C&L October 2017_LR (5)

Book Review
I
t is ironic that in a culture where sacred texts start
with teaching the importance and characteristics of
the divine ‘wholeness’ (the invocation of Isa Upanishad),
thinking in whole or ‘system thinking’ is so
conspicuous by its absence.
Never has the importance of ‘system thinking’
been as evident as it is now, as the world becomes
increasingly interconnected; and solving problems
in isolation can no longer said to be a valid, let
alone sound, method.
What is more, with technology making things
more and more open and interconnected, people are
increasingly realizing the value of the ‘whole’—that
is not segregated into small parts, thus breaking
a hundreds-of-years old legacy of reductionist
approach. Whether it is the Internet itself or the
ctyptocurrencies and blockchain, they proclaim the
superiority of this systems approach, where complex
systems with no one centrally controlling it
have provided immense value and benefit to a world
which still sees thing, by and large, in parts.
‘System thinking’ is becoming essential for businesses
to succeed. A book for practicing managers
on the subject, like Systems thinking for Effective
Managers: The Road Less Traveled by Prashun
Dutta and published by Sage, hence, is an extremely
relevant and timely effort.
Dutta, who has served both as a management
consultant and a CIO (Tata Power and Reliance
Infrastructure), is no stranger to the real life situations
and expectedly the book is replete with typical
situations that managers can relate to.
“Attempts at isolating problem situations and then
developing solutions for the same without considering
the whole context are most likely to fail. In this
regard, one has observed the practice of trying to
import a solution that may have worked elsewhere.
While one may adopt the thinking behind a solution
implemented elsewhere, it will necessarily have to
be adapted to the context at hand,” writes Dutta.
How familiar it sounds! Few practicing managers
would fail to identify with such situations.
There are many examples from real corporate
world—from manufacturing companies to IT companies;
from business issues to IT project management.
Once you go through them, you will surely
relate to them.
The challenge, however, is to find them as they
seem almost hidden inside the descriptive text. That
is the essential issue with the book. It is neither a
‘chicken soup’ for the managers, written in heady
easy-to-refer format nor is it a systematic primer to
‘system’ thinking. Nor for that matter, and out-andout
academic book, though Dutta’s work does exude
significant academic indulgence.
The book is essentially presented as a journal
of the author’s learning journey, though loosely
categorized into various aspects of ‘systems’ thinking—right
from basic definitions to areas such as
complexity management, management styles and
leadership. The author tries to show the utility of
systems thinking or looking for the big picture,
which he confesses to have discovered as being
synonymous with wholeness or completeness of the
picture and not really their ‘bigness’.
Essentially it is a reader’s book; not a referrer’s
book. You have to invest time to read it sequentially
and absorb. The original analysis and presentation
style of the author is sometimes very enlightening
and engaging. But you must fully commit
to it. It is not a book that you can flip through. So,
for those going through a training program or
academic program, it is a welcome addition to systems
approach literature—a book with so much of
practical insight. But it is not a book that will help
you on the go. To that extent, the name may be a
bit misleading.
In essence, it is a very good book on systems thinking
for those who are willing to invest on learning;
not a guide book that can be referred at will.
October 2017 | CIO&LEADER
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