Systems-Thinkers ::  Resources :: Category= Business

Book : Seeing the Forest for the Trees: A Manager’s Guide to Applying Systems (2002)

Publisher: Nicholas Brealey Publishing Ltd.

Author(s): Sherwood, Dennis

Published: 2002 ISBN: 185788311X • 235 pages Delivery Format: Hard Copy - Paperback

Summary

From the publisher:

Systems thinking can help you tame the complexity of real world problems by providing a structured way of balancing a broad, overall view with the selection of the right level of detail, truly allowing you to see the forest for the trees.

Only by taking a broad view can we avoid the twin dangers of a silo mentality - in which a fix ‘here’ simply shifts the problem to ‘there’ - and organisational myopia - in which a fix ‘now’ gives rise to a much bigger problem to fix ‘then’.

Seeing the Forest for the Trees will give you all the tools and techniques you need, with many practical examples as diverse as managing a busy back office, negotiating an outsourcing deal and formulating business strategy.

Dennis Sherwood was for twelve years a consulting partner with Coopers & Lybrand and was subsequently an Executive Director at Goldman Sachs in London, a partner in Bossard Consultants, and Vice President of SRI Consulting. Educated at the universities of Cambridge, Yale and California, and a Sloan Fellow, with Distinction, of the London Business School, he is now the Managing Director of Organica Consulting which specialised in building competitive advantage through innovation whose clients include Thames Water, Nestle, National Grid, Pearson TV, The Defence Evaluation & Research Agency, Wedgewood, and Yorkshire Electricity. He is a is well-known on the conference circuit and is the author of five previous books including Smart Things to Know About Innovation and Unlock Your Mind.

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Book : System Engineering Management (1992)

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Author(s): Blanchard, Benjamin S.

Published: 1992 ISBN: 0471190861 • 480 pages Delivery Format: Hard Copy - Hardback

Summary

From the publisher:

System engineering is the application of scientific and engineering efforts to transform a business need into a defined system configuration through the top-down process of requirements, definition, functional analysis, allocation synthesis, design optimization, test and evaluation. The systems engineering process, in its evolution of functional detail and design requirements, has as its goal the achievement of the proper balance between operational, performance, economic and logistics factors.

This volume contains:

• coverage of different types of systems, particularly in the defence/commercial/private sectors;
• discussion of requirements analysis;
• emphasis on "open-architecture" approach to design of the functional analysis and requirements allocation process;
• coverage of the integration of software into the system engineering and software development process;
• the use of simulation methods, and rapid prototyping in the coverage of the integration of system test and evaluation into the system engineering process;
• concurrent engineering focus on the design integration process;
• international aspects and impacts of the selection and management of suppliers;
• increased coverage of technical performance measures (TPMs);
• and the concepts behind Integrated Product and Process Development (IPPD) and Integrated Process Team (IPT).

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Book : Systems Archetype Basics: From Story To Structure (2007)

Publisher: Pegasus Communications Inc.

Author(s): Anderson, Virginia • Kim, Daniel H.

Published: 2007 ISBN: 1883823048 • 208 pages Delivery Format: Hard Copy - Paperback

Summary

From the publisher:

Does your organization make the same mistakes over and over again, without being able to get a grip on the cause? If so, a systems archetype might be at work behind the scenes! The archetypes depict the recurring “stories” that often indicate imbalance in a system.

Working with these tools can help individuals and teams surface their mental models, communicate the “story,” and engage in creative dialogue about the entire system.

Written by top authors in the field, this workbook brings you the latest thinking about the archetypes—and provides plenty of practice using them.

Familiarize yourself with eight classic archetypes, such as Fixes That Fail and Limits to Success, by working step-by-step through vivid examples, illustrations, and exercises. Additional activities, potential responses, a handy “archetypes at a glance” chart, and a glossary of terms complete your learning experience.

Ideal for self-study or group practice, Systems Archetype Basics will give you the confidence and skill to start putting your knowledge to work.

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Book : Systems Engineering (1992)

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Author(s): Sage, Andrew P.

Published: 1992 ISBN: 0471536393 • 654 pages Delivery Format: Hard Copy - Hardback

Summary

From the publisher:

'Systems Engineering' focuses on systems methodology, design, and management.  The contents offer technical insight for professionals concerned with systems engineering and management and to students who need to master the steps to effective systems engineering. Throughout, the book emphasizes the process of systems engineering rather than the product of systems engineering, recognizing that proper attention to processes almost inevitably leads to higher quality products.

