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Systems Thinking: Coping with 21st Century Problems (Industrial Innovation)

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Don't let this relatively slim volume's chatty tone fool you into thinking it's a lightweight treatment. Its 200 pages can fly by, but Boardman and Sauser have deftly woven substantial threads into a complex, important tapestry. Like Magical Max's pills, it may take a little time for each new thread and combination to achieve full potency. True to their vision of systems thinking as both an abstract and applied discipline, they thoughtfully jump start this mulling-over process by providing a challenging set of exercises after each chapter. And they'll happily share the benefits of your thinking process with others as part of their "Worlds of Systems" web site.

Beginning systems thinkers will gain a down-to-earth understanding of many of the fundamentals of this challenging subject while discovering some straightforward tools to help use them effectively. Serious students and practitioners from all disciplines will find deeper levels of challenge and insight, including the beginnings of Boardman and Sauser's new research into the value of paradox as an essential systems thinking tool. Both types of reader will find themselves repeatedly drawn back to this beguiling web of concepts and ideas to recognize new pictures and opportunities at both the system and "system of systems" levels.

The primary delivery vehicle for all this value is a broad-ranging set of case studies drawn from business, academia, the military, government and, of course, engineering. These are liberally spiced up by, of all things, movie references that make a series of points every bit as profound and important as more classical works in a much more entertaining package. (Full disclosure: the reviewer is both a mid-career graduate student of, and research collaborator with, the authors, and is very thoughtfully credited in the acknowledgements.)