Download or read book Systems Practice How to Act written by Ray Ison and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-08-10 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book shows how to do systems thinking and translate that thinking into praxis (theory informed practical action). It will be welcomed by those managing or governing in situations of complexity and uncertainty across all domains of professional and personal life. The development of capabilities to think and act systemically is an urgent priority. Humans are now a force of nature, affecting whole-earth dynamics including the earth's climate - we live in an Anthropocene or Capitalocene and are confronted by the emergence of a ‘post-truth’, ‘big data’ world. What we have developed, organisationally and institutionally, seems very fragile. An imperative exists to recover whatever systemic sensibilities we still retain, to foster systems literacy and to invest in systems thinking in practice capability. This will be needed in future at personal, group, community, regional, national and international levels, all at the same time. Systems Practice: How to Act is structured into four parts. Part I introduces the societal need to invest in systems thinking in practice, in contexts of uncertainty and complexity epitomised by the challenges of responding to human-induced climate change. Part II unpacks what is involved in systems practice by means of a juggler isophor; examining situations where systems thinking offers useful understanding and opportunities for change. Part III identifies the main factors that constrain the uptake of systems practice and makes the case for innovation in practice by means of systemic inquiry, systemic action research and systemic intervention. The book concludes with Part IV, which critically examines how systems practice is, or might be, utilised at different levels from the personal to the societal./div

Download or read book Systems Practice How to Act in a Climate Change World written by Ray Ison and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2010-07-20 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is now accepted that humans are changing the climate of the Earth and this is the most compelling amongst a long litany of reasons as to why, collectively, we have to change our ways of thinking and acting. Most people now recognise that we have to be capable of adapting quickly as new and uncertain circumstances emerge: this capability will need to exist at personal, group, community, regional, national and international levels, all at the same time. Systems Practice is structured into four parts. Part I introduces the societal need to move towards a more systemic and adaptive governance against the backdrop of human-induced climate change. Part II unpacks what is involved in systems practice by means of a juggler metaphor; examining situations where systems thinking offers useful understanding and opportunities for change. Part III identifies the main factors that constrain the uptake of systems practice and makes the case for innovation in practice by means of systemic inquiry, systemic action research and systemic intervention. The book concludes with Part IV, which critically examines how systems practice is, or might be, utilised at different levels from the personal to the societal. The development of our capabilities to think and act systemically is an urgent priority and Systems Practice aims to show how to do systems thinking and translate that thinking into praxis (theory informed practical action) which will be welcomed by those managing in situations of complexity and uncertainty across all domains of professional and personal concern.

Download or read book Systems Practice in the Information Society written by José-Rodrigo Córdoba-Pachón and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2010-02-02 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bringing experiences, ideas, and applications of systemic thinking in designing and evaluating socio-technological initiatives, the book explores how organizations, including governments, can enable better access to information and communication technologies and improve the quality of life of individuals.

Download or read book Balancing Acts written by James Conklin and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2021-07-30 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Balancing Acts offers consultants and managers a simple, powerful way to think about change, and ascribes a four-phase iterative process for implementing change. Reviewing change initiatives from different types of organizations, Balancing Acts confronts the problems and pitfalls head-on that often arise during workplace transitions. Conklin explains why organizational change can be so difficult, and shows that by balancing a set of competing psychological and systemic challenges, interveners will increase their chance of success. Conklin shows that human groups function as complex systems, and that a change initiative is not a linear progression toward a predefined result. Instead, change is an iterative process that involves a search for feasible and useful solutions. The book’s central argument is that while leading or supporting this search, consultants and leaders must balance four critical concerns: confrontation and compassion, participation and observation, assertion and inquiry, and planfulness and emergence.

Download or read book The Manager s Guide to Systems Practice written by Frank Stowell and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2012-05-24 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is an ideal resource on the subject of systems practice for busy managers whose time is scarce. It provides a rapid introduction to straightforward, yet powerful ideas that enable users to address real world problems. Systems theory and practice is predominantly a framework for thinking about the World, in which holistic views are maintained. In this respect it contrasts with some familiar techniques of management science, in which problem situations are broken down into their constituent parts with resultant loss of coherence.

Download or read book Farming Systems Research into the 21st Century The New Dynamic written by Ika Darnhofer and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-05-30 with total page 488 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Farming Systems Research has three core characteristics: it builds on systems thinking, it depends on the close collaboration between social and biophysical sciences, and it relies on participation to build co-learning processes. Farming Systems Research posits that to contribute towards sustainable rural development, both interdisciplinary collaborations and local actor engagement are needed. Together, they allow for changes in understanding and changes in practices. This book gives an overview of the insights generated in 20 years of Farming Systems Research. It retraces the emergence and development of Farming Systems Research in Europe, summarises the state-of-the-art for key areas, and provides an outlook on new explorations, especially those tackling the dynamic nature of farming systems and their interaction with the natural environment and the context of action.

