Favorites from the Field
David Peter Stroh
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Moving from Blame to Accountability
By Marilyn Paul -
Six Steps to Thinking Systemically
By Michael Goodman, Richard Karash -
Using the Archetype Family Tree as a Diagnostic Tool
By Michael Goodman, Art Kleiner
Peter Senge
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Transforming the Systems Movement
By Russell Ackoff -
The “Thinking” in Systems Thinking: Honing Your Skills
By Barry Richmond -
Applying System Dynamics to Public Policy: The Legacy of Barry Richmond
By Steve Peterson -
We Can’t Keep Meeting Like This: Developing the Capacity for Cross-Sector Collaboration
By Mille Bojer -
Pocket Guide: Using the Archetypes
By Daniel Kim, Colleen Lannon
Gene Bellinger
About The Systems Thinker
Building shared understanding
The Systems Thinker works to catalyze effective change by expanding the use of systems approaches. All articles are available free of charge in an effort to expose as wide of audience as possible. Browse, share with others, save your favorites and tell others about this valuable resource!
Popular
From Mechanistic to Social Systemic Thinking
Each of us has a theory of reality, a concept of the nature of the world which is referred to as our worldview. Our …
Pocket Guide: Using the Archetypes
This handy pocket guide builds on Systems Archetypes at a Glance. This guide lays out a specific application for each archetype–for example, using “Growth and …
Guidelines for Designing Systemic Interventions
The phones were ringing off the hook and the fax machine was humming 24 hours a day. The entire staff of the specialty goods …
The Systems Orientation: From Curiosity to Courage
Systems thinking is different from most other problem-solving tools because it takes into account the fact that we are a part of the system …
Overcoming Defensive Routines in the Workplace
Any time you hear the phrase, “Here we go again” in response to a problem, it is a clue that a pattern is in …
Superstitious Learning
The drive toward improvement has become a way of life in corporations today. Total Quality Management, Business Process Reengineering, and other improvement techniques have …
Building Communities of Commitment
Creating learning organizations takes more than a collection of individuals working toward the same cause; it requires building a community of learners who are …
Creating Business Results Through Team Learning
As of 1993, Sigma Tech (a fictional name) was one of the most successful small corporations in the U.S. The company’s business was both …
Using Organizational Learning Tools to Build Community
The Milwaukee Area Technical College (MATC) is the largest two-year technical college in the U.S., serving nearly 70,000 students with an annual budget of …
Communities of Practice: Learning as a Social System
You are a claims processor working for a large insurance company. You are good at what you do, but although you know where your …
Using Causal Loop Diagrams to Make Mental Models Explicit
Making mental models explicit can enhance both individual and organizational learning by making individual learning more accessible and therefore more easily transferable to the …
The “Thinking” in Systems Thinking: How Can We Make It Easier to Master?
Despite significant advances in personal computers and systems thinking software over the last decade, learning to apply systems thinking effectively remains a tough nut …
Moving from Blame to Accountability
When something goes wrong in an organization, the first question that is often posed is, “Whose fault is it?” When there’s data missing in …
Systems Thinking: What, Why, When, Where, and How?
If you’re reading The Systems Thinker®, you probably have at least a general sense of the benefits of applying systems thinking in the work-place.
Managing Organizational Learning Cycles
Imagine an organization in which all the records disintegrated overnight. Suddenly, there are no more reports, no computer files, no employee records, no operating manuals, …
Introducing Systems Thinking into Your Organization
So you’ve read The Fifth Discipline, attended the Pegasus “Systems Thinking in Action” Conference, bought simulation software, and created your first computer models. You’re …
Reinforcing and Balancing Loops: Building Blocks of Dynamic Systems
In the book The Double Helix James Watson describes the process through which he and Robert Crick “cracked” the DNA code. While others were searching …
Thinking Systemically About Strategy
During the mid-1980s, a large high-technology company launched a project to begin thinking more systemically about strategy. “COPEX” (a fictional name) designed, manufactured, sold, …
Facilitative Modeling: Using Small Models to Generate Big Insights
All you need to do is read the paper or watch the news to realize that the world is becoming more difficult to understand …
Guidelines for Drawing Causal Loop Diagrams
The old adage, “if the only tool you have is a hammer, everything begins to look like a nail” can also apply to language.
