Why Systems Thinking?
	A brief history of management thought
	What is a System?
	Systems Thinking: Paradigm, Language, and Methodology
	Systems Thinking and Organizational Learning -The Link
	Overview of the Book

	Systemic Structures: What are they and how they work them?
	Feedback processes
	Four levels of thinking
	Systems Thinking & Modeling tools Behavior over Time (BoT) Causal Loop & Systems Archetypes Dynamic Modeling
	Microworlds (Management Flight Simulators) Learning Laboratory (Strategy labs) Scenario Modeling
	Viable System Model (VSM)
	Soft System Methodology (SSM)
	Cognitive Mapping

	Principles of Causal Loop Modeling
	Balancing and Reinforcing forces
	Leverage vs. Solution
	From issues to variables
	Systems Archetypes
	The Case of an Insurance Company (Hanover)
	Learning Activities (Mini Cases)

	Introduction to System Dynamics
	Stock and Flow Diagrams
	Simulating a model
	Model validation
	Strategic and Operational Modeling (Possum Case)
	Simulation Modeling Case (the Beer Game)

	Overview of Scenario Planning
	Scenario Planning tools
	Developing and using scenarios
	Scenario Modeling
	Examples of Scenario Planning
	Case: Scenario Modeling for the NZ Wine Industry

	What is a Microworld?
	The Learning Cycle
	Learning Laboratory - tool for Organizational Learning
	Aligning Mental Models through Learning Labs
	Learning labs and Scenario Planning
	Experience a Learning Laboratory
	Human Resource Strategy
	Service Quality Strategies

	Core Capabilities for Organizational Learning
	Rapid Team Learning
	Black Magic - Team New Zealand' America's Cup Story
	How to harmonies your organization through Systems Thinking?
	Initiating and conducting a system thinking project
	How to Start Systems Thinking in Your Organization?

	Case 1 - Healthcare Reform
	Case 2 - Drinking Age Policy
	Case 3 - Drivers of quality in Health services
	Case 4 - Mainland Beer distribution model
	Case 5 - Strategy development for a telecommunication business unit

References
Subject Index
A CD-ROM containing the simulation case studies as well as a run-time version of the ithink software is included with the book.

Kambiz E. Maani's academic and consulting career spans over 23 years in America, Asia and Australasia. He holds a MSc in industrial engineering and a PhD in management science from the University of Illinois, Urbana. He has held academic and research positions at a number of universities including MIT, Boston University, and Rand Corporation in California. He has published widely in scholarly journals and is on the editorial boards of several international journals. He is a founder of the New Zealand Organisational Learning Foundation. Kambiz is an Associate Professor in the Management Science and Information Systems Department at the University of Auckland, New Zealand where he was the Head of Department for a number of years.

Robert Cavana is a senior lecturer in decision sciences with the School of Business and Public Management at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Bob is currently on the editorial board for Systems Dynamics: An International journal of Policy Modelling and he has publishes in a wide range of international and New Zealand journals. From 1988 to 1990 he was the president of the Operational Research Society of New Zealand. He has previously acted as a consultant to a number of public and private sector organisations where he has been involved in economic, strategic, systems and business research projects spanning most sectors of the economy. Bob is a founder and director of the New Zealand Organisational Learning Centre, which provides systems thinking and modelling training and consultancy services.

A number of expressions that we use in daily language reflect Systems Thinking. Some of these are shown below. Many other expressions and idioms can be found in other languages and cultures.

	What goes around comes around
	Spiral effect
	Snowballing
	Cycle of poverty
	Self-destruction
	Counteracting forces
	Domino effect
	Ripple effect
	Vicious/virtuous cycle
	He/she is on a roll
	Chronic behaviour
	Cyclical pattern
	Fluctuating pattern
	We're in this together

The importance of emotional commitment is strongly demonstrated by the story of Royal Dutch Shell's Committee of Managing Directors. The Committee launched a series of workshops designed to shock, energize and mobilize executives towards new corporate directions. Everyone participating in the workshop was asked to begin the session by spending twenty minutes drafting his or her own resignations. The exercise engaged the executives emotionally. It was the beginning of internalising a personal process for change.

Source: Systems Thinking & Modelling, Maani & Cavana, Prentice Hall, 2002