Know Why: Systems Thinking and Modeling

The complexity of the challenges we are faced with is steadily growing. Our gut feeling cannot predict the future and best practices used in the past do not necessarily work for our individual situations in the present. These facts cause many of us to simply give up. In order to be successful, however, we must understand the interconnections and dynamics at work in these individual situations.

With KNOW WHY Thinking and the KNOW WHY Method, Kai Neumann offers two extremely practical approaches with which to handle the complex challenges we encounter in business, in politics and in our personal lives. KNOW WHY Thinking simply asks that we consider the evolutionary pattern of success. The KNOW WHY Method then applies this when we engage in qualitative modeling using what is arguably the most important software in the world – the iMODELER.

This book shows you what KNOW WHY is all about and provides you with modeling tips so that you can easily model the following:

1. Personal life: What are the drivers for human happiness? How can we consciously plan to do the things that unconsciously make us feel great? What role do e.g. partners, money, sex, sports, work, nutrition, religion, hormones, products and consciousness play?

2. Management: Why is a product, a company or enterprise, a team, a project, or an employee successful? Why do customers buy certain products? Modeling explains systemic strategy development, project management, marketing, change management, organizational development, and much more.

3. Politics and society: Why aren’t we changing although it is quite clear what needs to change? Wars, poverty, pollution, financial crises, climate change, etc., are easily explained with the help of KNOW WHY. The solutions to our challenges may ultimately not be all that easy, but we can begin to get a handle on them with KNOW WHY Thinking and by modeling.