Critical Systems Thinking as a Strategic Approach

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Systems thinking enables us to engage complex problems more effectively, steering us away from short-sighted solutions that may work in the short-term but ultimately backfire and make things worse in the long run.

Ryan Mohr • Making systems more approachable

Strategic thinking, in its purest form, is the process of considering “what could be true.” Strategy is the art of the possible. What new mental model would have to be invented for this to work? What if people moved from the way it is, to a new, different way? What if a new outcome (an outcome we haven’t considered before) was possible?

Category Pirates, Christopher Lochhead, Eddie Yoon, Katrina Kirsch, • The 22 Laws of Category Design

Systems thinking is a process of discovery and diagnosis—an inquiry into the governing processes underlying problems we face.

Art Kleiner • The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook: Strategies for Building a Learning Organization

To be a strategist you will have to keep your actions and policies coherent with each other, not nullifying your efforts by having too many different initiatives or conflicting purposes. These facts are rarely written or spoken about with honesty. We are told that strategy is about having an advantage (duh!). That it is about having a long-term vis

Richard Rumelt • The Crux: How Leaders Become Strategists

The linear systemic lens is sometimes sufficient. If I, as a leader, am charged only with achieving relatively simple, short-term goals, then this simple cause-and-effect philosophy may serve me well. I don’t like uncertainty. I seek to control. I am not humble. I rely on tried and trusted methodologies. I don’t see the need to collaborate, believi

Paul Lawrence • The Wise Leader: A Practical Guide for Thinking Differently About Leadership

Strategic thinking also addresses core dilemmas. Inevitably, one of the factors that makes significant change difficult is conflict among competing goals and norms: