Category: Articles
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Charting a Corporate Learning Strategy
Managers in many companies slay are struggling with one basic question: How do you actually create a learning organization? While the five disciplines described…
Shifting the Burden Revisited: Turtles All the Way Down
There is an old story about a student who asked his master, “Teacher, what holds up the world?” The teacher paused for a moment…
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…
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 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…
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.
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…
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,…