The question that keeps me awake is “What does it mean to be a systems thinker?”
This reflection guides me in a lifelong process of personal and professional development.
For convenience, I am grouping my posts here under four headings.
I’m not a great fan of the moniker ‘systems thinking’…
This is an ambitious book, at times strident in tone, written ‘to leapfrog the intellectual and institutional barriers that are entrenched in the foundations of urban and regional planning’. …
A symphony orchestra, silently seated on a brightly lit stage in a darkened concert hall filled with an audience buzzing with anticipation, is a beautiful sight to behold. …
“We must decide on peace amongst ourselves to protect the world, and peace with the world to protect ourselves.” — Michel Serres
Systems science seems, at first sight, to be an exclusively Anglo-American affair. Indeed, the lion’s share of the bandwidth captured by systems matters seems to be devoted to…
Systems thinking is also political. This book offers a sophisticated, systemic perspective on how to live through these challenging times as a responsible and caring individual. It takes its cue from the observation that we are not showing any sign that we, individually and collectively, will be able to handle…
Recently I had an honest conversation with a team of entrepreneurs. I recognised the pain they were voicing. And the odd thing was that I was surprised by my own recognition. Because, obviously, many of us who have been (and are) investing untold amounts of energy in their entrepreneurial project…
I find it increasingly relevant to position myself professionally as a ‘postdisciplinary researcher’. What does it mean? Why would I do so?
I’ve had the privilege to work sustainedly on projects that have a bearing on acute, complex societal challenges. Invariably our consultancy assignments include a research component. But the…
The ‘spaceship Earth’ meme has been circulating for over a century. It’s a half-literal and half-figurative way of speaking. Our planet is of course careening on its fixed orbit around the sun. And considered metaphorically as a vessel, it carries supplies — fuel, food, breathable air — which have to…
Another volume on the shelves of the Systems Library. Perhaps I need to start calling it the ‘Beyond Systems Library’ … Because with books such as Lois Holzman’s The End of Knowing and The Overweight Brain, Hanne De Jaegher’s Loving and Knowing, and Judi Marshall’s First-Person Action Research, we are…
The book is both in style and content unlike any other systems book I know. The terseness of the discussion — stretching to a mere 180 pages — and its obvious conceptual rigour make it at first difficult to approach. Even the title offers a puzzle. …
