This is why narrow-minded behavior arises. But they don’t have perfect information or ability to see more distant parts of the systems. Mental flexibility = willingness to redraw boundaries.īounded rationality: People make reasonable decisions based on information they have about parts of the system they’re closest too. If they did, we would never make mistakes or be surprised. Usually correspond well with the world (hints our success as a species), but will never fully represent the world with 100% accuracy. “Our knowledge of the world instructs us first of all that the world is greater than our knowledge of it.” Wendell BerryĮverything we know about the world is a model – languages, maps, statistics, mental models. Too much central control overwhelms and breaks a system. Hierarchies are system inventions – provide stability, resilience, and reduce the amount of information system needs to keep track of. But it’s difficult because this means giving up control.Īntifragile: “In the end, it seems that mastery has less to do with pushing leverage points than it does with strategically, profoundly, madly, letting go and dancing with the system.” DMĭM: “Complex systems can evolve from simple systems only if there are stable intermediate forms.” Why they’re so common in nature. Any system, biological, economic, or social, that gets so encrusted that it cannot self-evolve, a system that systematically scorns experimentation and wipes out the raw material of innovation, is doomed over the long term on the highly variable planet.” DMĮxperimentation is key to anti-fragility and innovation. “Insistence on a single culture shuts down learning and cuts back resilience. System that can evolve can survive almost any change. Self-organization is the strongest form of system resilience. Less resilient, smaller plateau.Īwareness of resilience allows you to harness, preserve, or improve a system’s restorative powers. The more resilient a system, the larger the plateau and the greater its ability to bounce back when near the edges. Resilience is similar to a plateau that a system can play safely upon. Similar to Taleb’s concept of anti-fragility. Rich structure of many feedback loops allows a system to thrive in a variable environment. Systems studies are not designed to predict, they’re designed to explore what would happen if factors unfold in a range of different scenarios.ĭangerous to generalize about complex systems. If they did, would the system react this way? Questions for testing the value of a model:Īre driving factors likely to unfold this way? Need a better understanding of the whole, not just the elements it’s made of. Each citizen touched a small part of the elephant (ear, trunk, legs) and drew false conclusions. Helps reclaim intuition about whole systems, hone abilities to understand parts, see interconnections, ask “what if” questions about future behavior, and be creative in redesigns.Īncient Sufi story about a king visiting a city of blind citizens on his mighty elephant. See my notes below or Amazon for details and reviews. This is an important book for anyone who’s working on complex problems or wants to grow into a more strategic thinker. With this comes the ability to appreciate the complexity of large systems, their connections, and how to improve or redesign them, when needed. The benefit of systems thinking is that is helps you avoid isolated, shallow decision-making. She also digs into concepts like the tragedy of the commons, bounded rationality, modeling, and how to avoid the pitfalls of each. This includes feedback loops, self-organization, experimentation, and alignment. Meadows emphasizes the dangers of generalizing about complex systems and explains the key elements of resilient systems. Great introduction to systems thinking – the ability to step back and appreciate the complexity of the interconnected whole.
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