Learning Systems Thinking

Learning Systems Thinking

by Diana Montalion
Released July 2024
Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
ISBN: 9781098151331

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Book description

Welcome to the systems age, where software professionals are no longer building software&emdash;we're building systems of software. Change is continuously deployed across software ecosystems coordinated by responsive infrastructure.

In this world of increasing relational complexity, we need to think differently. Many of our challenges are systemic. This book shows you how systems thinking can guide you through the complexity of modern systems. Rather than relying on traditional reductionistic approaches, author Diana Montalion shows you how to expand your skill set so we can think, communicate, and act as healthy systems.

Systems thinking is a practice that improves your effectiveness and enables you to lead impactful change. Through a series of practices and real-world scenarios, you'll learn to shift your perspective in order to design, develop, and deliver better outcomes.

You'll learn:

  • How linear thinking limits your ability to solve system challenges
  • Common obstacles to systems thinking and how to move past them
  • New skills and practices that will transform how you think, learn, and lead
  • Methods for thinking well with others and creating sound recommendations
  • How to measure success in the midst of complexity and uncertainty

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Table of contents

  1. Preface
    1. From Nowhere to Everywhere
    2. From Software to Systems
    3. Technology Design Is Communication Design
    4. Conventions Used in This Book
    5. Supplemental Material
    6. O’Reilly Online Learning
    7. How to Contact Us
    8. Acknowledgments
  2. I. A System of Thinking
  3. 1. What Is Systems Thinking?
    1. Linear Thinking Is the Default
    2. Systems Thinking Is Nonlinear
    3. What Is Systems Thinking?
    4. Systems Thinking Is a Practice
    5. Qualities of a Systems Thinker
    6. MAGO’s Quandary
  4. 2. Crafting Conceptual Integrity
    1. Relationships Produce Effect
    2. Systems Thinking Is Sociotechnical
    3. Counterintuitiveness
    4. A System in Flux
    5. A System of Ideas
    6. Time Is Always a Factor
    7. Support for Your Practice: Riding on the Front of the Train
    8. Your Practice: Writing as Thinking
    9. Counterintuitive MAGO
  5. 3. Shifting Your Perspective
    1. Five Core Practices
      1. You Are Constantly Learning
      2. You’re Comfortable Structuring Inquiry
      3. You Do (or Are Willing to Do) Deep Work
      4. You Respectfully Engage
      5. You Stop Being Sisyphus
    2. Modeling as a Core Practice
    3. The Iceberg That Sinks Our Initiatives
      1. Events
      2. Patterns and Trends
      3. Structure
      4. Mental Models
    4. The Blame Game
    5. Your Practice: The Iceberg Model
    6. MAGO’s Quandary: Shifting Perspective
    7. Support for Your Practice: Shifting Perspective Is Hard
  6. II. You Are a System of Thinking
  7. 4. Self-Awareness as a Foundational Skill
    1. Systems Thinking: The Hard Parts
    2. Decision Making Is a Noisy Process
    3. Observe Your Thinking
      1. Your Practice: Flow with Your Thinking
      2. Alternative Practices
    4. MAGO: Everything Is in Our Blind Spots
      1. Model the Current System
      2. Research Similar Systems
      3. Listen to the Pain
      4. Make Some Prototypes
      5. What If We Do Nothing?
    5. Support for Your Practice: 12 Things Self-Awareness Taught Me
  8. 5. Replace Reacting with Responding
    1. Noticing Your Reactions
    2. Opinion-Driven as Normal
    3. Empathy as a Core Skill
    4. Create Space for Your Reactions
    5. Your Practice: Options When Reacting
      1. “Yes, and…”
      2. The 24-Hour Rule
      3. Breathe
      4. Go for a Walk
      5. Make a Snack or Take a Nap
      6. Write
      7. Notice Your Triggers: They Are Clues
    6. MAGO’s Reactions
    7. Support for Your Practice: The Stories Don’t Have to Be the Same
  9. 6. A System of Learning
    1. A Learning-Driven Career
    2. Practice 1: What Motivates You?
    3. Designing Your Learning Activities
      1. Generate Artifacts
      2. Observe and Inquire
      3. Synthesize
      4. Experience
    4. Practice 2: Describe Your Activities
    5. Designing Your Learning Outcomes
    6. Practice 3: Learning Outcomes
      1. Improve Your Ability to Shift Perspective
      2. Increase Your Tolerance for Ambiguity
      3. Understand Context and Relational Impact
      4. Identify Patterns and Structures
      5. Create Groupings and Boundaries Without Reductionism
