Thinking in Systems

A Primer

De: Donella H. Meadows

Narrado por: Tia Rider Sorensen

In the years following her role as the lead author of the international best seller, 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 listeners 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 listeners 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 listeners 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 listeners avoid confusion and helplessness, the first step toward finding proactive and effective solutions.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2008 Sustainability Institute (P)2018 Chelsea Green Publishing

Skip to the Middle

The first and last chapters of this book are useless, but the middle is wonderful. The intro tries to hook you with a "you guys think differently" monologue that comes across like an evangelist seeking a convert; and the conclusion mixes a bunch of unsubstantiated and unconnected ethical theses in with a few plausible applications of systems thinking to life in general. If you want to learn the subject, this book will certainly help you. The middle is serious writing and presents the topic in an approachable fashion; but do yourself a favor and listen ONLY to the middle.

Changed the way I approach my work

I came to this book with no systems thinking background. It helped me get a foundation for the elements and influence on systems, and provided a framework for approaching problems by looking for stocks, inflows and outflows of system at hand. It has already influenced how I craft goals, consider stakeholders, and make strategic choices. I’m not a systems thinker because of this book. However, I’m a slightly better leader because of its lessons.

It can be a little difficult for a novice to listen to the first several chapters. Those chapters cover key concepts that would benefit from pictorial representations of the systems concepts. I’m listening to the book a second time, and I’m picking up a lot more this time.

Excellent!!!

Very good explanation of what I thought I already knew. I was wrong. Enjoyed and engaged every minute of it.

Simply Excellent

This work is understandable, insightful. Informative. Cogent. I found the narrator to be easy to listen to and engaging.

Very politically skewed

I was expecting an apolotical book on cognition and got one threw the lens of a left leaning ideologue. This makes it hard to recommend this book professionally.