Systems Thinking Made Simple: New Hope for Solving Wicked Problems

by Derek Cabrera, Laura Cabrera, Erin Powers (Editor)

Systems thinking can help us solve everyday and wicked problems, increase our personal effectiveness as human beings, and transform our organizations. This book is for anyone interested in learning the foundational ideas of systems thinking. SIMPLE RULES OF SYSTEMS THINKING Systems Thinking Made Simple doesn't mean that we're going to oversimplify it like a ... for Dummies book. It means that we will show how systems thinking emerges when we focus on a simple set of rules. After years of searching for unifying principles, many experts and practitioners in the field of systems thinking have embraced DSRP as universal to all systems thinking methods. Originally a complex mathematical formulation, DSRP has since been made more accessible through powerful modeling and visualization tools. There are two surprising things about our new understanding of systems thinking. First is how simple the four rules DISTINCTIONS Any idea or thing can be distinguished from the other ideas or things it is with SYSTEMS Any idea or thing can be split into parts or lumped into a whole RELATIONSHIP Any idea or thing can relate to other things or ideas PERSPECTIVES Any thing or idea can be the point or the view of a perspective.

Genres: Nonfiction, Psychology, Design, Business, Leadership, Reference

245 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2015

Reviews

[Nilesh Makan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed how they've managed to simplify systems thinking into DSRP.

Distinctions - There is a thing and it is distinctive from other things.
Systems - things are a part of something else and make up part of a whole.
Relationships - everything has an action and a reaction, with differing feedback loops.
Perspectives - there is a point and a view. we need to understand a multitude of perspectives to understand the problem more deeply

This is the essence of systems thinking, and the tools that are provided can go a long way to helping understand systems more intimately.

[Richard Chester · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book for beginners, lots of repetition, but I feel that is intended as he's trying to make the ideas set in stone in your head hoping to get you to remember to actively be thinking about doing DSRP when thinking. The only reason I give it a 4 instead of a 5 is the book never taught me how to convince my peers to read it and it's annoying.

[Hemanth Kapila · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. Repetitive, over-promising

[Angela Lam · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5* Most systems thinking books I've come across deal with the technicalities of systems, e.g. stocks, flows, types of feedback loop etc. I like that this book focused on 4 rules that we can apply to THINK in systems.

Just like how 4 colors CMYK account for all color combinations in the world, and 4 DNA molecules ATCG account for all DNA in living creatures, the 4 DSRP rules are supposed to explain human thinking—which I find really cool.

The 4 DSRP rules are for :
- Distinctions (Thing-Other)
- Systems (Part-Whole)
- Relationship (Action-Reaction)
- Perspectives (Point-View)

By applying these 4 rules, you can deliberately shape how you think. Besides explaining the rules and their applications, the authors go into some detail to explain the Plectica software, and other aspects of systems thinking applications. Along wtih tons of illustrated examples of how you can visualize the components using Plectica.

This book fundamentally changed the way I look at systems thinking, more than any of the other books I've read. The only imperfection for me was the writing, which was still hard to understand at times despite the load of illustrations and diagrams provided. hence the 4.5*

But overall, I found it a great book with great concepts. Especially good if you're trying to grasp the concepts of systems thinking. And I think it's true that the ideas can be learned by anyone including young children.

Book summary at: https://readingraphics.com/book-summa...

[Δημήτρης Τσιφλικιώτης · Rating 4 out of 5]

🔥🔥🔥🔥
Systems Thinking Made Simple: New Hope for Solving Wicked Problems really blew my mind with its content. I found the knowledge in it incredibly important, like one of the most important things I’ve ever come across. It’s almost hard to believe we, as humans, managed to make this knowledge explicit and organize it.

That said, the book felt a bit poorly written to me. Unfortunately, it’s not as ‘made simple’ as I hoped.

Also, the layout was a bit odd.

I generally like to use software that reads the words out loud as I follow along, but the way this is written didn’t really allow for that.

Overall, I loved the content but the book itself made things harder for me than I would have liked.

[Jacob Pogson · Rating 3 out of 5]

An adequate introduction to systems thinking that I found worth the time. The fundamental work of the book is to articulate the ironically complicated and meaningless acronyms of DSRP and VMCL, wherein they advocate for democratic methods of leaning and organisational change, yet point exclusively to sell its locked software as the key to unlock this learning. Ironic, although at least this is not too expensive and has a free level, although probably is shooting their own vision in the foot before it can take a step. These two limitations take off a star each. Be sure to read other systems theory books before and after, as this book is one "point of view", as they say.

[Soph Nova · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are some useful tidbits in here, but nothing I haven't learned already through various systems thinking theory books already. And the examples they use make it very clear that they aren't motivated by progressive/leftist politics, so it sorta defeats the purpose of why I am interested in systems thinking.

[Alli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great as a primer. It doesn't really get into the nuts and bolts of how to actually apply systems thinking but it provides a rich understanding of the underlying concepts and I would recommend to anyone looking for an intro to the subject.

4 stars because some more concrete examples would have been really helpful.

[Owen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fascinating book that focuses more on the development of mental models than really on the details of systems thinking. Nonetheless, the toolkit presented in this book has the ability to break down many problems into very digestible chunks that can be explained to anyone.

[Annie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't finish this book. It reads like a textbook trying to sound not like a textbook. There's a section on the evolution of Systems Thinking 1.0 to Systems Thinking 2.0. It's not simple when starts off on a tangent instead of the primary subject of the book.

[Niloofar Shadab · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was boring written in very simple language. It's good for children or people with absolutely no idea what systems thinking is.

[Matthias · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great and powerful approach (DSRP + VMCL) summarized in a compact and easily digestible way.

[Akash Kaushik · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was my first book on systems thinking. Everything was put together in a very simple manner (too simple). Easy to understand, and good use of various teaching tools. I am not wholly convinced of the DSRP model's effectiveness though. Will try it in the real world and then edit the review (and rating) to provide more information.

Update- DSRP is a good thought model, but I have have serious doubts that it will somehow revolutionize the world ( in the manner expected by the author) or solve any of the major problems facing the world.

In my opinion the teaching tools used to explain dsrp in this book has more to offer (to the world) than the topic (DSRP) itself.

P.S.
Me not having slept throughout the night and finding it absolutely necessary to edit the review at 5 am, might have some affect on my strong conviction regarding this book.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book breaks system thinking into it's components. It is based on a thorough review of the various branches grown from the systems thinking base, and a distillation of the process of systems thinking into four basic steps. The book's goal is to develop system thinking ability in all of us.

[Hamilton Carvalho · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book! Simple but powerful conceptual tools to develop your systems thinking skills.