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The cover of Thinking in Systems

Thinking in Systems

Donella H. Meadows, Diana Wright (editor), 2008

Learn to see the stocks, flows, and feedback loops behind everyday problems, why good intentions so often backfire, and where a small push can change a whole system.

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10 parts, about 22 minutes to read.

Why read it

  • Explains stocks, flows and feedback loops through everyday cases like a bathtub, a bank account and a car dealer's inventory
  • Names recurring traps such as policy resistance, the tragedy of the commons and drift to low performance, and how restructuring can escape them
  • Ranks places to intervene in a system, from parameters like taxes and subsidies to goals and paradigms, with advice for dancing with systems

Who it is for

  • Managers puzzled why their fixes make problems worse
  • Readers who want to understand feedback loops and delays
  • Policy makers and business leaders setting rules and goals

What the summary covers

  1. The System Lens1 min
  2. The Basics1 min
  3. Stocks and Flows1 min
  4. Feedback Loops2 min
  5. The Systems Zoo3 min
  6. Why Systems Work So Well2 min
  7. Why Systems Surprise Us2 min
  8. System Traps and Opportunities3 min
  9. The Twelve Leverage Points4 min
  10. Living in a World of Systems3 min

Recommended by

  • Peter M. SengeSenior lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management
    Few matched Dana Meadows remarkable blend of eloquence and clarity in making systems thinking understandable.
  • Bill McKibbenEnvironmentalist and author
    Dana Meadows was one of the smartest people I ever knew, able to figure out the sensible answer to almost any problem.
  • Amory B. LovinsPhysicist and former chief scientist of the Rocky Mountain Institute
    She was the clearest thinker and writer co-creating the art and science of systems dynamics, and Thinking in Systems distills her lifetime of wisdom.
  • Herman DalyEcological economist, University of Maryland
    Dana Meadows' exposition in this book exhibits a degree of clarity and simplicity that can only be attained by one who profoundly and honestly understands the subject at hand--in this case systems modeling.
  • Lester BrownFounder of the Worldwatch Institute
    When I read Thinking in Systems I am reminded of the enormity of the gap between systemic thinkers and policy makers.
  • Peter H. RavenBotanist, longtime president of the Missouri Botanical Garden
    An inspiring sequel to Dana Meadows' lifetime of seminal contributions to systems thinking, this highly accessible book should be read by everyone concerned with the world's future and how we can make it as good as it possibly can be.
  • David OrrProfessor emeritus of environmental studies and politics at Oberlin College
    This long anticipated book, the distillation of her life's work, is a gem.

About the authors

  • Donella H. MeadowsWas an environmental scientist, lead author of The Limits to Growth, and a MacArthur Fellow
    • Born in Elgin, Illinois, she earned a B.A. in chemistry from Carleton College in 1963 and a Ph.D. in biophysics from Harvard in 1968.
    • She became a research fellow at MIT in the department created by Jay Forrester, the inventor of system dynamics.
    • In 1972 she was on the MIT team that built the World3 computer model for the Club of Rome, the basis of The Limits to Growth.
    • She taught at Dartmouth College for 29 years, beginning in 1972.
    • She helped found the Balaton Group in 1981, an international network of ecologists and social scientists, and coordinated it for eighteen years.
    • She wrote a bi weekly syndicated column called The Global Citizen.
    • In 1996 she founded the Sustainability Institute and became its director.
    • Her 1999 essay Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System is among her best known.
  • Diana WrightSustainability Institute member who edited a primer on systems thinking

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