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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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