From Sustainable

How to grasp what matters

This week we will try and get an idea of what systems thinking is. For reaching a sustainable development - an inherently complex challenge - we need to make intelligent moves, personally, as organizations, but also as societies as a whole. Those moves should be effective and efficient. But how do we know what's most effective to do with our resources? We will try out a method that can provide some orientation.

1. Powerpoint presentation: Introduction to Systems Thinking (created by Daisy from last year's course)

2. The Paper Computer

Quotes

• "Reductionism and holism, analysis and synthesis, are complementary approaches that, used in proper balance, help us obtain a deeper knowledge of life". - Fritjof Capra
• "The world we have created is a product of our thinking; it cannot be changed without changing our thinking". - Albert Einstein
• "The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them". - Albert Einstein

Interesting Resources

I am providing an unordered list of links here. Please feel free to explore these materials. There are lots of treasures! If you go to last year's page on Systems Thinking (prepared by Daisy), you will find a lot of context information for many of these documents.

• Fishbanks - a game by Dennis Meadows, the author of Limits to Growth to understand the social and economic dynamics of sustainable resource management. (download the game here, rename it from .doc to .zip, then open it and play)
• Sustainable Systems Implementation: Building a Sustainable Economy and Society by Frank Dixon, 2007. (Highly recommended!)
• The Systems View of Life - A talk of Fritjof Capra (video, 10 min)
• The Systems View of Life - chapter 8 in "The Turning Point"
• Wonderful Journey. You all are invited to a wonderful journey, from the biggest to the smallest distance of the universe...
• Enterprise-Wide Change Superior Results Through Systems Thinking. by Stephen G. Haines, Gail Aller-Stead, and James McKinlay, 2005.
• Why Does (Conventional) Analytic Thinking Fail?
• The silo effect
• ISSS Conference 2002
• The Systems Thinker
• Systems Thinking in Ecoliteracy Resource
• The "Thinking" in Systems Thinking. by Barry Richmond.
• Dancing With Systems by Donella Meadows, 2001.
• Systems Intelligence on Wikipedia
• Raimo Hämäläinen, Esa Saarinen (2004) Systems Intelligence - Discovering a hidden competence in human action and organizational life Systems Analysis Laboratory Research Reports.
• Systems Intelligence Research Group at Systems Analysis Laboratory, Helsinki University of Technology
• System Change by Frank Dixon, 2006.
• A complexity approach to sustainability by A.Espinosa, R.Harnden, J.Walker, 2007.
• An Introduction to Systems Thinking by Karl North.
• Systems Thinking - Critical to Sustainability Education
• Systems Thinking - What It Is, What It Hopes to Accomplish by Lynn M. Stuter, 2003
• Michael C. Jackson, University of Hull, UK, John Wiley&Sons Ltd, Systems Thinking - Creative Holism for Managers (2003)
• Introduction to System Dynamics online book was written to introduce system dynamics, a powerful methodology for framing, understanding, and discussing complex policy issues and problems.
• Stephen Sterling, Doctoral Thesis "Whole Systems Thinking as a Basis for Paradigm Change in Education: Exploring in the Context of Sustainability" (2003)
• International Society for the Systems Sciences (ISSS)
• Leadership Systems Thinking for Transformational Change - 1st module in Leadership Training Guide (click on right sidebar to download)
• Systems Thinking in Ecoliteracy Resource
• Systems thinking on Wikipedia
• Global System Change
• The Creative Learning Exchange
• Systems Thinking in Schools
• Systems Thinking Organization
• Agricultural Systems Thinking
• How to increase happiness and support sustainable consumption? – A checklist for evaluation and design is applying the paper computer (see F. Vesters book below) to find out which are critical levers for achieving happiness while making our consumption sustainable

Books:

• Fritjof Capra, "The Turning Point" (1982), "The Web of Life" (1996).
• Jason F. Mclennan, "The Philosophy of Sustainable Design" (2004).
• Frederic Vester, "Die Kunst vernetzt zu denken" (1999) "The Art of Networked Thinking" (2007, about to come out) You can read an English summary of the book here: Can Nature Teach us Good Research Practice? A Critical Look at Frederic Vester’s Bio-cybernetic Systems Approach