Category: Articles

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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…

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.

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…

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,…

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…

How Can We Solve Our Toughest Problems Peacefully?

For the past 15 years, I have focused all of my attention on answering one question: How can we solve our toughest problems peacefully?…