Systems Thinking Made Simple (Cabrera & Cabrera)

Systems Thinking Made Simple: New Hope for Solving Wicked Problems, Derek Cabrera & Laura Cabrera.
Copyright 2015, 213 pp.

This is a book about thinking, not so much about the anatomy of systems, like the other books (particularly Meadows' wonderful "Thinking in Systems"). STMS is trying to explain the thinking processes that lead people to be able to recognize and work with and within systems of all types (sociological, biological, mechanical, intellectual...you name it).

And that is why it is a comprehensive book about the use of four basic ingredients in thinking--which the authors believe are common to all humans--that just need to be continually practiced and improved to turn people into skillful systems thinkers. From their research coupled with experience in direct education (they raised three children together and have worked in the public schools for decades), the authors (both professors at Cornell) write that humans naturally have the abilities for systems thinking, and that any thinking at all uses these four "ingredients." Ultimately, focus and practice allows increase of skill and ability to help humanity with problems of all magnitudes, the authors believe. It's hopeful and very interesting.

I am working on reading through it a third time--there's a lot here, but it's written for regular citizens, so it's a how-to for all of us! I enjoy it very much, and will tackle the sequel about organizational leadership soon, too.    

I am utterly fascinated by the applications of their breakdown of systems thinking to my daily life.

First, a snapshot summary of the Big Four, the Cabreras' "DSRP" framework:

Distinctions: Naming, defining, and mentally separating  things

Systems: listing the parts of something, and listing the things something is part of

Relationships: identifying and describing how parts, ideas, systems, etc. are related

Perspectives: Naming, defining, and generating points of view on the above three

source: Cabrera Labs site

I have been surprised by how I can use this in my lesson planning. I teach Latin, mostly to English-only speakers, and something very hard for them is about to come up in class again for my beginners. Applying DSRP rules, I realized I might be able to make this way less scary this semester.

English uses the tiny word "to" in a couple different ways. But most of my beginners to Latin don't understand the two different "to's" are doing different things, and they apply a Latin translation of "to" to every possible scenario. This is bad.  

Attached is my attempt to illustrate the distinctions between the "to's" in English, and the grammatical relationships between the English expressions  and the Latin expressions. I really hope it is clearer and more memorable than the nerdy grammar blah blah blah I did before.