Systems thinking is en vogue these days as we increasingly realize how complex the world really is. Too many manage enterprises based on small rules and adages, but neglect to see how the bigger picture works. Then they are surprised when their interventions end up with a different effect. That’s because the rest of the world works systemically through feedback loops. The small game is not the only relevant factor.

Before she died, Dartmouth professor Donella Meadows compiled this manuscript to encapsulate this perspective. This book, compiled posthumously by Diana Wright, offers the best, most concise introduction to this field of systems thinking. It enlightens by giving readers access to an Ivy League course through its contents.

Any worker, knowledge worker or otherwise, can deeply benefit from seeing the life systems around themselves. Meadows focuses on examples in economic and environmental systems, but this philosophy can also apply to engineering and information systems. The world gives us plenty of feedback, and the challenge becomes identifying the correct measurables and values. Systems thinkers have emphasized the different way systems universally operate and how we can make use of them for individual and common good.

This book takes an academic, even philosophical, approach to this topic. It does not deal with many industry specifics. That perspective may turn some folks off, but it teaches us how to think about the systemic structures around us. Meadows identifies abstract principles like feedback loops that normally return to baseline or approach a goal. She helps us care for everything that goes on around us, whether in the business, personal, or personal domains. ( )

Useful and practical. Nothing really new, but well done. ( )

This is one of those books that where it was almost useless to highlight valuable statements because I was highlighting multiple things every page. Meadows does not go into the mathematics of systems theory. As the title suggests, she focuses on the key ideas so that the reader learns to think about systems and their common properties.

One of the key takeaways from this book -- if I had to choose just one -- is that systems have common properties that apply regardless of their type. There are ways of thinking about environmental, human, technological, and other systems that show their deep similarities and give insights into their differences.

Overall, this book was readable and should be a required read for anyone who designs or influences systems, big or small. ( )

Great book in general, highly recommended if you just have the curiosity to analyse and think about phenomena around you, because everything can be seen as a system so this book is a helpful guide on how to see and try to understand *everything*. ( )

Recommended to me by a coworker. Tries to teach you how to view problems not in isolation but as systems - interactions of many variables at once. Tries to help you identify the likely leverage points - places where you can most efficiently effect changes in the system, hopefully in the direction you want (not guaranteed). ( )