Systems Concepts in Action: A Practitioner's ToolkitSystems Concepts in Action: A Practitioner's Toolkit explores the application of systems ideas to investigate, evaluate, and intervene in complex and messy situations. The text serves as a field guide, with each chapter representing a method for describing and analyzing; learning about; or changing and managing a challenge or set of problems. The book is the first to cover in detail such a wide range of methods from so many different parts of the systems field. The book's Introduction gives an overview of systems thinking, its origins, and its major subfields. In addition, the introductory text to each of the book's three parts provides background information on the selected methods. Systems Concepts in Action may serve as a workbook, offering a selection of tools that readers can use immediately. The approaches presented can also be investigated more profoundly, using the recommended readings provided. While these methods are not intended to serve as "recipes," they do serve as a menu of options from which to choose. Readers are invited to combine these instruments in a creative manner in order to assemble a mix that is appropriate for their own strategic needs. |
From inside the book
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... contradictions, and different perspectives and holding them together until we can in some way reframe, resolve, or, in Russ Ackoff's famous phrase, “dissolve” the tension. These methods are usually highly participative and encourage ...
... Contradiction analysis Dialectical Methods of Inquiry address the following questions: • What are the different ways in which people see or can see a situation? • What are the exceptions or contradictions to the way in which people see ...
... contradictions that can achieve deeper learning. Acknowledging perspectives also generates better insights into the actual behavior of programs in real life. That is because people usually behave on the basis of their perceptions of ...
... contradictions. Thinking systemically forces us to do what we are not always good at: that is, identifying the assumptions we make when we observe and make sense of a situation. We intuitively put ourselves, our values, our beliefs at ...
... contradict your own, engaging in those ideas, and making sense out of them. It means being very aware of how your own assumptions and values affect what you see and hear. It means checking constantly to see if the assumptions you are ...
Other editions - View all
Systems Concepts in Action: A Practitioner's Toolkit Bob Williams,Richard Hummelbrunner Limited preview - 2010 |
Systems Concepts in Action: A Practitioner's Toolkit Bob Williams,Richard Hummelbrunner No preview available - 2010 |