ABSTRACT
One of the basic skills of systems practice is the skill of recognizing the recursive processes, which go round in circles. The manager acts with whatever degree of forethought is appropriate, but carefully examines the feedback and, through a cybernetic process, rethinks and acts again, learning along the way. To move or discipline a "difficult" individual, as some people suggested, often seems the only solution and conforms to the popular image of the tough manager. Systems thinking provides ways of representing organizations, that is, of constructing metaphorical models of them in a more deliberate way. In order to understand the concept of systems as closed feedback loops, it is necessary to distinguish between linear and circular interactive processes. The story of the life of a team, a department, or an organization is one of interaction between persons and groups in conflict and cooperation.
