Donella Meadows, best known for co-authoring the 1972 classic The Limits to Growth, has long been a vocal proponent of applying systems thinking to social systems. Her 2008 book Thinking in Systems is one of the few introductions to systems thinking that can be truly called an introduction and which also focuses on social systems, as opposed to biological or cybernetic systems. For those wanting a thorough, but approachable first foray into systems thinking, this is a great place to start.

But for people interested in community building there is a gem hidden at the end of the book, which many may leave undiscovered, should they get lost in a thicket of examples about how systems work. Here, in the final chapter, Meadows presents her “most general ‘systems wisdoms’” that she has gained from her years of experience.

These are the take-home lessons, the concepts and practices that penetrate the discipline of systems so deeply that one begins, however imperfectly, to practice them not just in one’s profession, but in all of life. They are the behavioral consequences of a worldview based on the ideas of feedback, nonlinearity, and systems responsible for their own behavior.

Here are just a few excerpts.