ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the key concepts of Donella Meadows approach to systems thinking. Systems thinking—the skills required to explore, understand, and talk with others about complex systems—is a crucial tool in altering the pieces and the interconnections of those complex systems so we can change their behavior away from unsustainability. This poses unprecedented design, and re-design opportunities. The chapter explains stock-and-flow structures, goals and boundaries of systems to better understand their complex nature. Reinforcing loops and balancing loops are explained to understand behaviors in systems. Meadows Twelve Places to Intervene in a System and the leverage points framework are shared as a way for designers to understand how they can have impact in systems design.
