Systems Thinking Quotes

“Our Disruptive Thinking Canvas provides a streamlined six-step process, consolidating the foundational principles of our work in one location.”
― Roger Spitz, Disrupt With Impact: Achieve Business Success in an Unpredictable World

“Everything in our world is constantly evolving - except our organizations, strategies, and governance structures”
― Roger Spitz, Disrupt With Impact: Achieve Business Success in an Unpredictable World

“The whole is not merely different from the sum of its parts - the whole lacks a clear relationship to the parts’ sum.”
― Roger Spitz, Disrupt With Impact: Achieve Business Success in an Unpredictable World

“Metaruptions are constantly evolving. The signals provide feedback loops that help appreciate how dynamic futures may take shape. However, we need to pay careful attention to compounding forces, which could spill over into irreversible tipping points.

To comprehend disruption, we need to decipher its fundamental drivers, forces, and influences. Identifying these drivers, and their synthesis as metaruptions, can inform decision-making.”
― Roger Spitz, Disrupt With Impact: Achieve Business Success in an Unpredictable World

“Opportunities arise by moving from silos to systems and rethinking the structures that incentivize our actions.”
― Roger Spitz, Disrupt With Impact: Achieve Business Success in an Unpredictable World

“Abolishing the dualism between short-term and long-term goals necessitates iteration and the integration of feedback in our dynamic world.”
― Roger Spitz, Disrupt With Impact: Achieve Business Success in an Unpredictable World

“Small shifts at the appropriate levels can produce greater changes throughout systems. Incentives are strong leverage points because they represent the rules of the system and its boundaries.”
― Roger Spitz, Disrupt With Impact: Achieve Business Success in an Unpredictable World

“Systemic change can be unsettling due to its inherent complexity.”
― Roger Spitz, Disrupt With Impact: Achieve Business Success in an Unpredictable World

“A single triggering phenomenon can generate an avalanche of disproportionate - and seemingly disparate - impacts when the simultaneous ripple effects collide.”
― Roger Spitz, Disrupt With Impact: Achieve Business Success in an Unpredictable World

“A feedback loop is a process in which the outputs of a system are cycled back as inputs.”
― Roger Spitz, Disrupt With Impact: Achieve Business Success in an Unpredictable World

“In these paradigm shifts, addressing individual parts of a problem will not resolve anything.”
― Roger Spitz, Disrupt With Impact: Achieve Business Success in an Unpredictable World

“Consider systemic interconnections and next-order implications from initial change.”
― Roger Spitz, Disrupt With Impact: Achieve Business Success in an Unpredictable World

“Purposes are deducted from behavior, not from rhetoric or stated goals.”
― Donella H. Meadows, Thinking In Systems: A Primer

“Everything we think and know about the world is a model. Every word and every language is a model. All maps and statistics, books and databases, equations and computer programs are models. None of these is or ever will be the real world.”
― Donella H. Meadows, Thinking In Systems: A Primer

“In business, success is not about doing more—it’s about doing what works, again and again.”
― Joseph C. Kunz Jr., Money's Dirty Little Secrets: How to Break the Rules, Get Filthy Rich, and Laugh All the Way to the Bank

“We have reached a point where narratives move faster than nations, and leadership is measured not by what's done, but how well it's declared.”
― SunDeep Mehra

“AI creates its own fog. The more sophisticated the algorithms, the less developers and engineers understand how the output emerges.”
― James Rickards, MoneyGPT: AI and the Threat to the Global Economy

“With complex, systemic challenges, there are no individual winners. Collectively addressing these means we all win; failure means we all lose.”
― Roger Spitz, Disrupt With Impact: Achieve Business Success in an Unpredictable World

“Theoretically, artificial superintelligence could possess humanity’s combined cognitive capacity. In contrast, superstupidity could take on multiple features, including overreliance on the underlying “intelligence” of these systems. For instance, believing that AI can be a proxy for our own understanding and decision-making as we delegate more power to algorithms is superstupid. Perhaps AI is also superstupid, and may cause mistakes, wrong decisions, or misalignment.”
― Roger Spitz, Disrupt With Impact: Achieve Business Success in an Unpredictable World

“Metaruptions drive systemic disruption: The term metaruptions is an abbreviation of disruption with the prefix “meta.” A metaruption is a multidimensional family of systemic disruptions, including shifts in the notion of disruption itself. Metaruptions are characterized by the dynamic interactions of subordinate drivers of change. Metaruptions cause widespread and self-perpetuating effects that extend beyond their initial disruptions. As initial changes spill over, these impacts combine to propagate and modify other elements within the system, ultimately disrupting the disruption itself.”
― Roger Spitz, Disrupt With Impact: Achieve Business Success in an Unpredictable World

“EVERY SYSTEM IS BUILT FOR THE TEAM.
BUT SOMETIMES, IT DOESN’T FIT EVERYONE.

IF SOMEONE STEPS AWAY,
IT’S NOT FAILURE, JUST A DIFFERENT VIEW.

A STRONG LEADER KEEPS THE SYSTEM STEADY,
FOR THOSE WHO STAY,
AND FOR THE COMPANY TO GROW.”
― Thanzil Salam

“THE VIEW

Every system is built for the team.
But sometimes, it doesn’t fit everyone.

If someone steps away,
it’s not failure, just a different view.

A strong leader keeps the system steady,
for those who stay…
and for the company to grow.”
― Thanzil Salam

“BUILD TO RUN

You can confidently say you won
when the company runs smoothly without you.

Because that means you built
something stronger than your presence…
a future that stands without you.”
― Thanzil Salam

“THE NEXT LEVEL

WHEN YOUR TEAM IS READY TO GROW,
GIVE THEM OWNERSHIP.

THAT’S HOW THEY MOVE TO THEIR NEXT LEVEL, AND YOU MOVE TO YOURS.”
― Thanzil Salam

“Commitment is not a word you give to others.
It begins with the value you give to your own word.
If you break your promise once, then the next time you say “I will do it,” people will listen, but they will not trust.
Because trust is never in the promise.
Trust is in the follow through.
When you value your commitment, people respect you.
When you break it, people doubt you.
So before expecting anyone to believe your word, ask yourself one thing.
Do you stand by what you say, or do you only say it?”
― Thanzil Salam

“WHEN YOUR TEAM FALLS, A LEADER SHOULD STAND BESIDE THEM
NOT WITH EMOTION, BUT WITH CLARITY.

Because when a team fails, the company feels it.
And when the company shakes, every family behind it feels the impact.

Support is important.
But support without clarity will damage the system.

Real leadership is helping the team rise,
while protecting the structure that keeps everyone safe.

Ask yourself one thing.
Are you guiding your team, or just reacting to them?

— Thanzil Salam”
― Thanzil Salam

“YOU MAY HAVE PASSION.
BUT WITHOUT A STRONG BASE, NOTHING STAYS STABLE.”
― Thanzil Salam

“WE DON’T KEEP THINGS BECAUSE THEY ARE PERFECT.
WE KEEP THEM BECAUSE THEY HOLD VALUE.

— Thanzil Salam”
― Thanzil Salam

“Nothing moves until you move first.”
― Thanzil Salam

“Many people put in long hours and real effort, yet feel dissatisfied with the results.
The problem is rarely the effort itself.
It is the absence of direction.

When work is done without clarity, energy leaks away.
The same effort, when guided by a clear plan, creates stronger and more meaningful outcomes.

Planning is not about slowing down work.
It is about giving effort a path to follow.

When effort and clarity move together, output naturally improves.”
― Thanzil Salam