Category: Articles
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Eye of the Needle: A Communication Tool
How often have you left a conversation feeling dissatisfied with how it went, how you conducted yourself, and what the final outcome was? Were…
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…
Facilitating Constructive Meetings
Have you ever dared to count the amount of time you spend in meetings every month? Staff meetings, supervision, board meetings, work groups, strategic…
Resolving to Stop Re-Solving
Have you resolved to make any changes in 2010? According to RichardWiseman, a psychologist at the University of Hertfordshire, most of us won’t achieve…
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.
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,…
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…
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…
Fine-Tuning Your Causal Loop Diagrams—Part II
Distinguish Between Actual and Perceived Conditions Perceptions and reality often differ, and it is usually important to capture these differences in your causal diagrams. The…
Step-By-Step Stocks and Flows: Improving the Rigor of Your Thinking
The systems thinking community has always considered stock and flow diagrams to be important tools, and recognition of their key place in the…