books

Systems thinking

Never Underestimate Me

In this episode Joel and Antonia talk about systems thinking. They reject the notion of cause and effect and instead posit the idea that everything is an emergent property of a system.

In this podcast on Systems Thinking and the Illusion of Cause-and-Effect you’ll find:

    There is no such thing as Cause and Effect but only “Emergent Properties of Systems”
    Systems Thinking is a way of thinking or interacting with reality that is different from basic Cause and Effect.
    When we try to create influenced results, we end up having limited influence over it because we are not seeing the other Influencers or Nodes in the system.
    To have a desired result, recognize that nodes have to work in a certain way to have an “emergent” (thing that emerges from all things working together).
    We turn to Cause and Effect thinking because things are too complex to understand and because it is easier to fuse Sequential events.
    A System is a cluster of themes working together influencing each other; doing things synchronously and asynchronously and brings about an inevitable emergent.
    Two things to keep in mind about systems:

    Initial Condition (starting condition of a system)
    How the nodes in the system interact with each other

    Systems thinking is more accurate than Cause and Effect thinking. It improves relationships and gives more favorable results.
    Raymond Kurzweil’s Theory of Singularity states that Technology doubles in an exponential growth curve. Singularity is the time period where technology is doubling too fast to observe.
    The value of node connections is going up while the cost of information is lowering down.
    Intuition is needed now more than ever to figure which systems to work on, how systems are working and how to manage information.
    Gregory Bateson (Author, Steps to an Ecology of Mind) states “Systems are delicate. We don’t see them so we break them”.


Systems Thinking & The Illusion of Cause and Effect | PODCAST 0039

Listen to an excerpt of Tiffany Dufu's DROP THE BALL audiobook, read for you by the author.

A bold and inspiring memoir and manifesto from a renowned voice in the women's leadership movement who shows women how to cultivate the single skill they really need in order to thrive: the ability to let go.

Once the poster girl for doing it all, after she had her first child, Tiffany Dufu struggled to accomplish everything she thought she needed to in order to succeed. Like so many driven and talented women who have been brought up to believe that to have it all, they must do it all, Dufu began to feel that achieving her career and personal goals was an impossibility. Eventually, she discovered the solution: letting go. In Drop the Ball, Dufu recounts how she learned to reevaluate expectations, shrink her to-do list, and meaningfully engage the assistance of others - freeing the space she needed to flourish at work and to develop deeper, more meaningful relationships at home.

Even though women are half the workforce, they still represent only 18 percent of the highest level leaders. The reasons are obvious: just as women reach middle management they are also starting families. Mounting responsibilities at work and home leave them with no bandwidth to do what will most lead to their success. Offering new perspective on why the women's leadership movement has stalled, and packed with actionable advice, Tiffany Dufu's Drop the Ball urges women to embrace imperfection, to expect less of themselves and more from others - only then can they focus on what they truly care about, devote the necessary energy to achieving their real goals, and create the type of rich, rewarding life we all desire.

Buy the audiobook

Drop the Ball by Tiffany Dufu, "A Woman's Place"

From Impossible To Inevitable by Aaron Ross and Jason Lemkin on Audible

From Impossible To Inevitable by Aaron Ross and Jason Lemkin, Narrated by Aaron Ross

Rafael Gomez discusses how design and systems thinking can be used as a weapon to solve problems, he shares perspectives on tertiary design education and concerns about design not being properly leveraged to shift policy.

Impact Boom Podcast

Episode 31 (2017) Rafael Gomez On Systems Thinking, Design & Education To Tackle Complex Problems

On this episode of Coffee and Change we talk with Brian Smith, a Systems Engineer at the University of Washington who has over 20 years experience in the technology field. We discuss the changing expectations of IT stakeholders and emerging technologies that are changing our consumer and professional interactions and engagement.

Bill Kirst's Album

Episode 07: Ever Changing Technology & Systems Engineering

In this podcast, Joe Elm discusses the results of a recent technical report, The Business Case for Systems Engineering, which establishes clear links between the application of systems engineering (SE) best practices to projects and programs and the performance of those projects and programs. The report clearly shows that projects that do more SE perform better in terms of meeting budgets, schedules, and technical requirements. The survey population consisted of projects and programs executed by system developers reached through the National Defense Industrial Association Systems Engineering Division, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Aerospace and Electronic Systems Society, and the International Council on Systems Engineering. Listen on Apple Podcasts.

The Business Case for Systems Engineering

Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) is the practice of developing a set of related system models that help define, design, and document a system under development. These models provide an efficient way to explore, update, and communicate system aspects to fellow System Engineers and business stakeholders (like clients or software engineers)  while significantly reducing or eliminating dependence on traditional documents.

When combined with Agile & Lean practices - where the focus is based on adaptive planning and fast-learning and shorter delivery times – Agile & MBSE become a powerful discipline that allows engineers to quickly and incrementally learn about the system under development before the cost of change gets too high.

Join the Continuous Engineering Experts’ Bryan Smith as he welcomes Dr. Bruce Douglass – IBM’s Chief Evangelist for their Watson IoT division – as they discuss the benefits to adopting Agile and Model Based Systems Engineering and how you can get started with aMBSE in your organization. 


Short on time? Just click on any of the links below and jump to that section of the interview:

0:03:41 – What does it mean to be “Agile” in Systems Engineering?  How do you do Agile in a practical way in Systems Engineering?
0:04:48 – What do you mean by “verification & validation” and how important is this when applying Agile in Systems Engineering?
0:06:35 – How do elements like UML and SysML come together in an Agile MBSE (aMBSE) process? 
0:14:01 -  Where does aMBSE fit within a larger, engineering effort that combines software, firmware and hardware?
0:23:47 – How do organizations get started in adopting Agile MBSE? 
0:31:14 – Is there a place for the Harmony aMBSE process and the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) to work together, or are they inherently different?

Agile & Model Based Systems Engineering

The SEI is a nonprofit, public–private partnership conducting R&D in software engineering, systems engineering, cybersecurity, and many other areas of computing, working to introduce private-sector innovations into government.

The Business Case for Systems Engineering

Carnegie Mellon - Software Engineering Institute