Show notes

What is systems thinking and how can designers make use of it in their work? In her book Closing the loop, Sheryl Cababa lays out her answer and approach to this question. We talk to her and discuss some of the core definitions and concepts. 

We talk about the difference between soft and hard systems, and even how design systems can be get muddled with system thinking. We look at three concepts of system thinking, how bounding is important,  and stakeholder inclusion – as well as engaging in analysis and mapping in order to reduce, and avoid negative consequences.

“..systems thinking helps unearth, so that in many ways, we don’t waste time and effort and money, in doing duplicative things – as well as thinking about creative solutions that might not might not have occurred to us before..”  

(Listening time: 51 minutes, transcript)

References:

• Full transcript for episode 308
• Sheryl Cababa:
  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sherylcababa
  • Twitter: https://twitter.com/SherylCababa
  • Medium: https://medium.com/@SherylCababa
• Closing the loop: Systems thinking for designers (Rosenfeld Media)
• Systems Thinking, Systems Practice by Peter Checkland 
• Tools for Systems Thinkers: The 6 Fundamental Concepts of Systems Thinking
• Causal Loop Construction: The Basics
• Karl Popper – Clocks and clouds
• Designing environments – A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander
• Systems Thinking: A Balance Between Reductionism and Emergence
• The Fifth Discipline (Wikipedia)
• Systems Thinking For Social Change by David Peter Stroh
• Systems mapping Omidyar
• Merton’s Unintended Consequences Theory
• Techno-Optimism: Why Money and Technology Won’t Save Us
• The Airbnb Effect On Housing And Rent
• Melinda Gates: What nonprofits can learn from Coca-Cola (Ted Talk)
• Ethical systems thinking with Peter Senge (YouTube)
• Episode 274: Privacy practitioners
• Ambition Empower and UX Podcast
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