Systems Thinking is a more natural and better way to think, learn, act, and achieve desired results. Effectively implemented, it can dramatically improve a manager's effectiveness in today's complex and interconnected business world. This book provides managers with many practical new Systems Thinking tools and the main concepts of Systems Thinking to enhance individual, team, and organizational learning, change, and performance. Every manager should have a copy!. Contents: Overview of Systems Thinking and Learning. Standard Systems Dynamics. Phase A: The Outcome Thinking Tools. Phase B: Feedb.

The classic book on systems thinking—with more than half a million copies sold worldwide! "This is a fabulous book... This book opened my mind and reshaped the way I think about investing."—Forbes "Thinking in Systems is required reading for anyone hoping to run a successful company, community, or country. Learning how to think in systems is now part of change-agent literacy. And this is the best book of its kind."—Hunter Lovins In the years following her role as the lead author of the international bestseller, Limits to Growth—the first book to show the consequences of unchecked growth on a finite planet—Donella Meadows remained a pioneer of environmental and social analysis until her untimely death in 2001. Thinking in Systems is a concise and crucial book offering insight for problem solving on scales ranging from the personal to the global. Edited by the Sustainability Institute’s Diana Wright, this essential primer brings systems thinking out of the realm of computers and equations and into the tangible world, showing readers how to develop the systems-thinking skills that thought leaders across the globe consider critical for 21st-century life. Some of the biggest problems facing the world—war, hunger, poverty, and environmental degradation—are essentially system failures. They cannot be solved by fixing one piece in isolation from the others, because even seemingly minor details have enormous power to undermine the best efforts of too-narrow thinking. While readers will learn the conceptual tools and methods of systems thinking, the heart of the book is grander than methodology. Donella Meadows was known as much for nurturing positive outcomes as she was for delving into the science behind global dilemmas. She reminds readers to pay attention to what is important, not just what is quantifiable, to stay humble, and to stay a learner. In a world growing ever more complicated, crowded, and interdependent, Thinking in Systems helps readers avoid confusion and helplessness, the first step toward finding proactive and effective solutions.

How to use Systems Thinking to improve your business.

This pragmatic guide shows how to create an organization of learners. The stories in this book show that businesses, schools, agencies and even communities can undo their "learning disabilities" and achieve superior performance.

“A guide that introduces system thinking, thereby demystifying the management process and helping you see your entire situation and a clear path forward.” —Eric Dean, CEO, Whereoware Every manager knows a business is a system, yet very few have studied systems thinking or system dynamics. This is a critical oversight, one which Simple_Complexity remedies. Simple_Complexity reveals the fundamental system archetype at work in your enterprise and prescribes new and exciting ways to re-invigorate your management thinking. Picking up where the greats in management thought leave off, Simple_Complexity provides a systems context that powerfully enriches traditional management thought and practice. “Willy takes the powerful but complex discipline of systems thinking, lays it bare for everyone to see and comprehend through real and practical examples. He helps readers understand that systems invariably comprise and touch every activity and part of the enterprise and not understanding them can lead to devastating results.” —Lance Drummond, Executive in Residence Christopher Newport University, Luter School of Business, Board Member Freddie Mac “Simple_Complexity will push your thinking about organizations and the people who manage and populate them to a new level. You will never view organizations in the same way again.” —Michael Fraser, President & CEO, National Technologies Associates, Inc. “[A] practical little book on leadership. Here is someone with (a) real-world experience, (b) advanced academic credentials, and (c) a humble spirit, and he is willing to do one thing: he translates fresh ideas from systems thinking into language that anyone with a lick of ambition can understand and use.” —Nathan Harter, author of Cultural Dynamics and Leadership

Today's organizations are in the learning business. Employees must take in a constant supply of new information and apply it to their work regardless of their position.

Every company wants and needs productive, skilled employees. Investing in a work force that can help your business keep pace with the competition may be the most important strategic decision you make. The Manager's Pocket Guide to Performance Management clearly spells out the specific steps a manager can take to ensure improved performance organization-wide. It presents a systems approach to performance enhancement and includes tools for determining current performance levels and establishing desired performance levels. This handy reference will show managers how to: Analyze the performance of individual employees Pinpoint the gaps in performance and determine what's causing those gaps Develop practical strategies for maximizing performance Get the most from your training dollars and ensure that training is successful Give recognition of an employee's achievements Evaluate whether or not employees are using what they've learned Contents Identifying Employee Development Needs A Systems Approach to Performance Enhancement Fostering a Learning Organization Analyzing Employee Performance Identifying Causes of Performance Gaps Selecting Non-Training and Training Strategies Managing Training Resources Promoting Training Transfer Evaluating Training Outcomes