Cabrera Derek, Colosi Laura, Lobdell Claire
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY USA; Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM USA; ThinkWorks, Ithaca, NY USA.
Eval Program Plann. 2008 Aug;31(3):299-310. doi: 10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2007.12.001. Epub 2008 Jan 5.
Evaluation is one of many fields where "systems thinking" is popular and is said to hold great promise. However, there is disagreement about what constitutes systems thinking. Its meaning is ambiguous, and systems scholars have made diverse and divergent attempts to describe it. Alternative origins include: von Bertalanffy, Aristotle, Lao Tsu or multiple aperiodic "waves." Some scholars describe it as synonymous with systems sciences (i.e., nonlinear dynamics, complexity, chaos). Others view it as taxonomy-a laundry list of systems approaches. Within so much noise, it is often difficult for evaluators to find the systems thinking signal. Recent work in systems thinking describes it as an emergent property of four simple conceptual patterns (rules). For an evaluator to become a "systems thinker", he or she need not spend years learning many methods or nonlinear sciences. Instead, with some practice, one can learn to apply these four simple rules to existing evaluation knowledge with transformative results.
评估是“系统思维”广受欢迎且被认为极具前景的众多领域之一。然而，对于什么构成系统思维存在分歧。其含义模糊不清，系统学者们进行了多样且不同的尝试来描述它。其起源有多种说法，包括冯·贝塔朗菲、亚里士多德、老子或多个非周期性“浪潮”。一些学者将其描述为与系统科学同义（即非线性动力学、复杂性、混沌）。另一些人则将其视为分类法——一系列系统方法的罗列。在如此多的杂音中，评估者往往很难找到系统思维的信号。系统思维的最新研究将其描述为四种简单概念模式（规则）的涌现属性。对于评估者而言，要成为“系统思考者”，无需花费数年时间学习众多方法或非线性科学。相反，通过一些实践，人们可以学会将这四条简单规则应用于现有的评估知识，从而产生变革性的结果。
