Systems Resource Room
Over the past eighty years, a family of systems frameworks has emerged. Some have their roots in general systems theory, while other hail from system dynamics, systems ecology, cybernetics, complexity theory, and more.
Although they may not see each other as kin, they all view systems as the context for defining, understanding, and solving complex challenges and designing human systems.
You’ll find here a sampling of systems-oriented resources – including websites, materials, and practitioners – from around the world:
- Learning About Systems
- Working with Systems
- Systems and Leadership
- Systems Tools
- Understanding How Systems Work
- Systems Design
- Systems Thinking 4 Kids
Learning About Systems
Books/Articles/Curriculum:
Systems 1: An Introduction to Systems Thinking by Draper Kaufman. Appleton, Wisconsin: McGruder Books.
Ecological Literacy: Educating Our Children for a Sustainable World, edited by Michael K. Stone and Zenobia Barlow. This book chronicles some of the most exciting work that the Center for Ecoliteracy has supported over the last decade.
Donella Meadows’ The Global Citizen (Island Press, 1991). When I need inspiration and to remember how systems thinking can help us see and change the “big picture,” I pick up this book. For a collection of Donella’s work, see the Sustainability Institute website (don’t miss Donella’s article “Dancing with Systems”).
Fritjof Capra’s The Web of Life: a New Scientific Understanding of Living Systems (Anchor Books, 1996). This book is my most definitive and accessible guide to living systems.
The Systems Thinking Playbook, When a Butterfly Sneezes and Connected Wisdom: Living Stories about Living Systems, by Linda Booth Sweeney, are also useful resources for helping kids, big and small, to learn about living systems. (See: www.lindaboothsweeney.net.)
"System Dynamics and Learner-Centered-Learning in Kindergarten through 12th Grade Education" by Jay Forrester (1992) an MIT Road Map Series Paper (D-4434-1), Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Modeling Dynamic Systems: Lessons for a First Course by Diana Fisher. This book uses STELLA software's icon-based, non-abstract language to structure problems in ways that students can easily visualize. For more by Diana Fisher, see iseesystems.com.
The Shape of Change by Rob Quaden and Alan Ticotsky. Introductory and intermediate lessons that focus on using systems thinking to teach critical thinking. Written by a team of master teacher mentors. See www.clexchange.org for more information.
Websites:
The Waters Foundation’s Systems Thinking in Schools project provides training and resource materials to K-12 teachers and administrators around the world. Don’t miss their new web-based tutorial!
Schlumberger Excellence in Educational Development (SEED) is a global non-profit education program that serves students aged 10-18. The site has a number of systems-oriented animations.
The Center for Ecoliteracy is dedicated to education for sustainable living. The site is chock-full of many systems-oriented tools and ideas to support innovation in K–12 education.
The Cloud Institute for Sustainability Education's mission is to leverage K-12 school systems to prepare young people for the shift toward a sustainable future. The website is packed with education for sustainability materials, tools, and articles.
The Creative Learning Exchange's mission is to develop systems citizens through active, learner-centered K-12 education. This site provides the educational community with a library of materials, a newsletter, K-12 listserve, and a biennial conference.
Many of Shelburne Farms Education Programs include hands-on activities and lessons about living systems and sustainability for both educators and students.
SEER (State Education & Environment Roundtable) is a wonderful resource for using the environment as an integrating context for learning.
Simulation Games:
Friday Night at the E.R. is a simulation experience, based in a hospital and community setting, that helps people learn to collaborate and innovate, considering the effects of their action on the larger systems. Created by Betty Gardner. This team board game works beautifully to give a team the opportunity to become students of their own behaviors.
Fish Banks, a computer-assisted, interactive role-playing simulation in which teams manage a fishing company. Created by Dennis Meadows. This team board game works beautifully to give a team the opportunity to become students of their own behaviors.
On-Line Courses/List Serve:
The K-12 system dynamics listserve is a useful resource for practitioners who are applying systems thinking in the classroom.
The MIT System Dynamics in Education project offers the Road Map self-learning courses online.
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Working with Systems
These resources include case studies, capacity building opportunities, and how-to’s for working with a variety of systems:
Books:
Russ Ackoff. Ackoff's Best: His Classic Writings on Management
(John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1999). This amazing collection had me laughing at Ackoff’s wry wit and marveling at his highly effective, real-world applications of systems theory.