'Systems Engineering' addresses the fundamental considerations associated with the engineering of large scale systems. Divided into two sections, the first part deals with systems methodology, design and management including a detailed examination of operational and task level system quality assurance through configuration management, audits and reviews, standards and systems integration. The second part discusses a variety of systems design and management approaches, particularly those concerned with system effectiveness evaluation and the human role in systems.

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Book : Systems Thinking : Managing Chaos and Complexity (1999)

Publisher: Butterworth - Heinemann

Author(s): Gharajedaghi, Jamshid

Published: 1999 ISBN: 0750671637 • 328 pages Delivery Format: Hard Copy - Paperback

Summary

From the publisher:

In a nutshell, this book is about systems. This book is written for those thinkers and practitioners who have come to realize that while the whole is becoming more and more interdependent parts display choice and behave independently, and that paradoxes are the most potent challenge of emergent realities.

With a practical orientation and yet a profound theoretical depth, the book offers an operational handle on the whole by introducing an elaborate scheme called iterative design. The iterative design explicitly recognizes that choice is at the heart of human development. Development is the capacity to choose; design is a vehicle for enhancement of choice and holistic thinking. ‘Designers’, in this book, seek to choose rather than predict the future. They try to understand rational, emotional, and cultural dimensions of choice and to produce a design that satisfies a multitude of functions. They learn how to use what they already know and also about how to learn what they need to know.

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Book : The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook : Strategies and Tools for Building a Learning Organization (1998)

Publisher: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group

Author(s): Senge, Peter M. • Kleiner, Art • Smith, Bryan J. • Roberts, Charlotte • Ross, Richard B.

Published: 1998 ISBN: 0385472560 • 593 pages Delivery Format: Hard Copy - Paperback

Summary

From the publisher:

"The Fifth Discipline" revolutionized the practice of management by introducing the theory of learning organizations. Now, Dr Senge moves from the philosophical to the practical by answering the first question all lovers of the learning organization ask - what do they do on Monday morning?

This book is a pragmatic guide. It shows how to create an organization of learners where memories are brought to life, where collaboration is the life-blood of every endeavour and where tough questions are fearlessly asked. The stories in this book show that businesses, schools, agencies and even communities can undo their "learning disabilities" and achieve superior performance.

The book helps readers learn:

• why Royal Dutch/Shell now asks its managers,"What do you want on your epitaph?";
• how Ford Motor Company escaped from the measurement trap that threatens all quality initiatives;
• how Intel developed forms of "team learning" to dramatically cut cycle time and change their working relationship;
• how the 18,000 employees of the Australian Taxation Office took charge of their own learning to bust their tired, burdensome bureaucracy;
• why Du Pont uses a board game to understand the emotional element of plant maintenance problems;
• and how AT&T used the learning organization concept to begin its transformation from a corporation to a global community.

It isn't necessary to read the "The Fifth Discipline" to understand this book - summaries of Senge's key theoretical ideas are included in "The Fieldbook".

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Book : The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization (Second Edition) (2006)

Publisher: Random House

Author(s): Senge, Peter M.

Published: 2006 ISBN: 1905211201 • 464 pages Delivery Format: Hard Copy - Paperback

Summary

From the publisher:

Senge explains why the learning organization matters, provides an unvarnished summary of his management principals, offers some basic tools for practicing it, and shows what it’s like to operate under this system. The book’s concepts remain stimulating and relevant as ever.

Peter Senge, founder and director of the Society for Organisational Learning and senior lecturer at MIT, has found the means of creating a ‘learning organisation’. In The Fifth Discipline, he draws the blueprints for an organisation where people expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nutured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are contually learning together. The Fifth Discipline fuses these features together into a coherent body of theory and practice, making the whole of an organisation more effective than the sum of its parts.

Mastering the disciplines will:

• Reignite the spark of learning, driven by people focused on what truly matters to them.
• Bridge teamwork into macro-creativity.
• Free you from confining assumptions and mind-sets.
• Teach you to see the forest and the trees.
• End the struggle between work and family time.

The Fifth Discipline is a remarkable book that draws on science, spiritual values, psychology, the cutting edge of management thought and Senge’s work with leading companies which employ Fifth Discipline methods. Reading it provides a searching personal experience and a dramatic professional shift of mind.

This edition contains more than 100 pages of new material about how companies are actually using and benefiting from Fifth Discipline practices, as well as a new foreword from Peter Senge about his work with the Fifth Discipline over the last 15 years.

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