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Systems Thinking for Silicon Valley
The Timeline Splits from January 2025
Laksh Raghavan
December 08, 2024
Mainstream Tech. is still oblivious about Systems Thinking 🤯
When it comes to leadership in tech firms, a true ‘emperor has no clothes’ situation is in the application, or lack thereof, of Systems Thinking.
I once asked an executive, "Do you understand DevOps?"
He said "Of course! We've been practicing it for several years now!".
I replied, "Cool! But, the first principle that underpins DevOps is Systems Thinking! Do you know what that is?"
He was silent. After the awkward silence, he said "No!".
Table of Contents
I’m not asking for something new. All modern ‘ways of working’ call for the application of Systems Thinking.
DevOps calls it "the first way". LeSS wants us to “Apply Systems Thinking.” But, the reality is that very few leaders and entrepreneurs understand what that really means.
Most Silicon Valley executives and leaders are caught up in practices and methods without understanding the principles and philosophy behind them.
There is so much talk about first-principles thinking, but none applied when it comes to organizing humans towards a common goal.
“As to methods there may be a million and then some, but principles are few. The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods. The man who tries methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have trouble.”
Entering Mainstream Consciousness
Just looking at the number of posts on social media, it is clear that the words “Systems Thinking” is slowly entering mainstream consciousness.
The United Nations, Governments of various nations and even Corporations are becoming curious about it and are embracing this new way to think and perceive the world.
The awareness is spreading but this is not something you can grok by reading one book or attending one course.
My own journey has been over several years and a roller coaster of learning and unlearning - I'm still learning!
I learned not only from books, but also from the interactions with and between other systems thinkers and cyberneticians.
The best insights came from looping between theory and practice - via experiments - over multiple years of my tech/cybersecurity experience.
But, can this type of learning be scaled?
Cyb3rSyn Community
What if we had an online community that brought systems thinkers & cyberneticians together with the tech. practitioners?
🚀 That's exactly what we are doing with the Cyb3rSyn Community - launching in Jan 2025!
Access to thought-provoking books/podcasts/interviews/videos/courses, continuous interactions with other curious learners and systems thinkers, the right tool to implement these ideas in tech. product development and theory-based practice instead of mimetic copying of “best” practices.
📚 Cyb3rSyn Library: Exclusive multidisciplinary/interdisciplinary books pertinent to Tech. Practitioners - learn at your own pace.
🎥 Interviews/Podcasts/Q&A with bleeding edge thinkers
🧑🏾💻 Enable interaction between the thinkers and practitioners - online chat, forums, livestream events, etc.
🧰 Exclusive discount ($7500 value) to a tool that brings to life this type of thinking to Tech. Product Development: DoubleLoop App
📈 The value of the membership should go up over time - more books, online courses, videos, events, etc. added every year
🔁 Members/Thinkers can propose experiments/projects of any scale - from personal bio-hacking to small-team reorgs, from VSM workshops to large-scale transformations
✅ All this for a one-time payment (annual option available for trial)
Here’s a sneak-peek of the mobile app:
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Cyb3rSyn Library
Cyb3rSyn Community members will have access to the Cyb3rSyn Library which will host multidisciplinary books (with exclusive titles not available elsewhere), videos and online courses to help improve the effectiveness of Tech. Practitioners, Executives and Entrepreneurs!
Here is the list of books for 2025:
Title | Author(s) | Description |
|---|---|---|
Philosophy for Business Leaders (At Launch) | Whether you’re a business leader or a professional, this book invites you to look at the problems you’re facing at work and in your life from a fresh perspective, using basic philosophical tools, stories, and real-life examples. | |
A Systems Thinker’s View of Enterprise Architecture (At Launch) | This book explains where EA came from, what it is and is not, the role it plays in an organization today, and how it relates to systems thinking. | |
Second Order Cybernetics: Essays for Silicon Valley (At Launch) | This anthology is ideal for practitioners of systems thinking and anyone interested in understanding how self-observing systems challenge traditional notions of objectivity and knowledge, offering fresh perspectives on the nature of observation and reality itself. | |
A Systems Thinker’s View of Social Philosophy (Q1 2025) | This book is a remarkable synthesis of philosophy, systems thinking, enterprise architecture and sociology. | |
A Systems Thinker’s View of Systems Thinking (Q2 2025) | This book is a review of systems thinking that shows how it has evolved from WW II to the modern day. | |
Adaptive Lean: The Fusion of Cybernetics, Systems, and Improvement (Q3 2025) | By examining feedback loops, interconnected processes, and human-centric design, the book offers a holistic approach to Lean transformation, encouraging leaders to view organizations as dynamic systems for a long term and sustainable impact. | |
Cyb3rSyn: A Multidisciplinary approach to CyberSecurity (Q4 2025) | A refreshing new multidisciplinary approach to solving cybersecurity problems with insights from complexity, systems thinking, cybernetics, psychology and more. A MUST READ for all CISOs. |
More multidisciplinary content will be added every quarter/year going forward.
Exclusive Discount - Join Now
If you are an existing lifetime subscriber of the Cyb3rSyn Newsletter, you’ll be granted free LIFETIME access the Cyb3rSyn Library and Community in January. We’ve already started beta testing the community portal and mobile apps with a couple of enthusiastic lifetime members!
If you are new subscriber, give yourself the gift of life-long learning and get the pre-launch discount (50% off) to the Cyb3rSyn Community with the link below 👇🏾
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