Buddhist And Taoist Systems Thinking

Buddhist and Taoist Systems Thinking explores a radical new conception of business and management. It is grounded on the reconnection of humans with nature as the new competitive advantage for living organizations and entrepreneurs that aspire to regenerate the economy and drive a positive impact on the planet, in the context of the Anthropocene. Organizations today struggle in finding a balance between maximizing profits and generating value for their stakeholders, the environment and the society at large. This happens in a paradigm shift characterized by unprecedented levels of exponential change and the emergence of disruptive technologies. Adaptability, thus, is becoming the new business imperative. How can, then, entrepreneurs and organizations constantly adapt and, at the same time, design the sustainable futures they’d like? This book uniquely explores the benefits of applying Buddhist and Taoist Systems Thinking to sustainable management. Grounded in Taoist and Zen Buddhist philosophies, it offers a modern scientific perspective fundamentally based on the concepts of bio-logical adaptability and lifefulness amidst complexity and constant change. The book introduces the new concept of the Gaia organization as a living organism that consciously helps perpetuate the conditions for life on the planet. It is subject to the natural laws of transformation and the principles of oneness, emptiness, impermanence, balance, self-regulation and harmonization. Readers will find applied Eastern systems theories such as the Yin-Yang and the Five Elements operationalized through practical methodologies and tools such as T-Qualia and the Zen Business model. They are aimed at guiding Gaia organizations and entrepreneurs in leading sustainable transformations and qualifying economic growth. The book offers a vital toolkit for purpose-driven practitioners, management researchers, students, social entrepreneurs, evaluators and change-makers to reinvent, create and mindfully manage sustainable and agile organizations that drive systemic transformation.

To many individuals and organisations, situations generated by the world coronavirus pandemic have posed challenges and opportunities. We need to rethink how we interact with each other and with our natural environments. This book offers a way forward by proposing the use of rituals insight: semi-encoded patterns of thinking or actions to help us rebuild a sense of community, which, integrated with insights of applied systems thinking, and in contrast to a dominant pragmatist orientation of thinking and action, could help us further cope with work or education situations in which we still want to pursue our authenticity as human beings. This book offers ways to help make sense of how we could systemically and compassionately slow down and cope with work or education during and after the world coronavirus pandemic. It does so by integrating ideas about ritual with current research and practice on applied systems thinking. The author establishes a dialogue for co-existence between individuals and the knowledge disciplines of creativity and applied systems thinking, using the mediation of rituals to help us appreciate our world with others. This conversation is much needed given our sense of uncertainty during and after the world coronavirus pandemic and the challenges or opportunities offered by hybrid work and education. Throughout the book, the conversation explores new directions for research and practice beyond “futureaction” perspectives or orientations and the inclusion of electronically mediated spaces. The insights provided in this book offer a vital resource for management researchers and upper-level students, particularly those researching and studying applied systems thinking and creativity.

Rooted in both secular spirituality and scientific evidence, this book articulates a new model of sustainable development that is not just based on narrow definitions of GDP and economic growth, but that includes and even forefronts the social, environmental, and internal development of human beings.

There are many parallels between the ideas of Tao Te Ching, written 2,500 years ago by Lao Tzu, and those of Systems Thinking, which has come into prominence with the advent of modern personal computers, through people like Jay W. Forrester, and other thinkers such as Donella Meadows and Fritjof Capra. This book invites us to consider certain timeless wisdoms related to Systems Thinking, and provides us with a few points to explore as we face major challenges for resolving issues we confront for our future. Implicit in all of this are the roles we play in what our world has become, and how we could change or improve if we become more aware of who we are individually and collectively as a species. This book also contains a complete English version of Tao Te Ching, by Lao Tzu, that has been translated by the author. The book has also been updated to match passages and commentaries for easier reading. Commentaries have been carefully researched and include hyperlinks to more than a hundred sources in the Bibliography of Links and References for further exploration.

