The big ideas of this book are first and foremost holistic by nature, and as a result they defy being catalogued in a Cartesian-Newtonian way – they are non-linear and must be thought about holistically, but they must also be broken into pieces in order to think about them. This, of course, is a paradox.
Paradoxes, dichotomies, ambiguities, uncertainties, variations, apparent contradictions, and disruptive paradigms are among the big ideas of this book. Eliyahu Goldratt speaks to this when he says, “common sense that is not common practice, is a paradox.”
A more holistic way to think about these big ideas is to consider Lao Tzu’s concise explanation: “Tao is a principle. Creation, on the other hand, is a process. That is all there is; principle and process, how and what.”
W. Edwards Deming summarized his own view of these big ideas as a holistic “System of Profound Knowledge.” He suggested four highly integrated parts: Understanding Systems, The Theory of Knowledge, Understanding Variation, and Understanding Psychology.
The neuroscience that underpins our ability to think about these big ideas is yet another holistic concept that can be thought about as a system of highly interrelated parts. Four parts that I have chosen include: Right Sided Thinking & Cultural Paradigms, Intrinsic Motivation & Learning (Fast and Slow Thinking), Emerging Complexity & Fractal Growth (Neuroplasticity), and Living Systems inside Process Controlled Environments.
Another big idea that runs throughout this book is the inter-relatedness of changing your mind, changing your habits, and changing your organizational environment.
These ideas are the stuff the Sys-Tao Collaborative is made of and it is what The Sys-Tao Way is all about. The ideas fueling this collaborative and some of the thinkers behind these ideas are linked directly to my book, The Sys-Tao Way. Here is the index of these links showing the page number of what they are linked to in the text. (click)
Other links not specifically referenced in the book, but clearly associated with these Big Ideas are also listed here (click).
Right Sided Thinking & Cultural Paradigms
Intrinsic Motivation & Learning
What was, What is, What Could be, & Habits
Quantum Relationships
Emerging Complexity & Fractal Growth
Living Systems & Process Controlled Environments
Principle & Process, Concept & Detail, How & What