Practical Systems Thinking

This book provides a practical and rewarding path for early to mid-career professionals of all disciplines (STEM and non-STEM) to develop the intentional mental practice of Systems Thinking together with Rigorous Methods that improve the way we view, contemplate, approach and deal with complex challenges. It teaches a concise and easy to follow set of practice–derived generic Systems Principles that offer a superior alternative to the linear compartmentalized thinking that unfortunately dominates our industry, education, language, and culture today. The book has 3 main parts: Part I introduces systems thinking and covers why thinking of problems as systems is essential. Part II teaches the Systems Thinking Philosophy and how to use the Systems Principles to guide the way we see, understand, behave, act, and utilize Rigorous Methods to augment dealing with individual and organizational challenges. Part III exposes a range practical applications of Rigorous Methods that apply the Systems Principles particularly the Model-Based Systems Thinking method that integrates System Dynamics, Architectural, Agent-Based, Stochastic, Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence modeling methods. The reader will be able to classify good and bad systems thinking culture, understand major systemic successes and failures. The main theme of this book is Systems Thinking Philosophy based on System Principles and reliable Methods that are likely to stay in demand over time. - Shows practice-derived systems principles relevant to complex challenges from across all academic/professional domains; - Teaches practical Systems Thinking Philosophy and reliable Rigorous Methods to approach complex challenges; - Reinforces concepts presented with case studies of good and bad systems thinking in aerospace, defense, and healthcare.