Seeing Systems: Unlocking the Mysteries of Organizational Life (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

From Scientific American

"Seeing Systems is a reader-friendly way to explore the powerful and uncomfortable truths of Oshry's 25 years' experience with workshops on power. His stories, poetry, and conversations will captivate and confront us all. It's a timely book to read if you're thinking something should be changed." --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From The New Yorker

"This is an incredibly wise book about how each of us behaves in the systems of our lives. Its abundant insights can profoundly affect our perceptions of why we do what we do. And it creates hope that with greater consciousness, we can participate with more humaneness and love in a world that insists we form more and more relationships." --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers; 2nd edition (August 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1576754553
• ISBN-13: 978-1576754559
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 7.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #177,771 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Truly points out why organizations are not fully aligned., June 9, 1999

By	"[e-mail]" (Michigan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Seeing Systems (Paperback)

As a 20 year professional in Organization Development, this book illuminates one of the most frustrating elements of a change agent...the ability to have the client or target experience their own responsibility for the current situation. Without that, one is powerless to effect productive change. One can still effect change, but it will be retaliatory or not understood in the context needed to allow people to see the issue clearly and not as a result of someone elses opinion.

This book clearly illustrates these concepts and more and is a must read for everyone who wants to facilitate change effectively and productively.

Isn't that everyone.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Human Systems are Keys to Partnership and collaboration, March 26, 2003

By	Michael Lair (Kings Mills, OH United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Seeing Systems (Paperback)

I first struggled with the concepts because I am a student of organizational systems via Deming and the like. But this is a completely different viewpoint that provides a fantastic complement to the work of Deming, Weisbord and others looking at Open-systems theory.

If you want to see the impact of Human Systems and the dynamics that influence an organizations ability to partner, collaborate, and move beyond the powerful vaccuum of the human behaviors that stall organizational growth, this will provide a whole new way to view the relationships of people, power, and personal leadership within open-systems.

Mr. Cummings is right about the simplicity of the book in his review, it IS cartoon like at places. But let's be reminded how icons have changed the computer world and have worked to connect with people who need to remember things clearly, simply, and practically. People are visual learners and this book takes advantage of that reality. It's not written to be an IQ test - but to be clear and concise in boiling down the intricate and delicate issues, and choices, of human interaction in organizations.

It focuses on helping the reader learn and apply. If that works for you - make it so.

42 of 60 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A simplistic view of systems thinking., October 25, 1999

By	Michael Cummings (Poulsbo, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Seeing Systems (Paperback)

Sorry, I have to disagree with the rest of the reviews above. A serious student of systems thinking will find this book almost childlike. It looks like it was written based on the experiences of someone in a controlled lab instead of the real world. Some concepts are valid and worthwhile, such as the way in which position in the organization determine how people see the system affecting them. But most of the rest of the book is a struggle to get through, due to it's simplistic nature. The font used is almost cartoonish in nature, and the entire book probably could have taken up 40 pages if written in normal font type-spacing.

Someone seriously interesting in systems thinking should read. Ackoff, Senge' or Gharajedaghi. Not this book.

My favorite systems book is "Systems Thinking managing chaos and complexity" by Jamshid Gharajedaghi. That is a brilliant piece of work which deserves serious study.

Regards,