      6. Think Critically and Apply Sound Judgment
      7. Develop Your Interpersonal Skills
    7. Design Feedback Loops
    8. Practice 4: Who Can Help Me?
    9. One Day at a Time, Forever
    10. MAGO: Boundless Learning Opportunities
    11. Support for Your Practice: It’s All Interrelated
  10. III. We Are a System of Thinking
  11. 7. Collective Systemic Reasoning
    1. What Is Systemic Reasoning?
      1. How Systemic Reasoning Is Collective
      2. Systemic Reasoning Has Other Names
      3. Systemic Reasoning Is Building an Idea
    2. Your Practice: Create a Proposition
      1. Identify Your Idea, Action, or Theory
      2. Identify Your Reasons
      3. Strengthen the Reasons
      4. Be Honest About Potential Pitfalls
    3. Systemic Reasoning Is a Method of Inquiry
    4. Systemic Reasoning Is a Worthwhile Investment
    5. Systemic Reasoning Structures (and Frames) Ambiguity
    6. The Top-Down Elaboration
    7. Strengthening the Reasons
      1. Understandable
      2. Reliable
      3. Relevant
      4. Cohesive
      5. Cogent
    8. Your Practice: Strengthen Your Reasons
    9. MAGO’s Proposition
    10. Support for Your Practice: The Iceberg Model
  12. 8. Designing Feedback Loops
    1. Building Conceptual Bridges
      1. Mind the Gaps
      2. The Bridges
    2. Systems Thinking Needs Feedback Loops
      1. Ask for the Feedback You Need
      2. Get Feedback from People You Need
      3. Follow the Golden Rule of Feedback
      4. Feedback Loops Include Learning
    3. Four Core Skills
      1. How to Listen
      2. Change Your Own Mind
      3. Engage with the Reasons
      4. Look for Fallacies
    4. Your Practice: Get Some Feedback
    5. MAGO: Helpful Conceptual Bridges
    6. Support for Your Practice: Strong Conceptual Bridges
  13. 9. Pattern Thinking
    1. What Is Pattern Thinking?
    2. Patterns Produce Events
    3. How Relationships Produce Effect
      1. Same Event, Different Patterns
      2. Where to Look for Patterns
      3. Three Types of Patterns
    4. Seven Pattern Thinking Questions
    5. MAGO: Looking at the Patterns
      1. Patterns in Relationship
      2. External, Technology System, and Process Patterns
      3. Applying the Seven Questions to MAGO
    6. Your Practice: The Seven Questions
    7. Support for Your Practice: Pattern Thinking Outside of Technology
  14. IV. Designing a System of Thinking
  15. 10. Modeling, Together
    1. What Is Modeling?
      1. A Model Doesn’t Unify—Modeling Does
      2. Design Thinking
      3. There’s No One Way
    2. Taking a Systems Perspective
      1. What Do We Model?
      2. The Domain
      3. Causal Loops
      4. The Seven Questions
    3. MAGO from a Systems Perspective
      1. The Problem and Solution Space
      2. Linear and Nonlinear, Revisited
      3. Patterns, Revisited
    4. Your Practice: Go Model
    5. Support for Your Practice: Resources
  16. 11. Systems Leadership
    1. The Paradigm We Work In
      1. What Systems Leadership Is Not
    2. Characteristics of Systems Leadership
      1. Architecting Communication Structures
      2. Integrative Leadership
      3. Finding Places to Intervene
    3. Learning Leadership
      1. Developing Learning Heuristics
      2. Seven Learning Heuristics
    4. MAGO: Systems Leadership
      1. Understand the Pain
      2. Identify the System’s Highest-Value Purpose
      3. Model the Current System
      4. Create a Shared Space for Thinking Together
      5. Articulate and Justify the Core Problem(s)
      6. Recommend Pathways Toward Improving the Systems
      7. Design a System of Communication and Encourage Thinking Well Together
      8. Take Excellent Care of Yourself
      9. Encourage Systems Thinking
    5. Your Practice: A Systems Leadership Cohort
  17. 12. Redefining Success
    1. Success Is a System
      1. Successful Systems Have Enabling Constraints
      2. Successful Systems Solve Root Causes
      3. Successful Systems Equalize Impact
      4. Successful Systems Generate Knowledge Flow
    2. Your Practice: Success Is a Paradigm Shift
    3. Qualities of Success
    4. Success for MAGO
    5. Support for Your Practice: Objectives for Systems Leaders
      1. Objective: Cultivate Conceptual Integrity in Solution Recommendations
      2. Objective: Improve Knowledge Stock
      3. Objective: Improve Knowledge Flow
    6. Dancing with Systems
  18. Further Resources
    1. Books
    2. Articles
    3. Tools & Approaches
  19. Glossary
  20. Index
  21. About the Author

Product information

  • Title: Learning Systems Thinking
  • Author(s): Diana Montalion
  • Release date: July 2024
  • Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
  • ISBN: 9781098151331