Sustainable Self-Governance in Businesses and Society offers a sound introduction to Stafford Beer’s Viable System Model (VSM) and clarifies its relevance to support organisational sustainability and self-governance. While the VSM has been known since the early 1980s, it hasn’t been always easy to understand and to apply. It explains the self-transformation methodology to analyse the way organisations manage (or not) their complexity and govern themselves. The work is supported by multiple examples of application in organisations of all scales – from small to multi-national corporations and from organised social networks to communities and national organisations. It clarifies the relevance of Beer’s theory to support systemic learning and change in organisations, and to coach them to self-organise and self-govern. Readers interested in further understanding insights from complex systems and cybernetics theories for designing and transforming organisations will benefit from this book, as it works to offer very detailed insights on how to put the VSM theory into practice. It clarifies how it improves adaptive capabilities, agile and self-regulated structures, more capable of fully implementing corporate sustainability strategies and self-governing themselves. The chapters provide key reading for managers, consultants, practitioners, and post-graduate students working in organisational transformation, governance, and sustainability.

Louis R. Pondy was a leading management and organizational studies scholar whose work on open systems helped launch and define the future of the field. This book offers an assessment of Pondy’s contribution, through critical reflection on what happened to the relationship between conflict theory and “beyond open systems.” Exploring the ways in which Louis R. Pondy theorizes conflict and systems, and how he challenged the status quo paradigms, this book offers a historical analysis on Pondy’s work and the relation to contemporary management theory. The author develops a Triple Loop framework, building on Pondy’s theories as well as the work of Gregory Batesom, to demonstrate a beyond-open-systems approach and existing single- or double-loop systems. Demonstrating the value and legacy of Louis R. Pondy, this book will have international appeal to researchers, academics and students across management disciplines and organizational studies, including systems thinking and conflict resolution.

This book explores how the conceptual lens of Holistic Flexibility presents new advancements in systems thinking. Systems thinking is often associated with frameworks and methodologies that often confine the discipline to academic circles in operations research and management science (OR/MS). Holistic Flexibility for Systems Thinking and Practice challenges this status-quo and talks about systems thinking as a state of mind, giving it a cognitive character. The book presents both theoretical deliberations and practitioner cases of Holistic Flexibility. The development of systems thinking in OR/MS is described leading to the latest debates on the subject and the key pillars of Holistic Flexibility are discussed in detail. A range of case studies are presented that offer a firsthand experience of Holistic Flexibility in practice. Learnings are drawn to highlight the importance of a spiritual approach in management, an understanding which is used to further develop the conceptual lens of Holistic Flexibility since it was first introduced. This book presents a range of competencies required for systems practitioners to address and respond to complex situations in an interconnected world. A bold attempt to pragmatize systems thinking and systems practice, the ideas presented in this book weave a thread between the development of the discipline, current debates, and what lies ahead. It will be highly beneficial for OR/MS researchers and graduate students who are interested in systems thinking as well as researchers interested in connecting modern management thinking and Eastern mysticism.

The edited volume advocates for teaching systemic ethics as a form of life-long learning within nature’s classroom to support social and environmental justice. This book also explains critical systemic thinking as both an individual and a collective responsibility through many ways of knowing spanning the arts and sciences to inspire creativity. This volume contributes to theory and practice by making suggestions as to how to re-frame the content, structure and process of education for transformation. This volume makes a case for a more relational understanding of human beings and other species. This volume also explores a more integrated curriculum where learners are given the opportunity to explore many ways of knowing and learning to earn, learn and grow a future through circular economies, co-operatives and learning communities. This book highlights how the models of sustainable development focus on education for wellbeing in line with the UNESCO approach outlined in 2021 that emphasizes the systemic nature of education rooted in protecting the environment and supported by the participation of active global citizens. This volume demonstrates transformation of our thinking and practice is overdue and calls for changing the narrative through our standing together and redesigning systems of education to prioritize a more holistic worldview that embraces the planet and living systems. The focus of this volume is on values, perspectives and ways to make a difference through addressing a range of practical concerns, such as: food, energy and water security. Ontologically the editors' perspective is shaped by recognising kinship with nature, as expressed by Indigenous custodians. Epistemologically the editors and contributors to this volume explore ways to enhance education based on working across cultures and disciplines using a cross cultural approach and mixed methodology. Axiologically the editors support the notion of transformative research that promotes balancing non-anthropocentrism with an approach that draws on Indigenous wisdom whilst addressing patriarchal notions through gender mainstreaming.