Liberating Structures: A New Pattern Language for Engagement
“We change the culture by changing the nature of conversation. It’s about choosing conversations that have the power to create the future.” — Peter …
Changing Our Systems by Changing Our Brains: The Leverage in Mindfulness
According to recent findings in neuroscience, not only do sensory experiences and actions change the brain’s physical structure, but so does thinking. Concentrating on …
Human Dynamics for the 21st Century
As a global society increasingly becomes a reality and people strive to come together across divisions of culture, religion, race, age, gender, and other …
Toyota’s Current Crisis: The Price of Focusing on Growth Not Quality
For the past 15 years or so, I have told audiences a story about how my perception of what determines good business performance has …
What Are Mental Models? Part 2
TEAM TIP Look for things that rise and fall in your organization, such as employee motivation, product sales, progress on goals, etc. What are …
Systems Thinking Course Aims at Developing Managerial Competency
The Systems Thinking Competency Course (STCC) project at the MIT Sloan School of Management is exploring how systems thinking can be translated into the workplace.
From Individual to Shared Mental Models
Making individual mental models explicit is only one step toward fostering organizationwide learning. Since perceptions of reality can vary widely among different people in …
Check In, Check Out: A Tool for “Real” Conversations
Your daughter was sick last night and you didn’t get much sleep. Tony’s car was rear-ended on the way to the office. Vivian has …
Vision Deployment Matrix: A Framework for Large-Scale Change
Vision can be a powerful force for action when it is clearly articulated and there is a genuine desire to bring it into reality.
Systems Thinking Concepts for Environmental Education
The goal of education for sustainability (EFS) is “to develop in young people and adults new knowledge and new ways of thinking needed to …
Dialogic Leadership
When Monsanto and American Home Products dissolved their intended merger last year, it was not due to a lack of strategic or market synergy, …
The Leader’s Journey
Much has been written over the years about leadership — the skills required, the dynamics involved, the characteristics displayed by outstanding leaders, and so …
The Vocabulary of Systems Thinking: A Pocket Guide
Systems thinking can be thought of as a language for communicating about complexity and interdependencies (see “Systems Thinking as a Language,” Viewpoint, April 1991). To …
Transforming the Character of a Corporation
We judge others by what they do; we judge ourselves by our intentions.” “What you do thunders so loud, I can’t hear what you …
Action-to-Outcome Mapping: Testing Strategy with Systems Thinking
In the “classic” systems thinking approach, a group uses mapping and modeling to help explain an important behavior over time. While we occasionally encounter …
Guidelines for Daily Systems Thinking Practice
Individual Practice Becoming a seasoned systems thinker starts with a strong commitment to developing your own awarenesses and skills. Ask Different Questions. Systems thinking offers …
The CEO’s Role in Organizational Transformation
Why are attempts to transform organizations usually painful and so often unsuccessful? Why is it that, even when leaders recognize the value of the …
What Are Mental Models?
In writing and teaching people about systems thinking, my colleagues and I at I see systems often refer to “mental models.” For some people, …
Leanness
Corporations today face many pressures to become “lean.” Unfortunately, most people also attach “mean” to lean, which can lead us to confuse leanness with …
Mental Models and Systems Thinking: Going Deeper into Systemic Issues
In a causal loop diagram of a systemic issue, variables are connected in cause-and-effect relationships. But often the implicit thought processes behind those links …
From Riots to Resolution: Engaging Conflict for Reconciliation
As members of communities and organizations, many people feel their days (and their energy!) being consumed by contentious conflicts between diverse stakeholder groups. Organizations …
The Nature and Creation of Chaordic Organizations
We are living on the knife’s edge of one of those rare and momentous turning points in human history. Liveable lives for our grandchildren, …
Moving from Knower to Learner
Contrary to popular opinion, learning is not the process of merely accumulating more information. You have “learned” something only when you can produce a …
The World Cafe: Living Knowledge Through Conversations That Matter
Consider all the learning that occurs as people move from place to place inside and outside an organization, carrying insights and ideas from one …
The Structure of Paradox: Managing Interdependent Opposites
When faced with a problem, how often do teams within your organization become polarized around proposed solutions that are opposites? For example, one group …
Operational Thinking
The first three systems thinking skills help you establish an extensive (breadth) and intensive (depth) boundary for your mental or computer-based model. The next …
Palette of Systems Thinking Tools
There is a full array of systems thinking tools that you can think of in the same way as a painter views colors many …
Pocket Guide: Systems Clues in Everyday Language
How many times have you heard someone say, “This is spiraling out of control”? When people use these kinds of phrases, they intuitively give hints …