Systems thinking for the systemic age

It's no illusion: these really are times of uncertainty, ambiguity and rapid change. Indeed, things seem to be changing so quickly nowadays, or are in need of such fast responses, that the business environment sometimes appears to be nothing short of being in permanent chaos. And this is making the job of management very difficult. No sooner has one change been accommodated than the next one beckons, with often no apparent pattern to it all: just a helter skelter of seemingly random challenges to which the organisation must adapt or perish! The responses to these challenges have themselves assumed the same characteristics. Thus the once relatively stable field of management theory and techniques has become a virtual torrent of chaotic change itself, with one 'fad' after another hitting the marketplace; each promising to solve the next generation of problems if adopted.