Archetypes
Authority
Community
Intimacy
Learning
Mental Models
System
Systemic Structure
Systems Thinking
Teams
Theory, Method, Tool
Vision
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A system is a perceived whole whose elements "hang together" because they continually affect each other over time and operate toward a common purpose. The word descends from the Greek verb sunistánai, which originally meant "to cause to stand together." As this origin suggests, the structure of a system includes the quality of perception with which you, the observer, cause it to stand together.
Examples of systems include biological organisms (including human bodies), the atmosphere, diseases, ecological niches, factories, chemical reactions, political entities, communities. industries, families, teams -- and all organizations. You and your work are probably elements of dozens of different systems. (Art Kleiner)
Related Terms: Systemic Structure and Systems Thinking.
Excerpted from The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook. Copyright 1994 by Peter M. Senge, Art Kleiner, Charlotte Roberts, Richard B. Ross, and Bryan J. Smith. Reprinted with permission.
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