- Paperback: 240 pages
- Publisher: A Butterworth-Heinemann Title; 1 edition (May 10 1999)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0750671637
- ISBN-13: 978-0750671637
- Product Dimensions: 23.7 x 15 x 1.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 535 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #600,338 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Description
Review
"This is an excellent addition to books written on Systems Thinking. It is practical and timely and can be used by a vast majority of professionals such as engineers, planners and managers. I recommend it very highly to practitioners and academics."
C. J. Khisty, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Illinois Institute of Technology
C. J. Khisty, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Illinois Institute of Technology
Product Description
In a nutshell, this book is about systems. This book is written for those thinkers and practitioners who have come to realize that while the whole is becoming more and more interdependent parts display choice and behave independently, and that paradoxes are the most potent challenge of emergent realities.
With a practical orientation and yet a profound theoretical depth, the book offers an operational handle on the whole by introducing an elaborate scheme called iterative design. The iterative design explicitly recognizes that choice is at the heart of human development. Development is the capacity to choose; design is a vehicle for enhancement of choice and holistic thinking. 'Designers', in this book, seek to choose rather than predict the future. They try to understand rational, emotional, and cultural dimensions of choice and to produce a design that satisfies a multitude of functions. They learn how to use what they already know and also about how to learn what they need to know.
The imperative of interdependency, the necessity of reducing endless complexities, and the need to produce manageable simplicities require a different mode of thinking, a holistic frame of reference that would allow us to focus on the relevant issues and avoid the endless search for more details while drowning in proliferating information. While organizations as a whole are becoming more and more interdependent the parts display choice and behave independently. This is the dilemma this book tries to resolve. It is a unique, cutting edge work, with a practical orientation and yet a profound theoretical depth, which goes far beyond what is currently available.
Leading edge systems thinking and practice that goes far beyond what is currently available
It deals with the whole, both conceptually and practically, written in a reader-friendly style
Five real cases cited to demonstrate practical application of theories discussed
With a practical orientation and yet a profound theoretical depth, the book offers an operational handle on the whole by introducing an elaborate scheme called iterative design. The iterative design explicitly recognizes that choice is at the heart of human development. Development is the capacity to choose; design is a vehicle for enhancement of choice and holistic thinking. 'Designers', in this book, seek to choose rather than predict the future. They try to understand rational, emotional, and cultural dimensions of choice and to produce a design that satisfies a multitude of functions. They learn how to use what they already know and also about how to learn what they need to know.
The imperative of interdependency, the necessity of reducing endless complexities, and the need to produce manageable simplicities require a different mode of thinking, a holistic frame of reference that would allow us to focus on the relevant issues and avoid the endless search for more details while drowning in proliferating information. While organizations as a whole are becoming more and more interdependent the parts display choice and behave independently. This is the dilemma this book tries to resolve. It is a unique, cutting edge work, with a practical orientation and yet a profound theoretical depth, which goes far beyond what is currently available.
Leading edge systems thinking and practice that goes far beyond what is currently available
It deals with the whole, both conceptually and practically, written in a reader-friendly style
Five real cases cited to demonstrate practical application of theories discussed
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
First Sentence
The most stubborn habits which resist change with the greatest tenacity are those which worked well for a space of time and led to the practitioner being rewarded for those behaviors. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
The most stubborn habits which resist change with the greatest tenacity are those which worked well for a space of time and led to the practitioner being rewarded for those behaviors. Read the first page
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Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A "Grand Unified Theory" of Management Practice?,
By A Customer
This review is from: Systems Thinking: Managing Chaos and Complexity: A Platform for Designing Business Architecture (Paperback)
I have been an incurable "process geek" since first reading Hammer and Champy's "Reengineering the Corporation" about a decade ago. However, despite practicing reengineering and process management since then, it has always felt like something was missing. Other popular business books have filled in some of the missing puzzle pieces but the picture has not been complete. Jamshid Gharajedaghi's "Systems Thinking" brings it all together in a coherent whole. It's as close as I've come to a "Grand Unified Theory" of management practice. Gharajedaghi's book is paradoxical. It is in some ways a difficult read, being at times quite theoretical and always intellectually stimulating. Like many other readers have reported, I had to read the book several times to really understand it (I've read it five times over the past six months). On the other hand, the material is extremely logical, well laid out, and quite common sense. At one level it is almost depressing as it lays out the challenges of dealing with highly complex and even messy sociocultural systems. Yet, it presents a straightforward methodology for systems design, analysis and improvement that can seemingly be used for any sort of organization. The book has all the rigor a scientific and analytical person would insist upon; but, it presents the purposeful and sociocultural organization in such a holistic way that I'm sure most philosophers, psychologists and sociologists would be nodding their heads in approval throughout the journey. I'm sure Jamshid would not view these as paradoxes at all. I'm sure he'd view all of these apparently opposing tendencies as "two sides of the same coin." Since reading the book, I've had a chance to begin applying the principles to two design efforts. Understanding systems has helped immensely, and I have just barely dipped my toes into these waters. I won't forget the process management tools. Not at all. As it turns out, however, process management is, as Gharajedaghi might say, "necessary but not sufficient" for business success. For those interested in putting their management tools together in one extremely useful took kit, "Systems Thinking" is a great albeit challenging next step. I've recommended it to many, and I recommend it to you.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Packs a punch,
By
This review is from: Systems Thinking: Managing Chaos and Complexity: A Platform for Designing Business Architecture (Paperback)
This is a great overview of advances in business design since the inception of systems thinking. If you want to know where competitive advantage lies in the current business world, then this is the place to start. The book is densely written, every paragraph packing a punch,the information flowing like water from a firehose - hence the re-readability of this text.
Possibly the best book on business I've yet read.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Practical systems thinking!,
By
This review is from: Systems Thinking: Managing Chaos and Complexity: A Platform for Designing Business Architecture (Paperback)
I have just reread Mr. Gharajedaghi's book. It is a very thoughtful and engaging review of systems thinking placed in the context of other world views in Modern Times. It is occasionally and with good humor spiced with thoughts from Persia, as well as from the author's direct experience with Russell Ackoff. It ties together thoughts on Business Process Management with larger views on gathering consensus, resolving conflict, engaging in beauty, and managing for profit. It is an ambitious undertaking and succeeds with great integrity.
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