John Sterman’s Business Dynamics: Systems Thinking and Modeling for a Complex World (McGraw-Hill/Irwin 2000). This is the definitive textbook on systems dynamics as applied to business. If you ever get a chance to hear John speak, go!
Jamshid Gharajedaghi Systems Thinking: Managing Chaos and Complexity - A Platform for Designing Business Architecture (Butterworth-Heinemann, 2005). If you liked Senge’s The Fifth Discipline and want more systems thinking case studies, read the second half of this book.
Soft Systems Methodology in Action by Peter Checkland and Jim Scholes. Checkland and Scholes offer practical techniques to apply systems thinking tools and methods to a variety of organizational settings, including business, healthcare, NGO’s, government, and more.
Applied Systems Thinking:
David Peter Stroh and Michael Goodman offer capability building and the application of systems thinking tools and strategies.
See this extensive list of system dynamic consultants.
Conferences:
Pegasus Communications offers a yearly conference that focuses on applied systems thinking in a variety of settings including corporations, education, non-profit, and governmental agencies.
International Society for the Systems Sciences (ISSS) is one of the oldest, and most inclusive organizations devoted to interdisciplinary inquiry into the nature of complex systems.
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Systems and Leadership
Books:
Peter Senge’s The Fifth Discipline. See also the related Fifth Discipline Fleidbooks.
Leadership and Systems Thinking
The Society for Organizational Learning
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System Tools
There are a growing number of tools available to help us to make systems visible. These tools include:
causal loop diagrams (and more on causal loops here)(http://www.pegasuscom.com/cld.html)
system archetypes. See also, Daniel Kim’s (1992) book, Systems Archetypes I (and II).
and simulations
Books:
Daniel Kim’s (1992) Systems Archetypes I (and II). Waltham, Massachusetts: Pegasus Communications.
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Understanding How Systems Work
Books/Articles:
Donella Meadows’ The Global Citizen (Island Press, 1991) When I need inspiration and to remember how systems thinking can help us see and change the “big picture,” I pick up this book. For a public collection of Donella Meadows work, see the Sustainability Institute website and Donella’s article “Dancing with Systems.”
Gerry Marten’s Human Ecology: Basic Concepts for Sustainable Development (Earthscan Publications, 2001). This is my new favorite for learning about the relationships between ecosystems and human societies.
C. West Churchman’s The Systems Approach (Delacorte Press, 1984).
Fritjof Capra’s The Web of Life: a New Scientific Understanding of Living Systems (Anchor Books, 1996). This book is my most definitive and accessible guide to living systems.
Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point: How Little Things Make a Big Difference (Little Brown & Co., 2004).
Mitchell Resnick’s Turtles, Termites and Traffic Jams (MIT Press, 1995).
George Richardson’s Feedback Thought in Social Science and Systems Theory (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1991).
Jay Forrester’s Principle of Systems (Productivity Press, 1968).
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Websites:
International Society for the Systems Sciences
The New England Complex Systems Institute
The Ackoff Center for Advancement of System Approaches
(I enjoy their blog as well)
Systems Design
These resources apply the principles of living systems to infrastructure and organization design.
Books/Articles:
Bill McDonough and Michael Braungart’s Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things (North Point Press, 2002). Designing with living systems in mind.
Biomimcry: Innovation Inspired by Nature by Janine Benyus. Biomimicry is a design disciple that asks a simple but profound question: how does nature do it? Benyus offers up a design discipline that studies nature’s best ideas and then imitates the designs to solve human problems. For more about Biomimicry, see www.biomimicry.net.
The Nature of DesignEcology, Culture, and Human Intention by David W. Orr. A terrific primer on the emerging field of ecological design.
Bela H. Banathy (1996) Designing Social Systems in a Changing World (Contemporary Systems Thinking). (Springer) ISBN 0-306-45251-0
Systems Thinking 4 Kids
Systems Teaching and Farm-Based Education by L. Booth Sweeney This article is about the potential of teaching about living systems on farms. Link to article, Farm-Based Education Association newsletter(winter/Spring 2009).Download newsletter
Dr. Art’s Guide to Planet Earth: For Earthlings Ages 12-120. Using clear, conversational language, Dr. Art Sussman uses a systems approach to explain how the planet works. This is one of my all-time favorite natural science books for young people.
Billibonk & the Big Itch (and three other Billibonk stories) by Philip Ramsey (Pegasus Communications, 1998).
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