Systems Thinking, 3rd Edition

Introduction

During the last 50 years, our worldview has gone through a profound transformation in two critical dimensions. Not only has there been a fundamental shift in our understanding of the nature of the organization from a mindless mechanical system to a purposeful sociocultural system, but there has also been a discriminating shift in our way of knowing from analytical thinking, the science of dealing with independent sets of variables, to systems thinking, the art and science of handling interdependent sets of variables.

Unfortunately, despite all the rhetoric to the contrary, our newly found insights have had very little influence on our choices. A dominant analytical culture, with a scientific tag, keeps reproducing the same set of non-solutions ...