Think In Systems Quotes

“Our life is a system, yet we don’t think of it this way. Thinking of our lives as a system that can be organized and broken down into and analyzed as smaller concepts helps us focus and improve a particular issue in isolation.”
― Zoe McKey, Think in Systems: The Art of Strategic Planning, Effective Problem Solving, And Lasting Results

“One reason so many of us fear change is because we are told it’s bad to make a mistake. All throughout our lives, there is this notion drilled into our minds that mistakes hold us back. August Bush III, a CEO of a highly success company, told the rest of his vice presidents that, “If you didn't make a serious mistake last year, you probably didn't do your job, because you didn’t try anything new. There is nothing wrong in making a mistake, but if you ever make the same mistake twice, you probably won't be here the next year.”[”
― Zoe McKey, Think In Systems: The Theory and Practice of Strategic Planning, Problem Solving, and Creating Lasting Results - Complexity Made Simple

“So how do we use the knowledge we’ve gained about bottlenecks, leverage, and feedback loops? When we identify a bottleneck, we should devote our time to using the highest leverage until the bottleneck is no longer a problem. Then we measure our improvement-detecting feedback loops. Then we move on to clear our next bottleneck. The more bottlenecks we overcome, the less constraining the next bottleneck will be. This is a cycle where each repetition will push us to a higher level of emergence. “Shortly: find your bottleneck, experiment to remove it, repeat.”[ xix]”
― Zoe McKey, Think In Systems: The Theory and Practice of Strategic Planning, Problem Solving, and Creating Lasting Results - Complexity Made Simple

“Leverage is a skill to influence a system to “return the maximum effect per a unit of effort.” Today, our attention is scattered and our time and energy limited, compared to how many options we have. However, we can maximize the benefits of our time and energy by using leverage.”
― Zoe McKey, Think In Systems: The Theory and Practice of Strategic Planning, Problem Solving, and Creating Lasting Results - Complexity Made Simple

“Why is important to know which part has the greatest impact if changed? For two reasons. First, if you experience disturbance in a system, you can now know on which level to seek the error that needs to be fixed. Second, if you wish to change a malfunctioning system, now you know what impact your interference will have on different levels. For example, if you have a company which experiences a deficit for years, you know that just changing the employees won’t make a big difference unless they will also have a better work ethic (change on the interconnection level). You can also change the function of your company —you can downsize the company to one worker, yourself. Thus, you can save on employee wages, taxes, etc. However, this way your affair hardly can be called company, rather an individual business.”
― Zoe McKey, Think In Systems: The Theory and Practice of Strategic Planning, Problem Solving, and Creating Lasting Results - Complexity Made Simple

“The Pareto Principle, or the 80/20 rule, talks about how 80% of one’s results can be achieved with 20% of one’s effort. Most of us already know that, but that’s not what’s truly important in the image you can see below. Instead, if you move down the line, you’ll see that “50% of one’s results can be achieved with just 1% of one’s effort.”[xvii]”
― Zoe McKey, Think In Systems: The Theory and Practice of Strategic Planning, Problem Solving, and Creating Lasting Results - Complexity Made Simple

“means the combination of two or more elements to create something new.”
― Zoe McKey, Think In Systems: The Theory and Practice of Strategic Planning, Problem Solving, and Creating Lasting Results - Complexity Made Simple

“A system is a set of related components that work together in a particular environment to perform whatever functions are required to achieve the systems objective.”
― Zoe McKey, Think In Systems: The Theory and Practice of Strategic Planning, Problem Solving, and Creating Lasting Results - Complexity Made Simple

“You can deduce purpose or function from actions and behavior, not words or goals.”
― Zoe McKey, Think In Systems: The Theory and Practice of Strategic Planning, Problem Solving, and Creating Lasting Results - Complexity Made Simple

“Thinking of our lives as a system that can be organized and broken down and analyzed into smaller concepts helps us to improve upon them. This analytical approach is helpful in understanding how everything in our lives is interconnected — how one event influences another, and simultaneously, what impact it has on the system as a whole.”
― Zoe McKey, Think In Systems: The Theory and Practice of Strategic Planning, Problem Solving, and Creating Lasting Results - Complexity Made Simple

“Detect patterns, not just events. Use circular causality (feedback loops, which I will present later in this book). Focus on the relationships, rather than the parts.[v]”
― Zoe McKey, Think In Systems: The Theory and Practice of Strategic Planning, Problem Solving, and Creating Lasting Results - Complexity Made Simple

“Why do I see what I see? 2. Why do things stay the same? 3. Why do things change?[”
― Zoe McKey, Think In Systems: The Theory and Practice of Strategic Planning, Problem Solving, and Creating Lasting Results - Complexity Made Simple

“Barry Richmond in his book, An Introduction to Systems Thinking, defines systems thinking as follows: “…is the art and science of making reliable inferences about behavior by developing an increasingly deep understanding of the underlying structure.”[iii]”
― Zoe McKey, Think In Systems: The Theory and Practice of Strategic Planning, Problem Solving, and Creating Lasting Results - Complexity Made Simple