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The Grammar of Systems: From Order to Chaos & Back
The Grammar of Systems
If you feel as though the world has become more complex, you are not alone. There is a growing realisation of the need to deal with the complexity, uncertainty and speed of change of our world. These systemic factors increase the challenge for all of us and expose some traditional approaches which are unable to handle those challenges. This book sets out the fundamentals of Systems Thinking, a discipline developed specifically to grapple with complexity and uncertainty. It builds a compelling and useable guide to change the way you think about the world around you, for those wanting to understand or change systems, managers, policy makers and systems specialists alike.
Part One illustrates the nine thinking patterns involved in thinking like a systems thinker, which collectively form the core of Systems Thinking. Each pattern is contrasted with conventional thinking and shows the power of thinking differently, alongside practical ways to develop these patterns in yourself and your organisation. If you want a different way to be able to think about the world, the thought patterns in this book will give you that.
Part Two describes 33 Systems Laws and Principles on which Systems Thinking as a discipline was founded. These Systems laws show how both order and chaos are created in systems and the dynamic between them. The Laws and Principles provide the insight on how, when and why systems remain stable and change at the same time, and what happens when they don’t, instead collapsing into new forms or disintegrating. These powerful insights are vital for anyone designing a change or transformation.
The Grammar of Systems presents a very clear, coherent guide to the discipline of Systems Thinking.
Patrick Hoverstadt is a veteran systems practitioner, and chairs the professional body for Systems Practitioners.
If you feel as though the world has become more complex, you are not alone. There is a growing realisation of the need to deal with the complexity, uncertainty and speed of change of our world. These systemic factors increase the challenge for all of us and expose some traditional approaches which are unable to handle those challenges. This book sets out the fundamentals of Systems Thinking, a discipline developed specifically to grapple with complexity and uncertainty. It builds a compelling and useable guide to change the way you think about the world around you, for those wanting to understand or change systems, managers, policy makers and systems specialists alike.
Part One illustrates the nine thinking patterns involved in thinking like a systems thinker, which collectively form the core of Systems Thinking. Each pattern is contrasted with conventional thinking and shows the power of thinking differently, alongside practical ways to develop these patterns in yourself and your organisation. If you want a different way to be able to think about the world, the thought patterns in this book will give you that.
Part Two describes 33 Systems Laws and Principles on which Systems Thinking as a discipline was founded. These Systems laws show how both order and chaos are created in systems and the dynamic between them. The Laws and Principles provide the insight on how, when and why systems remain stable and change at the same time, and what happens when they don’t, instead collapsing into new forms or disintegrating. These powerful insights are vital for anyone designing a change or transformation.
The Grammar of Systems presents a very clear, coherent guide to the discipline of Systems Thinking.
Patrick Hoverstadt is a veteran systems practitioner, and chairs the professional body for Systems Practitioners.
245 pages, Paperback
Published February 22, 2022
34 people are currently reading
170 people want to read
About the author
Patrick Hoverstadt
4 books16 followersThe books and papers I write have come directly from practical consulting work and it’s really important to me that whatever I write about is based in reality. So, although it almost always involves taking a radically different perspective to traditional management approaches, it’s never a flight of fancy, it’s always rooted in solving practical problems for real organisations.
I do consultancy mainly in organisation design, strategy, and organisational change using management science and systems approaches. That basis in systems makes it really easy to provide a different take on a wide range of organisational and strategic issues where the traditional paradigm has been reductionist linear thinking. As well as making the task of developing new approaches much easier, basing it in systems thinking provides at least some reassurance that there is a strong theoretical basis for what we’re doing.
In my spare time (when I’m not doing consultancy, developing new approaches, or writing) I do a bit of academic work, for several business schools and I’m a visiting research fellow at Cranfield. I also chair a community of systems practitioners - SCiO.
Aside from work, I enjoy sailing tallships, climbing mountains, cycling, and pubs and along with Karen Blixen and Sir Walter Scott I share an abiding love affair with Scottish Deerhounds
I do consultancy mainly in organisation design, strategy, and organisational change using management science and systems approaches. That basis in systems makes it really easy to provide a different take on a wide range of organisational and strategic issues where the traditional paradigm has been reductionist linear thinking. As well as making the task of developing new approaches much easier, basing it in systems thinking provides at least some reassurance that there is a strong theoretical basis for what we’re doing.
In my spare time (when I’m not doing consultancy, developing new approaches, or writing) I do a bit of academic work, for several business schools and I’m a visiting research fellow at Cranfield. I also chair a community of systems practitioners - SCiO.
Aside from work, I enjoy sailing tallships, climbing mountains, cycling, and pubs and along with Karen Blixen and Sir Walter Scott I share an abiding love affair with Scottish Deerhounds
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
April 5, 2022
Compressed wisdom, knowledge and laws from renowned system thinker and intervention practicioner.
