Intertwingled presents a fast, easy to read, and personal overview of systems thinking.
Personal, because the author intertwines his own personal stories to provide many of the illustrative examples of interconnection and systems thinking.
It fits very much in the 'management' overview category so will probably sell well.
If you don't know much about systems thinking then over the course of the 5 chapters you will be introduced to different modes of thought, different approaches to modelling, different approaches to observation and analysis.
( amazon.co.uk | amazon.com )
For me, the most practical chapters were towards the end of the book where Peter draws on insights from his consulting career to offer some models for analysing cultural fit and exploring how to communicate within the contextual culture of an organisation.
Peter offers quotes from his research sources throughout the book, and I particularly enjoyed this quote from architect Eliel Saarinen "always design a thing by considering it in its next larger context: a chair in a room, a room in a house, a house in an environment, an environment in a city plan." A quick web search reveals that this is a fairly popular and well used quote, but I had never encountered it before.
I also appreciated the visual modelling examples used. Peter presents a cut down version of the Walt Disney marketing strategy in the book - and it is worth trying to hunt down the full version of the diagram. And additional sources around the diagram
- What is the theory of your Firm? from HBR (Disney value creation map)
- BambooInnovator article on Disney model
In fact one of the benefits of the book is the exploration of the notes and references references section in the back of the book to go deeper into the topics that Peter has personalised with his examples. You can find a lot of these on Peter's goodreads list, but it is worth conducting your own web searches around the titles so you can find additional articles that cover the topics.
In short, an easy to read overview of systems thinking which shows, using personal examples, the interconnectedness of subjects and demonstrates the value of taking an interdisciplinary approach to life, work and the universe in general.
You can read more of Peter's writing on his blog (intertwingled.org) or company site (semanticstudios.com)
Buy Intertwingled @ amazon.com, amazon.co.uk
Related Links:
- intertwingled.org the blog
- semanticstudios.com Peter's Company Site
- Buy @ amazon.co.uk
- Buy from amazon.com
- Peter's GoodReads page
- Eliel Saarinen
- What is the theory of your Firm? from hbr (Disney value creation map)
- BambooInnovator article on Disney model
- Modern Disney on Value Creation
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