TEAM TIP Although this article focuses specifically on the issue of weight management, some of the lessons are relevant for organizational issues; for…

People in Guatemala—smart people—were working harder, hiring brighter people, raising more money, doing better projects, and getting improved results. And yet, what they sought…

Language has a subtle, yet powerful effect on the way we view the world. English, like most other Western languages, is linear—its basic sentence…

Archetypes in systems thinking are commonly occurring, generic structures of multiple feedback loops. These widely studied models provide immediate insight into the potential pathologies…

Just the other day, a colleague made a comment reminiscent of so many similar remarks:, “You worked in a hospital. You understand all there…

Making individual mental models explicit is only one step toward fostering organizationwide learning. Since perceptions of reality can vary widely among different people in…

Imagine you were suddenly struck with a strange illness that affected your vision. While you were still able to “see” everything around you, somehow…

Most people are familiar with the Sufi tale of the four blind men, each of whom is attempting (unsuccessfully) to describe what an elephant…

The adage “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush” captures an old belief that something “known” is more valuable than…

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…