[bjterry]

I have been thinking a lot about Systems Thinking recently. Will Larson writes in An Elegant Puzzle: Systems of Engineering Management that it's one of the most useful general tools he's discovered for approaching management problems. That inspired me to read Donella Meadows Thing in Systems, but even after reading that, I'm not sure how to apply it to engineering organizations. It's only tangential to this topic, but if anyone has a good course or book that works through examples which can be transferred to managing engineering teams or organizations, I'd be grateful. When I read most systems thinking materials I get the sense that they are mostly focused on civilization-level problems like global warming, rather than on ways that I can individually use it to understand and make changes within my more prosaic scope.

I also have a little bit of the feeling that the emperor has no clothes, since in spite of all their ideas, I can't find any major company that has successfully transformed an industry based on systems thinking, nor can I find any major social ill that has been solved through the application of systems thinking. If anyone has any concrete cases of those, I'd also be interested.

I have a blog post working on applying Donella Meadows' Leverage Points to an engineering problem (incident retrospectives), but it's unsatisfying enough that I haven't figured out how to make it publishable.

[pjmorris]

In addition to the other excellent recommendations here, I'd suggest the work of Jerry Weinberg. He wrote 'An Introduction to General Systems Thinking,' and he applied systems thinking in the work that he did. The two works that come to mind in view of your question are 'How To Become a Technical Leader', focused on the individual manager and their team, and the four-volume 'Quality Software Management', focused on both the manager and the organization.

[gerbler]

Have you come across Business Dynamics by John Sterman? It's essentially Meadows approach applied to the business environment, including thinking about general organizational structure.

[bjterry]

Thanks, this is a great recommendation based on the Amazon reviews!

[michael1999]

Toyota and their production system comes to mind as the prototype of a system oriented company that transformed their industry. And Ford, in the original.

[bmitc]

You might be interested in Stafford Beer's work and books, which applies cybernetics to organizational management.