Systems Thinking Roadmap

From foundational concepts to mastery through application

Foundation: Mental Models

Build the theoretical foundation. Understand what systems are, how feedback loops work, and why local optimization often hurts global performance.

Book Thinking in Systems — Donella Meadows
Book The Fifth Discipline — Peter Senge
Concept Stocks, flows, feedback loops, delays
1
Origins: Lean & Constraints

Go to the source. Learn from the manufacturing revolution that spawned all the derivative works. Understand flow, waste elimination, and constraint management.

Book Toyota Production System — Taiichi Ohno
Book Out of the Crisis — W. Edwards Deming
Concept Theory of Constraints, PDCA cycle, Kaizen
2
Practice: Map Your Systems

Stop reading, start doing. Pick a real system in your work or life. Map it out. Identify the constraints. Measure the flows. Find where feedback is missing or delayed.

Practice Draw a value stream map of your workflow
Practice Identify your "Herbie" — the bottleneck
Practice Shorten one feedback loop this week
3
Expand: Adjacent Domains

See how the same patterns appear in different fields. Cross-pollinate ideas. Recognize that queuing theory, complexity science, and cybernetics are all describing the same reality.

Book The Principles of Product Development Flow — Don Reinertsen
Book Antifragile — Nassim Taleb
Concept Queuing theory, complexity, emergence
4
Mastery: Teach & Iterate

The deepest understanding comes from teaching others and continuously refining your mental models based on real-world feedback. Build systems that build systems.

Practice Teach these concepts to your team
Practice Run retrospectives — apply feedback to yourself
Practice Design systems with feedback loops built-in
5

Core Principles to Internalize

🔄
Feedback Loops
Every output becomes an input. Shorten the loop, accelerate learning.
🎯
Constraints Rule
The system moves at the speed of its bottleneck. Find it, fix it, repeat.
🌊
Flow Over Utilization
Optimize for throughput, not busyness. 100% utilization kills flow.
📦
Small Batches
Reduce batch size to reduce cycle time, risk, and delay in feedback.
🔍
Global Over Local
Local optimization often creates global problems. See the whole system.
⏱️
Delays Matter
Time lag between action and consequence creates oscillation and instability.