Download or read book Thinking in Systems written by Donella Meadows and published by Chelsea Green Publishing. This book was released on 2008-12-03 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The classic book on systems thinking—with more than half a million copies sold worldwide! "This is a fabulous book... This book opened my mind and reshaped the way I think about investing."—Forbes "Thinking in Systems is required reading for anyone hoping to run a successful company, community, or country. Learning how to think in systems is now part of change-agent literacy. And this is the best book of its kind."—Hunter Lovins In the years following her role as the lead author of the international bestseller, Limits to Growth—the first book to show the consequences of unchecked growth on a finite planet—Donella Meadows remained a pioneer of environmental and social analysis until her untimely death in 2001. Thinking in Systems is a concise and crucial book offering insight for problem solving on scales ranging from the personal to the global. Edited by the Sustainability Institute’s Diana Wright, this essential primer brings systems thinking out of the realm of computers and equations and into the tangible world, showing readers how to develop the systems-thinking skills that thought leaders across the globe consider critical for 21st-century life. Some of the biggest problems facing the world—war, hunger, poverty, and environmental degradation—are essentially system failures. They cannot be solved by fixing one piece in isolation from the others, because even seemingly minor details have enormous power to undermine the best efforts of too-narrow thinking. While readers will learn the conceptual tools and methods of systems thinking, the heart of the book is grander than methodology. Donella Meadows was known as much for nurturing positive outcomes as she was for delving into the science behind global dilemmas. She reminds readers to pay attention to what is important, not just what is quantifiable, to stay humble, and to stay a learner. In a world growing ever more complicated, crowded, and interdependent, Thinking in Systems helps readers avoid confusion and helplessness, the first step toward finding proactive and effective solutions.

Download or read book Feedback Systems written by Karl Johan Åström and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2021-02-02 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The essential introduction to the principles and applications of feedback systems—now fully revised and expanded This textbook covers the mathematics needed to model, analyze, and design feedback systems. Now more user-friendly than ever, this revised and expanded edition of Feedback Systems is a one-volume resource for students and researchers in mathematics and engineering. It has applications across a range of disciplines that utilize feedback in physical, biological, information, and economic systems. Karl Åström and Richard Murray use techniques from physics, computer science, and operations research to introduce control-oriented modeling. They begin with state space tools for analysis and design, including stability of solutions, Lyapunov functions, reachability, state feedback observability, and estimators. The matrix exponential plays a central role in the analysis of linear control systems, allowing a concise development of many of the key concepts for this class of models. Åström and Murray then develop and explain tools in the frequency domain, including transfer functions, Nyquist analysis, PID control, frequency domain design, and robustness. Features a new chapter on design principles and tools, illustrating the types of problems that can be solved using feedback Includes a new chapter on fundamental limits and new material on the Routh-Hurwitz criterion and root locus plots Provides exercises at the end of every chapter Comes with an electronic solutions manual An ideal textbook for undergraduate and graduate students Indispensable for researchers seeking a self-contained resource on control theory

Download or read book The Systems Work of Social Change written by Cynthia Rayner and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021-10-12 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The issues of poverty, inequality, racial injustice, and climate change have never been more pressing or paralyzing. Current approaches to social change, which rely on linear thinking and traditional power dynamics to 'solve' social problems, are not helping. In fact, they may only beentrenching the status quo.Systemic social challenges produce bewildering results when we try to solve them due to their complexity, scale, and depth. While strategies to tackle complexity and scale have received significant attention and investment, challenges that arise from deeply-held beliefs, values, and assumptions thatno longer serve us well have been largely overlooked. This book draws on stories of committed social changemakers to uncover a set of principles and practices for social change that dramatically depart from the industrial approach. Rather than delivering solutions or being lured by grander visionsof 'systems change', these principles and practices focus on the process of change itself. Simple yet profound, these stories distil a timely set of lessons for leaders, scholars, and policymakers on how connection, context, and power sit at the heart of the change process, ensuring broader agencyfor people and communities while building social systems that are responsive in a rapidly-changing world.

Download or read book Thinking Fast and Slow written by Daniel Kahneman and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2011-10-25 with total page 511 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *Major New York Times Bestseller *More than 2.6 million copies sold *One of The New York Times Book Review's ten best books of the year *Selected by The Wall Street Journal as one of the best nonfiction books of the year *Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient *Daniel Kahneman's work with Amos Tversky is the subject of Michael Lewis's best-selling The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed Our Minds In his mega bestseller, Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman, world-famous psychologist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, takes us on a groundbreaking tour of the mind and explains the two systems that drive the way we think. System 1 is fast, intuitive, and emotional; System 2 is slower, more deliberative, and more logical. The impact of overconfidence on corporate strategies, the difficulties of predicting what will make us happy in the future, the profound effect of cognitive biases on everything from playing the stock market to planning our next vacation—each of these can be understood only by knowing how the two systems shape our judgments and decisions. Engaging the reader in a lively conversation about how we think, Kahneman reveals where we can and cannot trust our intuitions and how we can tap into the benefits of slow thinking. He offers practical and enlightening insights into how choices are made in both our business and our personal lives—and how we can use different techniques to guard against the mental glitches that often get us into trouble. Topping bestseller lists for almost ten years, Thinking, Fast and Slow is a contemporary classic, an essential book that has changed the lives of millions of readers.

