Category: Articles

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Using Systems Archetypes as Different “Lenses”

So, you’ve chosen a problem you want to study using systems thinking tools. You gather together some co-workers, round up some flipchart paper and…

Building Consensus Through Systems Thinking at the New Zealand Ministry of Health

As abundant experience has shown, most change management projects encounter significant resistance from key stakeholders. One of the main reasons that people fail to…

Food Systems, Climate Systems, Laundry Systems: The Time for Systems Literacy Is Now!

Tell me, in what subjects are you literate? Sounds like a question a college interviewer might ask. To be literate of course means you…

In Search of the Perfect Causal Loop Variable

Imagine that you’re sitting in the company cafeteria with some colleagues, munching sandwiches and discussing the latest resignation from the customer service group. “I…

Some Ways We Can Be Wise

As the scope and complexity of our world’s problems grow, so grows our need for wisdom. When people talk about wisdom, they often use…

The Risk of the Cure in Public Health

According to the World Health Organization, vaccines and clean water are the two public-health interventions that have had the greatest impact on the world’s…

A New Kind of Organization Based on Purpose and Principle

What do the Internet, Alcoholics Anonymous, and VISA International all have in common? You can find them just about anywhere on earth. They have…

The Five-Point Check-in

In our daily work life, practicing the five disciplines of organizational learning as defined by Peter Senge in his bestselling book, The Fifth Discipline,…

Presence of Mind: “Not Knowing” May Lead to New Answers

When was the last time you were in a meeting and someone said, “Stop thinking so much!” or “I don’t want you to come…

Planning for Multiple Futures

Some books have lengthy lives—a measure perhaps of how much they touch their times. Peter Schwartz’s The Art of the Long View: Planning…