Making Better Decisions Using Systems Thinking: How to stop firefighting, deal with root causes and deliver permanent solutions

by Jaap Schaveling

1. Making better decisions using Systems Thinking 2. What is systems thinking? Looking at the whole picture Unintended side effects Uncover the underlying dynamics Looking below the surface of the lily pond Reacting Adaptation 3. The evolutionary heritage Reacting Two systems Theory of reality Compression of data Groupsize 4. Good dealing wisely with dilemmas Time Do you make short- or long-term choices? Scope Do you choose a narrow or a broad scope? Awareness do you choose to face the facts or take refuge in fantasies? Dealing with leadership and wisdom Leadership What should we understand by wisdom? Dealing wisely with organisations 5. A systemic view of organisations Reinforcing why do things get out of hand? The Pygmalion higher expectations lead to higher performance Exponential growth Balancing why things don't budge 6. Impatient managers create chaos The effects of time delays Systems thinking and time delays What are our steering criteria? 7. The Value Creation Model What is the Value Creation Model? Why, What, How Creating value with distinctive competences Internal and external developments The strategic function typology 8. The value creation model in action Laboratory for bakery ingredients Employment agency for surveillance duties Public agency Dealing wisely with your reinforcing loop Pitfalls 9. What has been done when the work is done? The current situation The vision And what do you do next? 10. Driving forces that generate and sustain patterns Genetic disposition and system Our early years and system Our tribe and system The rational system Vision Reality check 11. Two driving forces in Mental models and Team learning Mental what are the dominant mental models? Team which group dynamics play a role? The results of our dive into the lily pond 12. Looking under the surface of the lily Applying systems thinking in six steps Going under the water assessing reality and the driving structure Step 1: tell the whole story Step 2: describe the behaviour over time in graphs Step 3: formulate the focusing question and your scope Step 4: identify archetypes or fixed patterns Step 5: increase your understanding by looking closer at the driving forces Step 6: planning an intervention 13. Pitfalls of short time horizon Fixes that backfire Shifting the burden 14. Pitfalls of not looking far enough around you Escalation Success to the successful 15. Pitfalls of fear of facing reality Drifting goals Limits to growth 16. Pitfall of a combination of short time horizon and not looking far enough around you Accidental adversaries Not building trust 17. Pitfalls of a combination of short time horizon, not looking far enough around you and fear of facing reality Growth and under-investment Tragedy of the commons 18. Adaptive leadership Sit still Know the value creation model of your organisation Don't think you can make the system perfect Sometimes you have to begin a new system or organisation Think keep the whole system in mind Make an honest assessment of the situation Discover the hidden assumptions; verify if everybody is dis

192 pages, Paperback

Published December 15, 2017

Reviews

[Shahnaz · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first book that explains system thinking precisively, that has a practical ideas ready to be implemented.

[Bram Wijngaarden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice graphing framework for analysing structural problems and solutions, evolutionary psychology and anecdotal evidence called upon to support it are a bit simplistic.