Take a moment to put on a new set of glasses. Change your perspective. Consider, for a moment, that the most widespread and pervasive …

System thinking tools, such as causal loop diagrams, foster high-quality thinking, communication, and decision-making in teams. But plunging into the realm of complex, dynamic …

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 …

Margaret Wheatley describes vision not just as a destination but as a field that permeates the organization, affecting all employees who bump against it.

Fortune magazine recently labeled the U.S. school system “our most endangered institution,” highlighting a growing national concern about the quality of education in America. Steadily …

What makes a great collaboration? One view is that a collaboration is only as great as the individuals who collaborate within it. Another is …

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 …

Using a systems thinking approach can expand our understanding of a particular problem or issue by helping us view our actions in the context …

The way people talk together in organizations is rapidly becoming acknowledged as central to the creation and management of knowledge. According to Alan Webber, …

Any time you hear the phrase, “Here we go again” in response to a problem, it is a clue that a pattern is in …

How we act depends on how we understand the situation we are in. Our understandings often seem obvious to us, as if they were …

Total Quality Control and systems thinking have complementary strengths that can greatly enhance an organization’s ability to improve its performance. How? Through a more balanced …

The parable of the blind men and the elephant illustrates how our individual perceptions (what Peter Senge calls our “mental models”) can lead to …

Each of us has a theory of reality, a concept of the nature of the world which is referred to as our worldview. Our …

Creating learning organizations takes more than a collection of individuals working toward the same cause; it requires building a community of learners who are …

This handy pocket guide outlines a 10-step process for drawing effective causal loop diagrams–including selecting variable names, constructing the actual loops, distinguishing between reinforcing and …

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 …

The phones were ringing off the hook and the fax machine was humming 24 hours a day. The entire staff of the specialty goods …

You are a claims processor working for a large insurance company. You are good at what you do, but although you know where your …

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, …

The drive toward improvement has become a way of life in corporations today. Total Quality Management, Business Process Reengineering, and other improvement techniques have …

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 …

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 …

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 …

Making mental models explicit can enhance both individual and organizational learning by making individual learning more accessible and therefore more easily transferable to the …

Despite significant advances in personal computers and systems thinking software over the last decade, learning to apply systems thinking effectively remains a tough nut …

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 …

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.

TEAM TIP Look for things that rise and fall in your organization, such as employee motivation, product sales, progress on goals, etc. What are …

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.

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 …

Making individual mental models explicit is only one step toward fostering organizationwide learning. Since perceptions of reality can vary widely among different people in …

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, …

All you need to do is read the paper or watch the news to realize that the world is becoming more difficult to understand …

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 …

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 …

As a global society increasingly becomes a reality and people strive to come together across divisions of culture, religion, race, age, gender, and other …

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 …

As members of communities and organizations, many people feel their days (and their energy!) being consumed by contentious conflicts between diverse stakeholder groups. Organizations …

When faced with a problem, how often do teams within your organization become polarized around proposed solutions that are opposites? For example, one group …

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 can be a powerful force for action when it is clearly articulated and there is a genuine desire to bring it into reality.

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 …

There is a full array of systems thinking tools that you can think of in the same way as a painter views colors many …

The goal of education for sustainability (EFS) is “to develop in young people and adults new knowledge and new ways of thinking needed to …

Much has been written over the years about leadership — the skills required, the dynamics involved, the characteristics displayed by outstanding leaders, and so …

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 …

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 …