Great systems are created by great systems engineers. They have a spark of ingenuity and creativity, the ability to craft and convey a vision, the discipline of a drill sergeant, the ability to see the “big picture” while understanding the most critical details, the writing talent of a best‐selling author, the leadership skills of a winning field commander in battle, the resource orchestration of a music conductor, a mastery of the key technologies and tools required for the systems they build, and a deep understanding of how their system will deliver value to its users. They embrace change and the challenges of uncertainty and emergence, and they know how to manage and leverage them to deliver better products and services. As you can well imagine, there are not too many truly great systems engineers. They are rare. Steve Jobs was one; Walt Disney was one; Elon Musk is one, although we doubt any called themselves systems engineers. The title systems engineer is much rarer than the practice of formal systems engineering.

Lots of people – millions of professionals – do systems engineering without ever having the title, and many are even unaware that they are systems engineers. Sometimes they are called system architects, or lead engineers, or product engineers, or a myriad of other titles; and some, of course, are called systems engineers. Few operate at the stratospheric levels of Jobs, Disney, and Musk, but they do many, most, or even all the activities highlighted in the previous paragraph. They are effective at what they do; i.e. they consistently deliver good value to their customers, employers, and shareholders by doing a variety of systems engineering activities. They play a central role in developing new products and services and in keeping existing ones current. They respond to natural disasters such as hurricanes, or man‐made ones such as mass refugee migrations, providing tools, insights, and analyses necessary to see and address the systems aspects of those horrific events.

It is natural to ask what makes systems engineers effective or even highly effective – people who are truly exemplary. Is it their personality, education, diversity of experiences, and technical skill? Is it the environment and culture in which they work? Until now there has been surprisingly little systematic research and writing on just what differentiates a more effective systems engineer from a less effective one. The Paradoxical Mindset of Systems Engineers: Uncommon Minds, Skills, and Careers tackles that shortfall head on, building on several years of research by the authors, primarily through hundreds of interviews and discussions with self‐identified systems engineers and those who work with them.

Most systems engineering books focus on methods and tools to perform systems engineering. They focus on how to architect systems, collect sound requirements, understand system complexity, decide how much it will cost to produce a new system, conduct technical trade studies, and a myriad of other activities. Many of these books are tremendously valuable, serving as important reference guides and textbooks.

What these books don’t tell you much about is the people – those who do systems engineering. The Paradoxical Mindset of Systems Engineers is different – it focuses on the people who perform systems engineering rather than on the methods and tools used to perform the work. Based in part on the largest and most comprehensive research we know of examining systems engineers, The Paradoxical Mindset of Systems Engineers offers:

• An aspiring systems engineer a way to understand what it takes to be successful and how to chart a sensible path for that success.
• A manager who leads systems engineers practical ways to understand their systems engineering workforce and ways to enhance it.
• An organization a way to focus its workforce improvement initiatives on efforts that may have the largest positive impact on its systems engineers.
• Classic engineers (i.e. electrical, software, civil, mechanical, environmental, and a myriad other types of engineers, who are not systems engineers) and program/project managers who do some systems engineering, a way to improve their systems engineering skills.
• Both individuals and organizations insights into which skills are needed for systems engineers of the future and how academia, industry, and government are all preparing to address those needs.

There is broad recognition among those who manage engineering organizations and major programs that there is a shortage of highly effective systems engineers. We have delivered dozens of talks at conferences and workshops and have visited dozens of companies and government agencies. Wherever we have gone, we have found a thirst among those responsible for systems engineers to do a better job identifying good candidates and to understand how to make their existing systems engineering workforce more effective. We hope that The Paradoxical Mindset of Systems Engineers offers valuable help to all of these audiences.