Professor Thomas Lee of MIT was a dear friend. I met him in the early 1980s when he was the Secretary General of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA). Tom was obsessed with the notion that two distinct traditions of systems thinking — Ackoff's interactive design and Forrester's systems dynamics — were complementary. For years he insisted that we should work together to merge the two prominent systems methodologies into a single unified one. But at the time I was preoccupied with two other exciting conceptions. The first one was consideration of culture as an operating system that guides social organizations toward a predefined order. The second was a hunch that iteration is the key for understanding complexity.

Sadly, Tom passed away, but he managed to get a promise from me to work on his favorite project. To fulfill my promise I tried several different approaches, all in vain, before realizing that I had the solution all along. I had used it in the first edition of this book to combine my version of holistic thinking — iteration of structure, function, and process — with interactive design. Suddenly it became clear that interactive design is not just a simple methodology. It is also a platform that could be used to integrate the iterative approach, systems dynamics, and the challenge of self-organization of sociocultural systems (neg-entropic process) into a comprehensive systems methodology.

I prepared a draft of my thinking and showed it to my mentor Russ Ackoff. He liked it very much and insisted that I should publish it in a new book.

Coincidentally, at that time, Dean Thomas Manahan of Villanova University and Niel Sicherman, Associate Dean of Executive Education, asked me to help them design a distinctive Executive MBA program that would use systems thinking as a platform to integrate the relevant subjects into a unified whole. I was ready for this assignment. The systems methodology I had developed was uniquely qualified to deal with the challenge that most MBA programs have not been able to deliver. Ten successful classes of Villanova Executive MBA graduates are testimony for the effectiveness of this approach.

When Dennis McGonagle, my editor from Elsevier, called to see whether I was ready for a new edition, I welcomed the opportunity to revise Chapters 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6 and Chapter 7 from the previous edition to incorporate this exciting concept.

But, in the end, it was the remarkable support of my valued partner Susan Leddick that got the job done. Susan not only edited the revised chapters with utmost attention but also had many invaluable suggestions that improved the outcome significantly.

So, here it is, my new version of a comprehensive systems methodology. I sincerely believe that the beauty of interactive design and the magic of the iteration of structure, function, and process — when combined with the power of operational thinking, and genuine understanding of neg-entropic processes — create a competent and exciting systems methodology that goes a long way in dealing with emerging challenges of seemingly complex and chaotic sociocultural systems.