Unknown

"The occupation of a Ruler"

"A regulation, law, guideline or other determinate method prescribed for performing any operation (See Rules)"

"Government"

"Poincaré conjecture"

"Raymond Poincaré"

"Henri Poincaré"

"Systems thinking, as written about and practiced by Russell Ackoff, C. West Churchman, Peter Checkland and others, contained within it many of the impulses that motivate the application of design ideas to strategy, organization, society, and management. Ideas such as engaging a broad set of stakeholders, moving beyond simple metrics and calculations, considering idealized options and using scenarios to explore them, shifting boundaries to reframe problems, iteration, the liberal use of diagrams and rich pictures, and tirelessly searching for a better set of alternatives were all there. If the business and management community had bought it, we would not be having the many discussions about design, design thinking, and expanding management education to engage the intuitive, to embrace values, to look beyond available choices."

"Critical systems thinkers like Midgley identify three waves of systems thinking over the last 50 years or so. Early systems theorists (e.g. Bertalanffy) described systems in physical terms, resorting to metaphors from electronic computation or biology. This 'hard systems' tradition still has its advocates and practitioners... Subsequently the limits of the physical metaphor... were reached, and the second wave of systems thinking developed. This 'soft systems thinking' employed social metaphors to develop appropriate systems approaches for human systems. The move to a more phenomenological, interpretative understanding of human systems, where meaning is central and is negotiated intersubjectively, parallels the new paradigm / crisis of social psychology of the 1970s. The Third wave, or critical systems school, in which Midgley locates himself, has drawn on the critical theory of Habermas, particularly in relation to theories of knowledge and of communicative rationality, and on the work of Foucault and followers on the nature of power."

"It was appropriate to say up front that systems thinking is the parent of design thinking and systems inquiry embeds design inquiry."

"is the ordered arrangement of knowledge acquired from the study of systems in the observable world, together with the application of this knowledge to the design of man-made systems."

"Systems thinking is a special form of holistic thinking - dealing with wholes rather than parts. One way of thinking about this is in terms of a hierarchy of levels of biological organization and of the different 'emergent' properties that are evident in say, the whole plant (e.g. wilting) that are not evident at the level of the cell (loss of turgor). It is also possible to bring different perspectives to bear on these different levels of organization. Holistic thinking starts by looking at the nature and behaviour of the whole system that those participating have agreed to be worthy of study. This involves: (i) taking multiple partial views of 'reality'... (ii) placing conceptual boundaries around the whole, or system of interest and (iii) devising ways of representing systems of interest."

"Peter Senge (1990), Fritjof Capra (1996), Peter Checkland (1999), and other researchers have transferred systems thinking principles and theories into practice by applying them to real-world organizational- wide issues, thus encouraging the thus encouraging the creation and development of learning organizations."

"The assumptions which underpin hard systems thinking and distinguish it from soft systems thinking can now be clearly recognized. A basic assumption is that the world can be understood objectively and that knowledge about the world can be validated by empirical means. This assumption supports the role of models in the hard tradition, which are seen to be representations of and which can be treated as proxies for the world. Methodologies based in hard systems thinking will reflect this assumption by placing great emphasis upon the modeling and validation processes, for these are central to the ability of the approaches to reproduce behavior in the models they involve A second assumption of hard systems thinking is the ability to define objectives and then to identify the best way of proceeding in order to achieve them. The notions of goal seeking and rational decision making depend upon this assumption, for if objectives cannot be defined, then a process which sets out to find the best way of achieving them is of no value..."

"Practitioners and proponents embrace a holistic vision. They focus on the interconnections among subsystems and components, taking special note of the interfaces among various parts. What is significant is that system builders include heterogeneous components, such as mechanical, electrical, and organizational parts, in a single system. Organizational parts might be managerial structures, such as a military command, or political entities, such as a government bureau. Organizational components not only interact with technical ones but often reflect their characteristics. For instance, a management organization for presiding over the development of an intercontinental missile system might be divided into divisions that mirror the parts of the missile being designed."

"Systems thinking is not new; it has been around for thousands of years in many different guises. Ancient creation myths were instances of systems thinking. Operations analysis, systems analysis, failure analysis, risk analysis, corporate benefit analysis, financial modeling, quantity surveying, investment appraisal, finite element analysis, civil engineering models, economic modeling, simulations, and many more are all modern ways of thinking about systems. Imaginative visualization should be on the list, too. What is new, perhaps, is the ready availability of powerful desktop tools that permit and enable us to think about the most complex and complicated issues and systems. Processors allow us to tackle problems of such complexity and magnitude that, without them, we would be obliged to guess. The same tools reveal unexpected complex behavior from simple systems."

"Systems thinking is relatively recent, at least as an identifiable practice. There are books on the subject, but different authors view the subject differently, so it is an as-yet unconstrained discipline."

"Systems Thinking is based on 50+ years of scientific research by the Society for General Systems Research on the 12 Characteristics of life on earth, leading to the natural way the world works."

"Systems thinking is a lost art with a very practical set of tools which our consultants and l use. lt assists us and our clients' thinking, diagnoses, and actions in whatever we do... and wherever we go in a much better, more holistic and practical way than traditional methods."

"Hyvä zavoduš — puoli dielua."

"Omas silmäs ei nävy ni parzi, a toizen silmäs nägyy toppu."

"Lassta i gacā gukkas muoras."

"I olmus oaine jecas ealmis riba; mutto nubbi calmis.."

"Min jorqod ma jaqbadx ħut."

"Min jibki, jerda'."

"Ed rada, ka ed śö."

"Kulhadd jahbi t-travu tieghu u jara t-traba f'ghajn haddiehor."

"Iż-żmien għaziz u ma jinxtarax."

"Il-ħuta ż-żgħira qatt ma kielet il-ħuta l-kbira."

"Il-ħuta l-kbira tiekol iż-żghira."

"Ġebel ma' ģebel ma jiltaqa', izda wiċċ jiltaqa'."

"Bidu tajjeb, nofs ix-xogħol."

"Plaj plajeça ći maladōl, rrom rromesa."

"Phaori si duje xulajenqe te keres buti."

"O maćho o baro xàla e tikinen."

"Numaj dileno ćiriklo xindel po kujbo."

"Lo premièr còp tomba pas l'aubre."

"Lel the tacho pirrow, an' it's pars kaired."

"Whatever you do, you've got to work for it and earn it. Whatever reward you get you've got to know that you've had your input into that success."

"Kon či kerel butji, godo te na xal."

"Kasavi vi e śej saj sar i dej."

"Anda 'vresqe jakha sa dikhel anda pesqe khanc."

"Či perel a phabaj kathar pesko kaš maj dur."

"Pū ei lankte ühtel painandal."

"Mit'te mam, mugoi t'itar."

"Mite tat, mugō i poig."

"Iceiz sil'mas part i nägy, a verhas sil'mas i puik nägub."

"Igä elä, iga opeta."

"Ūz lūdō pū'stōb ṗu'dōks pḭrand."

"Umārz umārzpūst kōgaz äb dadā."

"Pū äb sadā e'zmis napsɑks."