Learning Systems Thinking by Diana Montalion - A Book Retelling Series

I just finished reading “Learning Systems Thinking” by Diana Montalion (O’Reilly, 2024, ISBN: 978-1-098-15133-1) and I want to share what I got from it. Chapter by chapter. Like a retelling with my own thoughts mixed in.

Why This Book

Here’s the thing. Most of us in tech think in straight lines. Problem comes in, solution goes out. But software systems are not straight lines. They’re messy, tangled, and full of surprises. Diana Montalion wrote this book to help us see the mess for what it really is and work with it instead of against it.

Diana has a pretty cool background. She went from owning an independent bookstore in Montana to architecting large-scale software systems. That journey shaped how she thinks about complexity, relationships, and why things break in ways nobody expected.

What the Book Covers

The book has 4 parts and 12 chapters:

Part I - A System of Thinking

• Chapter 1: What Is Systems Thinking?
• Chapter 2: Crafting Conceptual Integrity
• Chapter 3: Shifting Your Perspective

Part II - You Are a System of Thinking

• Chapter 4: Self-Awareness as a Foundational Skill
• Chapter 5: Replace Reacting with Responding
• Chapter 6: A System of Learning

Part III - We Are a System of Thinking

• Chapter 7: Collective Systemic Reasoning
• Chapter 8: Designing Feedback Loops
• Chapter 9: Pattern Thinking

Part IV - Designing a System of Thinking

• Chapter 10: Modeling, Together (Part 1) and Part 2
• Chapter 11: Systems Leadership
• Chapter 12: Redefining Success (Part 1) and Part 2

How I’ll Write This

Each post covers one chapter (some bigger chapters get split into two). I’m not trying to replace the book. Think of this as my notes and reactions. If something clicks for you, go grab the actual book. It’s worth the full read.

I’m writing this as someone who spent 20+ years in IT and read way too many technical books. Systems thinking changed how I look at pretty much everything. Not just code, but teams, decisions, and why things keep going wrong even when everyone is trying their best.

Let’s get into it. First up: What Is Systems Thinking?