TABLE OF CONTENTS We learn best from our experience, but we never directly experience the consequences of many of our most important decisions.
Peter Senge, The Fifth Discipline (1990)
Chapter Seven Learning Objectives
Learn that complex systems are not linear in nature ... they are circular.
Understand that symptomatic solutions typically fail to address fundamental difficulties and result in cycles of reoccurring interventions.
See how delays tend to increase the amount of oscillation in a system.
Know that closed systems will fail as entropy inevitably builds up.
Notice how buffers increase the ability of a system to adapt to changes in flow.
Mankind has succeeded over time in conquering the physical world largely by adopting the analytic method described earlier in this text. To understand problems, we break a problem into components, study each part in isolation, and then draw conclusions about the whole. This is a powerful technique for problem solving. Unfortunately, this sort of linear analysis is rarely effective in addressing large, complex organizational problems because complex systems are not linear in nature they are circular.
General systems theory was introduced in the 1940s by Ludwig von Berttalanffy and then was later expanded into the field of system dynamics in 1956 by MIT professor Jay Forrester. In 1990, Peter Senge released his widely acclaimed book, The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization. It sought to ameliorate the rapid advance of technologic complexities that have occurred in this century. It focused on...
