Using causal loop diagrams or systems archetypes to explore a significant organizational problem can be an eye-opening experience. As a team works through the…

Since the 1950s, accounting has increasingly become the “language” of business. The growing importance of accounting systems since that time has led to two…

In his book Synchronicity, Joseph Jaworski describes two scenarios developed by Shell in the early 1990s. “New Frontiers” depicts a world where “rich and…

Acentral tenant of system dynamics is the need to model the problem and not the system. As John Sterman points out in his book…

Sustainable change happens when people begin to see the world differently. It takes only a momentary abandonment of longstanding beliefs and assumptions for this…

Ifirst encountered the work of Warren Bennis, widely known as “the dean of the leadership gurus,” in 1986. With a newly minted doctorate in…

The field of organizational learning has long offered a rich selection of tools — from devices such as the Ladder of Inference to causal…

Experiential activities have long been recognized as powerful ways to learn. Simulations create an environment where people can encounter many of the challenges and…

When’s the last time you actually took a real, honest-to-goodness bath? If you are like most people, it has probably been quite a while.

Either way you spell it, this former CEO’s name is “mud.” Though the pun may be entertaining, the result of failing to explore “unthinkable”…