Linda Booth Sweeney

testimonial

“When you think of the word ‘system’, what comes to mind? If we turn to the dictionary, we get something like ‘an assemblage or combination of things or parts forming a complex or unitary whole: a mountain system; a railroad system.’ One of my personal favourite ways of thinking a little more about systems comes from a most brilliant book – ‘When a Butterfly Sneezes – Systems Thinking for Kids, Big and Small’ by Linda Booth Sweeney.”

Carl Bate Capgemini | London
Vice President, UK Chief Technology Officer

Publications & Research

Downloads and links to articles and publications by Linda Booth Sweeney.

Books:

The Systems Thinking Playbook

by Linda Booth Sweeney and Dennis Meadows (2001)
The Systems Thinking Playbook has become a favorite of K-12 teachers, university faculty, and organizational consultants. The book provides 30 short gaming exercises, classified by areas of learning – Mental Models,Team Learning, Systems Thinking, Shared Vision, and Personal Mastery. The companion DVD shows the authors illustrating good practice introducing and running the 30 games. The DVD is available separately for those who already own the book. To purchase the Playbook, contact me: linda@lindaboothsweeney.net.

Educators: to receive an educator’s discount, contact me at:

When a Butterfly Sneezes

by Linda Booth Sweeney (2001), Pegasus Communications.
A Guide for Helping Kids Explore Interconnections in Our World Through Favorite Stories. This book highlights 12 favorite children’s stories that illustrate key systems thinking principles, and shows you how to use these stories with children of all ages. Each chapter focuses on one favorite picture book – and reveals the systems principles inherent in the story, general points for discussion, illustrations of key concepts, and questions to spark conversation for both younger and older readers. Purchase

Connected Wisdom: Living Stories about Living Systems

by Linda Booth Sweeney (2008). How do we learn to live sustainably – or within the means of nature — on this planet? Would you believe that Aesop’s Fables, the Brothers’ Grimm and other ancient folktales have much to teach us? Through this book, readers from 10 to 110 will explore, through 12 timeless folktales and modern examples, how the laws that guide living systems can also guide how we live and learn.
To purchase, contact Chelsea Green Publishers.

Research:

Thinking About Systems: Student and Teacher Conceptions of Natural and Social Systems by L. Booth Sweeney and John D. Sterman. 50th Anniversary issue of The System Dynamics Review, 2007. A much more readable version of my Harvard dissertation. Link to Journal

Understanding Public Complacency about Climate Change.
by L. Booth Sweeney and John D. Sterman. Rotman Magazine, Spring, 2007. Download PDF

“How is This Similar to That?” The skill of recognizing parallel dynamics structures on center stage, by L. Booth Sweeney. Creative Exchange Newsletter, 2005 Download PDF

"Cloudy Skies: Assessing Public Understanding of Global Warming." Special edition of The System Dynamics Review (2003). Sterman and Booth Sweeney (2002) Download PDF

“Managing Complex Dynamic Systems: Challenge and Opportunity for Naturalistic Decision Making Theory” (2004). Naturalistic Decision Making. Book chapter co-authored with Dr. John Sterman.

“Bathtub Dynamics: Initial Results of a Systems Thinking Inventory,” System Dynamics Review (2001). 16 (4), pg. 249-286. Co-authored with Dr. John Sterman. Download PDF

Teaching about Living Systems on the Farm: Remembering what Already Know, by L. Booth Sweeney.Link to article, Farm-Based Education Association newsletter(winter/Spring 2009).Download newsletter

example: system

Things are often more interconnected than we see. When we “think about systems” we begin to look for interconnections everywhere and we assume that nothing stands in isolation.