Topic: System Dynamics

Showing 10 of 264 results (by popularity)

How Learning Works

Recently, I had a long conversation with my fifteen-year-old daughter, Elise, about why she had to learn algebra. I had helped her with a…

A Practice Theory for Organizational Learning

Acarpenter once came to work on my house carrying four heavy boxes of tool. I was taken by one elegant hand saw. “Japanese,” he…

Operational Strategy Mapping: Learning and Executing at The Boeing Company

Although we usually refer to ourselves as “human beings,” the truth is, if we closely analyzed our behavior, we’d likely describe ourselves as “human…

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…

People in Context, Part I

Our efforts to understand and intervene in organizational events have a persistent bias: to interpret phenomena from a personal framework. In other words, situations…

A New Path to Understanding Systems Thinking

Many readers will recognize this scenario: A group in your department is planning a highly complex project, but the conversations you’re hearing about it…

The Art of Foresight: Preparing for a Changing World

Foresight is the secret ingredient of success, because without foresight we cannot prepare for the future. Effective foresight has always been important in human…

Relinking Life and Work: Toward a Better Future

The modern workplace is far less than ideal for workers who want integrated lives. As one engineer put it, “The problem isn’t for those…

Facilitative Modeling: Using Small Models to Generate Big Insights

All you need to do is read the paper or watch the news to realize that the world is becoming more difficult to understand…

Putting the “Relational” Back in Human Relationships

No systems thinker worthy of the name would argue that a single cause, close in time and space, produces a single result in any…