The Systems Approach

 

Assignment:

I am quitting, boss

How many?

Am I blind?!

What are you assuming?

Organizations As Systems

 

Handouts

The Systems Approach General Diagram

The Systems Approach, applied to "I am quitting, boss"

Systems Approach - Narrative Description

Control Systems . . . . . feedback example

The Three Ways of doing Anything

Systems Approach Comics

 

Cases

10C/1 10C/2

The nine-point system for handling a quitting employee

Should the Ten Commandments be posted in schools?

Improving the Election System

Programmed Decisions

 

Theory

The Hierarchy of Objectives - My Formulation

The Hierarchy of Objectives - Another Formulation

The Hierarchy of Objectives - Original Formulation (article in Harvard Business Review)

The Hierarchy of Ends - Herbert Simon

Why Decisions Fail - The Hierarchy of Objectives

A System of Systems Concepts

Trinagles

Desk

Engineering Systems Thinking

Systems Thinking 101 - The Magic of Systems Thinking

Cisco - Teamwork Video with Rugby Theme

Systems Thinking from Watt Works

A Systems Approach to Business

 

Applications

Watermelon Selection: Systematic or Intuitive?

Did the recording industry's legal onslaught against internet song-swappers work?

What ripple effect caused the largest blackout in U.S. history?

Why so many traffic cops and speeding tickets all of a sudden?

The domino effect in action - The Honda Accord Commercial (close to 5 meg)

Can your system handle a dead customer?

Asians, Americans view the world differently. Literally! (If this link does not work, click here)

Measures of Philanthropic Success

MBF vs. MBI

Success and Failure in the Chinese Fast Food Industry: It's All About Standardization

Standardization ... going too far?!

A Systems Analysis of Snow Emergency in New York

The same situation embodies alternative problem definitions ...

The Systems Approach to Strategy Formulation and Execution

Understanding Corporate Strategy From Outside In

Systems View of Strategic Planning

The Trick-or-Treat Dilemma

 

Idealized Design

A Guide to Russell Ackoff's Idealized (re)Design Methodology

Idealized Design: How Bell Labs Imagined -- and Created -- the Telephone System of the Future

Putting Customers in the “Wish Mode”: Don’t settle for just making your product better. Let your customers make it great.

Idealized Design and TQM: Planning by Practitioners

History of Idealized Design

 

Organizations & References

The Open University Systems Group

Principia Cybernetica Web

The International Society for the Systems Sciences (ISSS)

NationMaster

BusinessDictionary