Foreword ix
Acknowledgements xii
Introduction xiii

PART ONE - THINKING PAST THE OBVIOUS

1. What is a System? 2
Emergence - whirlpools and rainbows
Simple and complex systems
The system as a web
Stability and leverage
Side-effects

2. Thinking in Circles 26
Feedback loops - the essence of systems
Reinforcing feedback
Balancing feedback
Feedforward - back to the future
When we do not learn from experience

PART TWO - MAKING MENTAL MAPS

3. Mental Models 62
How we make our mental models
Mental models as a system
Challenging mental models
4. Cause and Effect 82
Three fallacies
The two sides of chaos
5. Beyond Logic 96
Taking time
Self-reference and recursion
Limiting mental models
Mental models as a leverage point

PART THREE - THINKING IN NEW WAYS

6. Learning 118
Learning as a system
Generative learning
What prevents us learning?
7. Perspectives 139
Inside out or outside in
Flat Earth thinking or global thinking
The road to hell

PART FOUR - DRAWING CONCLUSIONS

Mapping your intuitions 163
Storytime
Running on the spot
Limits to natural resources
Inner and outer limits
Weight control
Moving the goal posts
Credit and debt
Repairing the damage, again and again...
When the cure is worse than the disease
Life is like a poker game
The monopoly pattern
The tragedy of the commons

PART FIVE - CLOSING THE CIRCLE

Make connections 221
You never just do one thing
Results are not proportional to effort
A system works as well as its weakest link
Time delays

PART SIX - RESOURCES
A brief history of systems thinking 232
Bibliography 241
Resources 244
Glossary 249
Training 256
Index 258
About the Audiors 262