We can’t surge forward with certainty into a world of no surprises, but we can expect surprises and learn from them and even profit from them. Systems can’t be controlled, but they can be designed and redesigned. It says that there is plenty to do, of a different sort of “doing.” The future can’t be predicted, but it can be envisioned and brought lovingly into being. Systems thinking leads to another conclusion – however, waiting, shining, obvious as soon as we stop being blinded by the illusion of control. If you can’t understand, predict, and control, what is there to do? (…)įor those who stake their identity on the role of omniscient conqueror, the uncertainty exposed by systems thinking is hard to take. We can’t find a proper, sustainable relationship to nature, each other, or the institutions we create, if we try to do it from the role of omniscient conqueror. For any objective other than the most trivial, we can’t optimize we don’t even know what to optimize. Our science itself, from quantum theory to the mathematics of chaos, leads us into irreducible uncertainty. We can never fully understand our world, not in the way our reductionistic science has led us to expect. The idea of making a complex system do just what you want it to do can be achieved only temporarily, at best. The goal of foreseeing the future exactly and preparing for it perfectly is unrealizable. They are understandable only in the most general way. It was going to Make Systems Work.īut self-organizing, nonlinear, feedback systems are inherently unpredictable. Systems thinking for us was more than subtle, complicated mindplay. We did so not with any intent to deceive others, but in the expression of our own expectations and hopes. We exaggerated our own ability to change the world. More or less innocently, enchanted by what we could see through our new lens, we did what many discoverers do. We all assumed it, as eager systems students at the great institution called MIT. This mistake is likely because the mindset of the industrial world assumes that there is a key to prediction and control. They are likely to assume that here, in systems analysis, in interconnection and complication, in the power of the computer, here at last, is the key to prediction and control. People who are raised in the industrial world and who get enthused about systems thinking are likely to make a terrible mistake. Pay attention to what is important, not just what is quantifiable. Make feedback policies for feedback systems.Ĩ. Expose your mental models to the open air.ħ. By learning to frame issues as tradeoffs among these design variables, one can see underlying patterns.3. Well, to do that requires in part understanding organizational models and patterns– this book is all about that! The author is famous for triangular structures here he argues that most organizational issues are a balance of three variables: individual autonomy, hierarchical control, and spontaneous cooperation. KeidelĪ core premise of Enterprise Experience (our annual conference newly renamed) is frankly “busting silos” to enable vital cross-functional dialogues. Seeing Organizational Patterns by Robert W. If you tuned in for Jorge Arango’s relevant EX Community call on tackling VUCA you’ll find this book to be a necessary companion to continuing that dialogue at a systems level. Things are just becoming more complex (and complicated) so this book offers sufficiently agnostic models and conceptual tools to navigate it all. This is a very approachable overview on the essentials of systems thinking, beyond the familiar notions of enterprise software, but extending the lens to typically “wicked” global problems of society, climate, and politics. Enterprise Experience Community co-curator Uday Gajendar has two books to share this month!
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