It's a holistic approach to systems methodology. It deals with all dimensions of a system: structure, function and process. Peter Senge introduced Systems Thinking/practice. Interact clients asked the author to write a book to take them "further down the Senge trail". This book does that by taking the reader into "real world" stories. It is based on experiences in five real companies using systems practice.

It is about a new mode of seeing, doing and being in the world; a way of thinking through chaos and complexity. It speaks to those thinkers and practitioners who have come to realize that learning "to be" is as much a necessary part of a successful professional life as is the learning "to do."

Natural science has discovered "chaos". Social science has encountered "complexity." But chaos and complexity are features of our perceptions and understanding. We see the world as increasingly more complex and chaotic because we use inadequate concepts to explain it. When we understand something, we no longer see it as chaotic or complex. It seems that playing the new game requires learning a new language. A language of interaction and design that will allow us to see through chaos and understand complexity.

Table of Contents :

Ch. 1 How the game is evolving
Ch. 2 Systems principles
Ch. 3 Systems dimensions
Ch. 4 The sociocultural model : information-bonded systems
Ch. 5 Systems methodology
Ch. 6 Defining the problem
Ch. 7 Designing business architecture
Ch. 8 The Oneida Nation
Ch. 9 Butterworth Health Systems
Ch. 10 The Marriott Corporation
Ch. 11 Commonwealth Energy Systems
Ch. 12 Carrier Corporation