Subject: Systems Thinking

Posted by Joe Rimback on 9/4/2006
In Reply To:Systems Thinking Posted by Marcus J Williams on 9/1/2006

Message:

Marcus,

It seems to me that your last sentence below could, or perhaps should, be written with 'all' instead of 'many', as:

". . . all systems contain elements that (at some point in time) are not working towards some common or desired purpose, and in all cases a systems model is constructed to learn how to better control systems containing elements which are at odds with some desired outcome."

Written this way it is an acknowledgement that feedback always exists and nothing is perpetual. Or to quote the recently quoted from Dr. Forrester:
'anything that changes is governed by feedback loops.'

Joe Rimback
Enterprise Design, Inc
Gaithersburg, Maryland