Category: Articles
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The “Living” Company: Extending the Corporate Lifeline
In the 1970s, diversification was the rage. But by the early 1980s, serious doubts had surfaced in the Shell Group about the wisdom of…
Clarifying Variables: Actual, Perceived, and Desired
One of the primary benefits of modeling with systems tools—whether causal loops or computer simulations—is the intense discussion it can generate around important variables…
ABC: Initiating Large-Scale Change at Chrysler
When Chrysler adopted activity-based costing (ABC) in 1991, the decision rep; resented more than a simple accounting change. The shift to ABC challenged many…
From Event Thinking to Systems Thinking
Your division has been plagued by late launches in its last five new products, and now management has charged you with “getting to the…
Coaching and Facilitating Systems Thinking
Systems thinking began as a set of analytic tools, but perhaps its greatest impact is as a language for collective inquiry, learning, and action.
From Fragmentation to Integration: Building Learning Communities
We live in an era of massive institutional failure,” says Dee Hock, founder and CEO emeritus of Visa International. We need only look around…
Step-By-Step Stocks and Flows: Converting From Causal Loop Diagrams
Once you have a basic knowledge of stocks and flows, you can begin converting CLDs to stock and flow diagrams. The steps we describe…
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.
Learning Organizations: The Promise and the Possibilities
This year’s annual Systems Thinking in Action Conference explored both the promise and the reality of the learning organization through the theme, “Learning Organizations…
A Systemic View of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
My wife and I moved to Israel on September 25, 2000—three days before the Al Aqsa Intifada began. Our hopes for a wide-ranging sabbatical,…