Download or read book The Physical Therapist s Business Practice and Legal Guide written by Sheila K. Nicholson and published by Jones & Bartlett Learning. This book was released on 2008 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the profession of physical therapy continues its growth toward autonomous practice, the physical therapist, physical therapist assistant and student are going to face liability risks and exposure like never before. Physical Therapist's Business Practice and Legal Guide provides the tools needed to integrate risk management practices into the daily patient care routine. Each chapter includes key concepts and discussion questions. Specific cases are also discussed to explain and support legal concepts and how these set the stage for future risks exposure.

Download or read book The Official ACT Prep Guide 2021 2022 Book 6 Practice Tests Bonus Online Content written by ACT and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2021-04-20 with total page 25 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: THE OFFICIAL ACT® PREP GUIDE 2021-2022 The comprehensive guide to the 2021-2022 ACT® test, with 6 genuine, full-length practice tests in print and online. This 2021-2022 guide includes six actual ACT® tests – all of which contain the optional writing test – that you can use to practice at your own pace. To help you review test subjects and improve your understanding, this guide provides clear explanations for every answer. You’ll also get practical tips for boosting your score on the English, math, reading, and science tests, as well as the optional writing test. Additionally, you can access the six tests online through the access code provided in the guide. The code also provides access to 400 online flashcards to help you prepare for all sections in the ACT® examination. The test’s creators filled this guide with expert advice on how to both mentally and physically prepare for the exam. It will also help you: Review the entire ACT® test content so you’ll know what to expect on test day Understand the procedures you’ll follow when you’re taking the ACT® Prepare for the types of questions you can expect to find on the test Adopt test-taking strategies that are right for you The Official ACT® Prep Guide 2021-2022 is the best resource to prepare you for test day. By using this guide you can feel comfortable that you’re prepared to do your best!

Download or read book IRS Privacy Act Systems of Records Form 09 065 written by Sovereignty Education and Defense Ministry (SEDM) and published by Sovereignty Education and Defense Ministry (SEDM). This book was released on 2020-02-06 with total page 98 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Disclaimer: https://sedm.org/disclaimer.htm Pursuant to the Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. 105, the government may not copyright any of its work products. For reasons why NONE of our materials may legally be censored and violate NO Google policies, see: https://sedm.org/why-our-materials-cannot-legally-be-censored/

Download or read book Privacy Act Issuances Compilation written by United States. Office of the Federal Register and published by . This book was released on 1986 with total page 976 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contains systems of records maintained on individuals by Federal agencies which were published in the Federal Register and rules of each agency concerning the procedures the agency will use in helping individuals who request information about their records.

Download or read book The Official ACT Prep Guide 2018 written by ACT and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2017-06-09 with total page 724 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The only guide from the ACT organization, the makers of the exam, revised and updated for 2017 and beyond The Official ACT Prep Guide, 2018 Edition, Revised and Updated is the must-have resource for college bound students. The guide is the go-to handbook for ACT preparation and the only guide from the makers of the exam. The book and online content includes the actual ACT test forms (taken from real ACT exams). In addition, this comprehensive resource has everything students need to know about when they are preparing for and taking the ACT. The book contains information on how to register for the exam, proven test-taking strategies, ideas for preparing mentally and physically, gearing up for test day, and much more. This invaluable guide includes additional questions and material that contains articles on everything from preparing a standout college application and getting into your top-choice school to succeeding in college The bestselling prep guide from the makers of the ACT test Offers bonus online content to help boost college readiness Contains the real ACT test forms used in previous years This new edition offers students updated data on scoring your writing test, new reporting categories, as well as updated tips on how to do your best preparing for the test and on the actual test day from the team at ACT. It also offers additional 400 practice questions that are available online.

Download or read book System Design Interview An Insider s Guide written by Alex Xu and published by Independently Published. This book was released on 2020-06-12 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The system design interview is considered to be the most complex and most difficult technical job interview by many. Those questions are intimidating, but don't worry. It's just that nobody has taken the time to prepare you systematically. We take the time. We go slow. We draw lots of diagrams and use lots of examples. You'll learn step-by-step, one question at a time.Don't miss out.What's inside?- An insider's take on what interviewers really look for and why.- A 4-step framework for solving any system design interview question.- 16 real system design interview questions with detailed solutions.- 188 diagrams to visually explain how different systems work.

Download or read book Privacy Act Issuances Compilation written by and published by . This book was released on 1986 with total page 976 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: