you do today will cause problems for your successor !!!)

2. Harder you push, harder the system pushes back ( dont take the "system" head on..hence the concept of "Change management" !!!)

3. Behavior grows better before it gets worse ( Dont celebrate too early, give enough time to measure the impact of your descisions)

4 The most easy way out usualy leads back in ( Sometimes, most obvious and apparent solution may not be the right one. Think through all the possible outcomes before choosing the solution)

5 Faster is slower ( Hurrying more than necessary or forcing change will only slow down the acceptance of a change/solution and increase resistance.)

6 Cause and effect are separated for Time and Space ( What you do today may give results (positive or negative) much later..)

7 The cure can be much worse than the disease ( This is a profound one. for example one can over engineer security controls and checks in any system resulting in the system becoming totally difficult to use. or a doctor giving a medicine that causes more problems than the original malaise... think about risks, balances and trade-offs. )

8 Small changes can generate big results, but areas of highest leverage are the leaset obvious...(sometimes big problems can be resolved by addressing the right "component" which could be a very small and least obvious one.. an example being the case of a work-man who suggested that not painting the fuel shell of space-shutte can bring its weight down by 800 kgs ..which scientists were trying hard to resolve through metallurgy !!)

9 Dividing a big elephant does not yield two small elephants ( This states the concept of emergent properties of a system. When you dissect a system, you may lose certain properties of the original system.)

10. There is no blame ( this is a combination of many of the above laws..the very nature of systems behavior laws, means that one cannot blame others in the past who took certain descisions based on the then prevalent cicumstances. be mature and tolerant.)

11. You can have your cake and eat it too..but not at the same time ( this is the concept of trade-offs. Often, we have to choose between one or the other path which will decide what resources/sacrifices we need to make and what benefits we will derive).

This book got me into systems theory in a basic and safe manner without the jargon, the phylosophical mumbo-jumbo or esoteric theories, it accomplishes what the authors goal was, a practical no-nonsense guide for inmediate applications.

If you are new or have been confused by other approaches then you will be in goods hands with this book

Here are some things to know about this book:

1. There are some mildly irritating copy-editing mistakes. Previous reviewers have mentioned that some of the solutions to the puzzles in the book are wrong; this is because of stupid typos that weren't caught.

2. The book was shelved with NLP books (neuro-linguistic programming) at my library, but that concept wasn't brought up in this book at all. The only reason it's shelved there, as far as I can tell, is because one of the two authors wrote a book about NLP before. Anyway, NLP has a reputation for being unscientific and New Age-y, but this book doesn't try to propagate concepts like "eye accessing cues" or "swish". So even if you don't like NLP, don't be afraid of this book.

3. I'm currently enrolled in an "information systems" course at my university, and some of the concepts in this book match what I was taught in class. So, that's one point in favor of its accuracy.

4. The authors frequently use examples related to environmental issues. I guess they thought it was a good example of a system, but it can feel a little preachy. I skimmed over those parts.

Systems thinking is pretty appealing to me, but I don't know much about it, so this book was just the right level for me. I appreciated the concrete examples (both from businesses and from the authors' own lives). The section on diagramming got a little complex, but it also made me want to diagram my own situations. So, overall, this was a great read for a newbie.

This is the book that made me wriet a review after 5 months of not having anyting on Amazon. How so? Let we think in this way. What is the "news"? News is a story of "bad" or "good". In this case, this is a very good, a good book.
O'Connor and McDermott comprehensively compile the story of "Systems Thinking" in a story-teller format. I trust you realize the important of "system" or "thinking" since you are reading my review. For any other "system" book, you might be afraid of highly mathematics or several jagons. Many times you may see the books on "systems" are more too much on "technical aspect". For readers in "thinking" books, you might experience the chaotic writing or too much philosophy (than practice). For those who are interested in "Systems Thinking", you might already experience highly differential equation that you already returned to your teachers.
So what O'Connor and McDermott did on this small book? They tell us a story of "System" and "System Thinking". Several examples are presented in different fields, mostly on daily life; making this book more readable. While O'Connor and McDermott tell us a "Systems Thinking" story, the "content" of "Systems Thinking" is not lessen. All technical terms that you fear from "Systems Dynamics" are delineated in human-readable-words. For example, instead of the author tell us about the derivative of y with respect to x, the authors use the word "flow" and describe it facing the word "level".
Each main section are very enjoyable to read, with summary. I personally like Chapter 2 the most. Chapter 2 shows me the different way to think about diferential equation application to the world. The last part of this book is the history and reference in Systems Thinking, which I strongly recommend any one to read it.
Personally, I recommend this book for every one interested in "Systems", "Thinking" and "Systems Thinking". Although you are a serious mathematician, you may want to discover the new perspective to the world. This can be the first book for novice Systems Thinker as well as companion book for serious Systems Thinker.