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Are Budgets Bad for Business?
Budgets are great for tracking money as it flows through a company. But when they are used for other purposes — long-range planning or gauging…
Software for Understanding Complex Systems
Life is complex,” states M. Scott Peck at the beginning of his book, Further Along the Road Less Traveled. Unfortunately, that statement goes against…
Fixes That Fail: Oiling the Squeaky Wheel—Again and Again . . .
How many times have you heard the saying “the squeaky wheel gets the oil?” Most people agree that whoever or whatever makes the most “noise”…
Drifting Goals: The “Boiled Frog” Syndrome
It’s becoming an old story in the systems thinking field: If you drop a frog into a pot of boiling water, he will immediately hop…
Shifting the Burden: The “Helen Keller” Loops
Most of us know the story of Helen Keller and have probably sympathized with her and her parents, whose actions to protect their handicapped daughter…
Leading Ethically Through Foresight
Rereading Robert Greenleaf ’s renowned 1970 essay “The Servant As Leader” is always an exercise in humility for me. His writings are a constant…
Behavior Over Time Diagrams: Seeing Dynamic Interrelationships
An old Winnie the Pooh cartoon sketch shows Christopher Robin dragging Edward the Bear down a set of stairs by one arm, while the…
Drifting Goals: The Challenge of Conflicting Priorities
It’s 7:30 a.m., and you are hurriedly getting your children ready for the day. You finally buckle everyone into the car, rush across town,…
Managing with Accumulators and Flows
A common principle of systems thinking is that “there is no away.” Every material thing we make and use must come from somewhere and…
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…