One of books one would wish to read earlier in life.
One of books one would wish to read earlier in life.
September 11, 2022
This is a really good introduction to (and overview of) systems thinking. Sadly, concepts from chaos and complexity theory (such as fitness landscapes, phase transitions, dissipative structures and strange attractors) get no mention except for one or two side notes. Also, the lack of a decent bibliography is a problem, in my opinion. Still, a good book for systemic thinkers.
August 29, 2024
One of the best books I've read this year - rich, dense, and illuminating. I liked that these laws and principles - some well known, and some that we take for granted in the background - have been presented agnostic to any particular systems methodology. It feels like a palette I can and will apply to any and every complex situation. The structure of the book is easy to navigate and go back to, as well. I find myself opening it at random and poring through it in retrospect.
I often thought while reading this that it is a sort of scientific guide to shamanism - the act of walking across and between worlds to affect healing and transformation. As such, I found the book not only intellectually stimulating, but spiritually satisfying. It is full of ways of looking and listening, of useful lenses for seeing, and made me aware of many things: ways of seeing that are familiar friends to me, biases that I lean toward and that inhibit my ability to see more clearly (aesthetics, I'm looking at you!), unassuming ways of seeing that I've taken for granted and could now excavate and engage more actively, and some completely new ways of seeing that I will bundle into my toolkit to sharpen, polish, and treasure.
In summary, a book whose utility means I want to put it in my backpack and take it with me wherever I go.
I often thought while reading this that it is a sort of scientific guide to shamanism - the act of walking across and between worlds to affect healing and transformation. As such, I found the book not only intellectually stimulating, but spiritually satisfying. It is full of ways of looking and listening, of useful lenses for seeing, and made me aware of many things: ways of seeing that are familiar friends to me, biases that I lean toward and that inhibit my ability to see more clearly (aesthetics, I'm looking at you!), unassuming ways of seeing that I've taken for granted and could now excavate and engage more actively, and some completely new ways of seeing that I will bundle into my toolkit to sharpen, polish, and treasure.
In summary, a book whose utility means I want to put it in my backpack and take it with me wherever I go.
January 22, 2025
I gave up after reading about half the book and skimming over the other half.
For once, my impression is that the main part of the content is more philosophy than science orientated. Sometimes he draws from proven concepts like mental models or double loop learning (with no reference to Agyris), then there are strange assertions like weather can be complex, complicated or simple depending on the way you look at it, or oversimplifications like we have two hemispheres in the brain, the master and the slave (which is plain wrong), the master doing the hard stuff (I assume he referrers to the pre frontal cortex here) and the slave doing the routine (which would be more or the limbic system). When he explained that Boyed in his OODA loop used a model to predict the actions of his advisaries, I decided to quit.
To me this is a philosophical book with some well known principles mixed in. I could not find any valuable content in it for me.
For once, my impression is that the main part of the content is more philosophy than science orientated. Sometimes he draws from proven concepts like mental models or double loop learning (with no reference to Agyris), then there are strange assertions like weather can be complex, complicated or simple depending on the way you look at it, or oversimplifications like we have two hemispheres in the brain, the master and the slave (which is plain wrong), the master doing the hard stuff (I assume he referrers to the pre frontal cortex here) and the slave doing the routine (which would be more or the limbic system). When he explained that Boyed in his OODA loop used a model to predict the actions of his advisaries, I decided to quit.
To me this is a philosophical book with some well known principles mixed in. I could not find any valuable content in it for me.
May 10, 2022
Wow... just wow.
I've been dabbling with systems thinking for a few years now and this book just makes me rethink everything again. It is a great reference for both the seasoned and starting practitioner of systems thinking.
Hoverstadt offers a very complete overview and every page feels like a chapter, and every chapter feels like a book in itself.
I deeply applaud Patrick for sharing what I can only imagine to be an extensive journey through systems thinking (and more) through the pages of this book.
I've been dabbling with systems thinking for a few years now and this book just makes me rethink everything again. It is a great reference for both the seasoned and starting practitioner of systems thinking.
Hoverstadt offers a very complete overview and every page feels like a chapter, and every chapter feels like a book in itself.
I deeply applaud Patrick for sharing what I can only imagine to be an extensive journey through systems thinking (and more) through the pages of this book.
April 7, 2023
A great little book to encourage systems thinking in more than a formulaic methodology driven way. I’d like to think that I can use the laws and principles in facilitation - maybe some cards with each law on would help. It comes as no surprise that many of them are already clearly applicable to my client work with large organisations. Hopefully the book will prove to be useful in a very practical way.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews