Systems Thinking

base on the experience of representing various lands Preface Years ago I was having dinner in a small café near the Süleymaniye Mosque in Istanbul. It was the month of Ramadan, and after the sunset`s Iftar and local prayers, the energies of this ancient city and all its inhabitants were…

In the words of K. Webster, this is written for “the intelligent lay-reader who is interested in change”. The purpose of this piece is to draw upon the work of Donella H. Meadows, a systems thinking pioneer, to unpack by what is meant by a ‘paradigm shift’ to a circular…

Simple ways to apply systems thinking in developing & leading teams The conditions for successful leadership are subject to continuous change — yet managers have little influence. At the same time, the demands on their leading performance are increasing. Millennials and Gen Z employees make new demands, and what seemed…

The concept of an operating system (OS) can be very useful as system-oriented thinking when applying financial operations (FinOps) framework for managing cloud costs. An operating system is a complex piece of software that manages hardware resources, schedules tasks, establishes system policies, and provides the needed base for user interaction…

Use as few words as possible to show, not tell, how to run your business processes. — In this Series… I’ll be covering the 25 best ways to start documenting your systems and processes in a way that your team will love so your business can grow and scale. Please click the follow button and subscribe for email alerts to get notified when the next steps are published! Step 1: Keep Things Simple It sounds…

Addressing the needs of underserved communities while creating solutions that contribute to systemic improvement requires strategic and intentional approaches. Simply designing products or programs without considering the broader context can fall short of achieving lasting impact. Applying systems thinking and human-centered design methodologies can help navigate this challenge. Systems thinking…

Is there really any value in setting service level indicators and objectives? — Does your company get a panic attack every time there’s an incident? 💔 Is finger pointing and blaming seen as an insurance to see less incidents? 👉 Does the blast radius of incidents grow month after month and year after year? 💣 That’s probably because we fail to acknowledge a simple fact: complex systems fail all the time.

designing any experience — originally published on my substack Caroline’s Notes as issue 17 on Feb 20, 2023 there is beauty in knowing how this will all end. knowing the end gives a direction and necessary constraints so we can navigate challenges with clarity. think about games. game designers have a framework in mind…

Seeing grantmaking as a system can highlight feedback loops to increase impact and streamline processes. — Let’s start with three vignettes that may be familiar for you to imagine: Imagine the young social entrepreneur slogging through a lengthy and convoluted grant application and feeling the rigid structure constraining a true expression of his voice and vision. Or the experienced expert reviewing grants who can’t escape her…