People perform to the level of the systems. Also. People, behavior & attitudes, reflect the actual culture, not the 'stated culture'.'

Bruce McTague

Een samenleving die groeit in rijkdom zonder de armoede te laten afnemen moet verrot zijn tot in haar diepste kern.

Karl Marx

You can only know a system when you try to change it. Only then will the reinforcing feedback loops maintaining the status quo emerge.

Edgar H. Schein

A system must consist of three kinds of things: elements, interconnections, and a function or purpose.

Donella H. Meadows

The boundaries, structures and goal states of social systems are not defined physically, but rather by contexts of meaning.

Werner Ulrich

You can only know a system when you try to change it. Only then will the reinforcing feedback loops maintaining the status quo emerge.

Edgar H. Schein

...one of the most frustrating aspects of systems is that the purposes of subunits may add up to an overall behavior that no one wants.

Donella H. Meadows

The systems-thinking lens allows us to reclaim our intuition about whole systems and
- hone our abilities to understand parts,
- see interconnections,
- ask “what-if ” questions about possible future behaviors, and
- be creative and courageous about system redesign.

Donella H. Meadows

Stop looking for who’s to blame; instead you’ll start asking, “What’s the system?” The concept of feedback opens up the idea that a system can cause its own behavior.

Donella H. Meadows

Let's face it, the universe is messy. It is nonlinear, turbulent, and chaotic. It is dynamic. It spends its time in transient behavior on its way to somewhere else, not in mathematically neat equilibria. It self-organizes and evolves. It creates diversity, not uniformity. That's what makes the world interesting, that's what makes it beautiful, and that's what makes it work.

Donella H. Meadows

There are no separate systems. The world is a continuum. Where to draw a boundary around a system depends on the purpose of the discussion.

Donella H. Meadows,

Top-down rules reduce an organisation's ability to deal with variety.

John Seddon

Running the same system harder or faster will not change the pattern as long as the structure is not revised.

Donella H. Meadows

We can't impose our will on a system. We can listen to what the system tells us and discover how its properties and our values can work together to bring forth something much better than could ever be produced by our will alone.

Donella H. Meadows

The world is a complex, interconnected, finite, ecological - social - psychological - economic system. We treat it as if it were not, as if it were divisible, separable, simple, and infinite. Our persistent, intractable global problems arise directly from this mismatch.

Donella H. Meadows

Het is zonde om de pianist dood te schieten als de piano vals is.

Frans gezegde

In complex systems, malfunction and even total nonfunction may not be detectable for long periods. if ever.

John Gall

A system that performs a certain function or that operates in a certain way will continu to operate in that way regardless of the need or changed conditions.

John Gall

Just calling it 'feedback'doesn't mean that it has actually fed back to speak precisely: it hasn't fed back until the system changes course. Up to that point, it’s merely sensory input.

John Gall

Successful problem solving requires finding the right solution to the right problem. We fail more often because we solve the wrong problem than because we get the wrong solution to the right problem.

Russell Ackoff

A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that works. The inverse proposition also appears to be true: A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be made to work.

John Gall

If you want people to do a good job for you, then you must design a good job to do.

Frederick Herzberg

If everyone did their best, 95% of problems would remain.

W. Edwards Deming

Any method that starts by asking you to imagine an ideal future is deeply suspect from a complexity perspective. Far too likely to give an excuse to avoid the reality of the present.

Dave Snowden

There are no cheap tickets to mastery. You have to work at it, whether that means rigorously analysing a system or rigorously casting off your own paradigms and throwing yourself into the humility of not knowing.

Donella Meadows

In the systems approach a problem is not solved by taking it apart but by viewing it as a part of a larger problem.

Russel Ackoff

In order to remain unchanged, the system must change, specifically.

John Gall

As systems grow in size and complexity, they tend to lose basic functions.

John Gall

Successful problem solving requires finding the right solution to the right problem. We fail more often because we solve the wrong problem than because we get the wrong solution to the right problem.

Russel Ackoff

In setting up a new system, tread softly. You may be disturbing another system that is actually working.

John Gall

The fact is that the system that people work in and the interaction with people may account for 90 or 95 percent of performance.

W. Edwards Deming

If everyone did their best, 95% of problems would remain.

W. Edwards Deming

Changing the system will change what people do. Changing what people do will not change the system.

Peter Scholtes

The purpose of measurements is to motivate the parts to do what is good for the organization as a whole.

Elyahu Goldratt

Peoples' behavour is governed by their system. If the people who do the work, work in a system that allows them to control and improve it, they are more likely to behave in a co-operative way with each other and their managers. ... To focus on the people is to focus on the wrong thing. Changing the system leads to better behaviour (and less people problems). A Paradox.

John Seddon

Reality is made up of circles but we see only straight lines.

Peter Senge

Blame the process not the person. We need to ask, "how did the process allow this to happen?

Brian L. Joiner

When a flower doesn't bloom, you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower.

Alexander den Heijer

The system has the most influence on people’s behaviour, yet managers continue to treat people as though they are the problem.

John Seddon

The performance of a system is not the sum of its parts.
It's the product of its interactions.

Russel Ackoff

Each system is perfectly designed to give you exactly what you are getting today.

W. Edwards Deming

You think that because you understand “one” that you must therefore understand “two” because one and one make two. But you forget that you must also understand “and.”

Donella H. Meadows

Let's face it, the universe is messy. It is nonlinear, turbulent, and chaotic. It is dynamic. It spends its time in transient behavior on its way to somewhere else, not in mathematically neat equilibria. It self-organizes and evolves. It creates diversity, not uniformity. That's what makes the world interesting, that's what makes it beautiful, and that's what makes it work.

Donella H. Meadows,

So, what is a system? A system is a set of things—people, cells, molecules, or whatever—interconnected in such a way that they produce their own pattern of behavior over time.”

Donella H. Meadows,

There are no separate systems. The world is a continuum. Where to draw a boundary around a system depends on the purpose of the discussion.

Donella H. Meadows

To be a highly functional system, hiearchy must balance between the welfare, freedoms and responsibilities of the subsystems and total system, there must be enough central control to achieve coordination towards the large system goal, and enough autonomy to keep all subsystems flourishing, functioning and self-organizing.

Donella H. Meadows

Just as passion without a system will fail, so will a system without passion fail. We must have a system with passion.

Thomas Berry