xi in the words of West Churchman (1968a) "The systems approach is not a bad idea." ...
There has been a notable lack of determined persistent efforts, first to define what "a systems approach" means and then
to go out and use it in tackling problems, in order to experience that interaction between theory and practice which is the
best recipe for intellectual progress.
xi-xii The work described here has been an attempt first, to develop an explicit account of the
systems outlook, the "systems view of the world"; second - based on that view - to develop ways of using systems
ideas in practical problem situations; third, to modify both the systems outlook and the ways of using systems ideas
as experience was gained, as mistakes were made, as lessons were learned; fourth, to reflect on the interaction between systems
thinking and systems practice in order to draw conclusions
p.3 This book is about a particular way of thinking about the world, one which although broadly a part of
the science movement, uses some concepts which are complementary to those of classical natural science. This book is about
systems thinking, and about the use of a particular set of ideas, systems ideas, in trying to understand the world's
complexity.
p.4 Systems thinking, then, makes conscious use of the particular concept of wholeness captured in the word
"system", to order our thoughts. "Systems practice" then implies using the product of this thinking to initiate and
guide actions we take in the world. This book is about both systems thinking and systems practice, and about the
relation between the two.
p.5 An approach is a way of going about tackling a problem, and obviously a particular approach
may be relevant to more than one subject... "A systems approach"... does not readily convey to most people much idea about
the content of the method.
p.6 The systems outlook... assumes that the world contains structured wholes... which can maintain their
identity under a certain range of conditions and which exhibit certain general principles of "wholeness". Systems thinkers
are interested in elucidating these principles, believing that this will contribute usefully to our knowledge of the world.
p.73 Operational Research is the application of the methods of science to complex problems arising in the
direction and management of large systems of men, machines, materials and money in industry, business, government, and defence.
The distinctive approach is to develop a scientific model of the system, incorporating measurements of factors such as chance
and risk, with which to predict and compare the outcomes of alternative decisions, strategies or controls. the purpose is
to help management determine its policy and actions scientifically.
p.74 it is the fact in real life that "the problem" is usually perceived as such because of the content
details which make it unique, rather than because of the form which makes it general.
p.74-75 Eventually, I believe, systems thinking and analytical thinking will come to be thought of as the
twin components of scientific thinking, but this stage of our intellectual history has not yet been reached.
p.84 Wiener and Bigelow realized the importance and ubiquity of what control engineers call the
process of feedback, namely the transmission of information about the actual performance of any machine (in the general
sense) to an earlier stage
p.139 there is a gap to be bridged between the desired future state and the present state; how
to bridge it is the problem. For the engineer as a professional, the need and objective-defining are taken as given
at the start of his problem-solving, and we find this carried over into "hard" systems methodology together with the structured
model of problem-solving which objective-defining implies (Checkland, 1972).
p.158 [Checkland is speaking of a consulting study where a company (Airedale Textile) has asked for help
in turning around a money-losing situation, similar to a Goldratt operation] choosing to view the Company as a whole in a
particular way which seemed relevant to the multivarious problems, and working out the logical systemic consequences of that
view.
p.165 There is a marked reluctance to pause and reflect over the initial expression [of the problem
situation]... people... often show an over-urgent desire for action. But the best studies have been characterized
by a holding back... by a readiness to collect as many perceptions of the problem as possible from a wide range of people
with roles in the problem situation... Vickers... has argued cogently against taking social systems to be goal-seeking,
pointing out that "relationship-maintaining" is often a better description of their purpose, and this work endorses that view.
p.166 At the end of the expression stage we answer the question, not: What system needs to be engineered
or improved? but: What are the names of notional systems which from the analysis phase seem relevant to the problem?
p.172 For each activity (or "decision" as they were here called) the question was
asked: What information must the decision maker have in order to take this decision (i.e. "carry out this activity"),
what is its content, source, and frequency?
p.223 It cannot be overemphasized, however, that the most important attribute of the good systems
thinker is his ability to entertain a wide range of possibly relevant systems, to take his choices seriously and to model
them meticulously, but to do so without owning them psychologically. As the debate initiated by the model/real-world
comparison unfolds, as "the real issues" emerge, the systems thinker must be able cheerfully to abandon his earlier
choices of relevant system and start again. And again...
