What are the Best Books that you propose for Understanding and perception of System Thinking?

As far as I know such resources are nonexistent. As John Sterman writes in his book (Sterman, 2000, Chapter 21, page 887-888): "It is hard to assess the extent to which the modeling process changed people's mental models and beliefs. It is rare that clients adopt  the recommendations of any model promptly or without modification. When new policies are implemented, it takes a long time for their effects to manifest. Many other variables and conditions change at the same time new policies are implemented, confounding attempts to attribute any results to the policies" I hope this has encouraged you to read the rest!!! :)

By the way, resources from the Learning Sciences might be helpful. I don't know much about them thought. Sorry!

Here is (somebody else's) list of favourites:

I've used Peter Senge's 'The Fifth Discipline' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fifth_Discipline) quite a bit

Mahdi, What is "System Thinking" for you? Are you familiar with the original ideas of general system processes and phenomena that were published by Ludwig v. Bertalanffy (General Systems Theory)? This is an excellent read for the beginning, in particular, because it offers such a broad view from biology to psychology, and from history to (simple) mathematical approaches. I recommend this book, because it helps to overcome any disciplinary restrictions, which is essential for thinking in terms of systems.

As for decision making, policy making, and organizational policies and processes, I have no particular recommendation, only one thought: Organizations are very particular systems, in that they are usually a combination of both "natural" systems, in which there is "free" interaction among individuals targeted at creating and maintaining some processes, and of hierarchical systems, that put restrictions to people's activities, and that cannot be easily understood using the insights from natural systems. Be aware that many books and papers do not consider both elements. Since organizations involve humans, who are inventive, no system dynamics model will suffice to simulate what is going on.

Pls update the community in case you found a good read. Thank you.

Christian

All above answers are good. I think a book authored by donnela meadows "thinking in system" is another good book. 

Mike Jackson's "Systems Thinking: Creative Holism for Managers". A really useful analysis of different methods and their applicability in different problem spaces. 

I agree with the comment that it depends on what you mean by "systems thinking." People in different fields have vastly different ideas of what that means. That said, all the recommendations people have given are great. Donella Meadows' book ("Thinking in Systems: A Primer") is outstanding for someone who is brand new to systems thinking. The only downside is that it's focused particularly on system dynamics, which isn't of interest to everyone. Melanie Mitchell's book, "Complexity: A Guided Tour" is also excellent because it's very accessible, but it's not as focused on policies and decision-making. Scott Page's work in general is very good and more focused on social systems. I haven't read Peter Senge's book, but from what I've heard, I suspect it would be good for your purpose.

Mahdi,

As other commentators already hinted at, there are almost as many systems theories as there are theorists. Some even mix it with holism. That's why ‘when rigorous contemporary social scientists hear the word “system,” they are likely to draw their intellectual guns’.

That is an excerpt from Emergence and Convergence, a most condensed version of Mario Bunge's systems philosophy started in volumes 3 and 4 of his Treatise on Basic Philosophy. Despite the word "Philosophy", it is not about imaginary worlds and detachment from reality.

It is in great part open in Google Book, so the reading of the initial pages can help decide if you want to read it: https://books.google.es/books?id=E7ooJWsGFsEC&printsec=frontcover

Sterman and other authors are very good for a hands-on approach. In Bunge you'll find a more fundamental approach. One of the main points in my view is a new reduction of reality - to the system, through the CESM model -, different from the reduction to the atom of analytical science and from the "reduction to the whole" (in Bunge's expression) from holism.

Gregory Bateson's "Steps to an ecology of mind" is a wonderful deep classic on systems thinking. Fred Emery's edited collection Systems thinking (Penguin modern management readings) has contributions from most of the great original systems thinkers. Both would be considered 'old' books but then Plato still gets quoted from time to time so we need to be cautious about the throw away economy of knowledge. 

We have tried to answer many of these questions in a book I co-authored called Systemic Thinking: Fundamentals for Understanding Problems and Messes.  The focus of the text is on how to think more holistically about complex problems, be they personal or organizational.  The key, I believe, is to take a discipline-agnostic approach to studying systems.  No one discipline has all the right answers.

My perspective on "Systems Thinking" is as a working space systems engineer. Which is close to the original heart of systems thinking: if you trace back the history of this (this book is a particularly good reference: https://books.google.ca/books?id=HovWLPbM8ywC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false), you'll find that modern systems engineering started in the ICBM program in the US in the 1950s, and then was consciously imported into the Apollo Program by Brainerd Holmes, who hired Joe Shea (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Francis_Shea) to manage the Apollo spacecraft development. Shea had learned systems engineering at Bell Labs, where it had been invented. The strong use of systems engineering on Apollo, and that program's success, led to it become standard operating procedure for all subsequent NASA programs. From these it was adopted by all NASA's contractors in the US, and by USAF space programs, and by NASA' foreign partners (ESA, CSA, etc.). It slowly filtered out from the aerospace field into other fields over the decades since the 1960s.

NASA continues to train systems engineers, and to practice systems engineering as a core competence. Here's a link to the 2007 version of NASA SP 6105, the Systems Engineering Handbook: http://education.ksc.nasa.gov/esmdspacegrant/Documents/NASA%20SP-2007-6105%20Rev%201%20Final%2031Dec2007.pdf

And here's a link to an earlier (1995) version, NASA SP-610S:

 The earlier document is easier to read and to follow, and comes closer to actually capturing the systems engineering process used on (e.g.) the Apollo program. The later document has been revised to use language and thinking based on more-abstract systems engineering thinking, arising from trying to meld thinking about how systems engineering has been applied in various other domains than space.

Finally, here's a link to an overview presentation by a NASA higher-up on the topic:

 http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/456657main_PIF_1_figueroa_se.pdf

 It's a useful (and sometimes amusing) summary of many of the key concepts.

- Kieran

Try General Systems Theory by Skyttner

Try read The Fifth Discipline by Senge

Thinking in systems ,by Donella Meadows ,is in top list of goodreads.com

It depends on your own understanding, but there are two that all Systems Thinkers should read:

Thinking in Systems by Meadows

The Fifth Discipline by Senge

I use parts of them in my System Approaches to Addiction course, but there are many others. In fact, I often get more out of past and current journal articles. I attached one below, I wrote, that was written for new Systems Thinkers.

If you want it straight from the horse's mouth, but easier to read than the NASA standards, I recommend MIL-STD-881C.

It's really good; it has been worked on for more than 40 years.

Otherwise, read Plato, and  Philip K. Dick.

For me Gregory Bateson's "Steps to an ecology of mind" is a must-read on systems theory. Also F.E. (Fred) Emery's edited book "Systems thinking" is a great collection of the classics. It was first published in 1969 and is in the Penguin series "Penguin modern management readings" 

Then there's Ludwig von Bertalanffy's General Systems Theory which is also a classic.