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“Positive” Systems Archetypes
Many readers of The Systems Thinker are familiar with the systems archetypes developed in the mid- 1980s based on the work of Jay Forrester,…
Building Communities of Commitment
Creating learning organizations takes more than a collection of individuals working toward the same cause; it requires building a community of learners who are…
Systems Thinking Course Aims at Developing Managerial Competency
The Systems Thinking Competency Course (STCC) project at the MIT Sloan School of Management is exploring how systems thinking can be translated into the workplace.
Anatomy of a Reinforcing Loop
Feedback loops can be thought of as closed loops of interconnection; basically, sequences of mutual causes and effects. The links between each variable show…
Check-in Check-out
Your daughter was sick last night and you didn’t get much sleep. Tony’s car was rear-ended on the way to the office. Vivian has…
Structure-Behavior Pairs: A Starting Point for Problem Diagnosis
There are many possible starting points for drawing a systems diagram. One way to begin is by telling the story behind the problem, and…
Conversation as a Core Business Process
Take a moment to put on a new set of glasses. Change your perspective. Consider, for a moment, that the most widespread and pervasive…
From Mechanistic to Social Systemic Thinking
Each of us has a theory of reality, a concept of the nature of the world which is referred to as our worldview. Our…
Communities of Practice: Learning as a Social System
You are a claims processor working for a large insurance company. You are good at what you do, but although you know where your…
Why Few Organizations Adopt Systems Thinking
I frequently talk to groups of managers on the nature of systems thinking and its radical implications to management. In doing so, I use…