Systems Thinking World

The Perspectives Project surfaces noteworthy stories about relationships and their implications, to provoke thought, foster deeper understanding, create insights, and enable more effective action. Primary relationships are explicitly established between perspectives and implicit ones are defined via tags. These may be surfaced via clustering. This project was shelved in Aug 2016 and resurrected in Aug 2017 with the intent of replacing the SystemsWiki.org website by the end of the year.

AND? is the idea behind building relationship models by asking the same question over and over until all the relevant relationships are understood. This particular model unfold the situation with a farmer having his crops eaten by insects.

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A parallel to the Casual Relationships model in Insight Maker.

An experiment to better understand the possibility of crowdsourcing a model associated with homelessness.

The Perspectives Project surfaces noteworthy stories about relationships and their implications, to provoke thought, foster deeper understanding, create insights, and enable more effective action. Primary relationships are explicitly established between perspectives and implicit ones are defined via tags. These may be surfaced via clustering. This project was shelved in Aug 2016 and resurrected in Aug 2017 with the intent of replacing the SystemsWiki.org website by the end of the year.

A parallel to the Casual Relationships model in Insight Maker.

Synthesized research relationship mapping.

Synthesized research relationship mapping.

Some Examples

Effective Solutions might be referred to as an interactive learning environment or an evolving collaborative problem-solving environment. It presents a basis for why we typically create solutions which are only temporary, solutions which make the situation worse or create new problems that have to be dealt with. Effective Solutions then provides an approach for developing solutions which engage the relevant stakeholders in creating enduring solutions which don't create new solutions in the process.

Storytelling with Kumu is a free online learning program which presents a rationale for using storytelling to communicate the meaning of models as well as how to best utilize the presentation features within Kumu. Included are tips & tricks learned along the way as well as exercises to develop one's expertise using the presentation features.

Present the definition and utility of an archetypes as well as what the archetypes are.

The Certified Systems Thinker Program presents what is considered the absolute essential understanding and skills necessary to develop a systemic perspective for situations of interest. This Systemic Perspective provides a basis for deeper understanding, insights and more effective action. The intent is to enable one to be more effective dealing with situations, while reducing the likelihood of creating unintended consequences making matters worse, or creating new problems in the process.

Simulation with Insight Maker introduces one to the development of stock & flow simulation models, which is where you turn when qualitative models can't help you develop the understanding you need. This is a free self-paced online learning environment from Systems Thinking World. While the stock & flow simulation modeling is in Insight Maker, a free web-based modeling and simulation environment, the framework for the learning environment was developed in Kumu.

Simulation with Insight Maker is a Kumu Learning Environment intended to present the essence principles for developing simulation models with Insight Maker. The most essential features of Insight Maker for developing stock & flow simulation models are also provided.

Guidelines for the creation of the new SystemsWiki page format.

An introduction to the current state of Systems Thinking World along with a short history of the relentless pursuit of understanding relationships and their implications that got us here.

How the development of a relationship model promotes understanding and insights as a basis for more effective action dealing with a situation.

This is a presentation delivered at Skillsfest on 17.08.02 about my personal evolution from being a systems thinker to being a storyteller of relationships and their implications.

Using the YouTube embed script to embed just about anything and have it automatically size to the fit the window it's embedded in.

Seldom is the problem where it appears to be. Investigating the relationships that I never thought about that got me to this predicament.

AUSTRALIA'S TAX-ADVANTAGED, compulsory, private superannuation system – the jewel in the crown of the legacy of the Hawke/Keating era – is an innocent fraud. The system was introduced with the best of intentions, but it doesn’t do what it was supposed to do.

The Enabling Virtual Collaboration (EVC) Project is a collaborative endeavor to figure out how to curate virtual collaboration endeavors. That is, undertaking to develop a systemic understanding of complex situations and evolve strategies for improving the situation with a high likelihood of avoiding unintended consequences, and doing this with a group of collaborators who are geographically distributed and only able to contribute asynchronously on a periodic basis.

This is just a small project to hold all the presentation splash pages that don't really go with Kumu presentations.

Content that is visible only to patrons or visible to patrons before it's made public.

Surfaces the structure and behavior of the Exponential Growth Archetype

Insight Maker User's Guide

This is an old project using the old data model where data is shared across maps. If I need another project in the future that does that then fork this one to create the project.

Things that work and things that don't

Enabling Virtual Collaboration is a collaborative endeavor to figure out how to curate virtual collaboration endeavors. That is, undertaking to develop a systemic understanding of complex situations and evolve strategies for improving the situation with a high likelihood of avoiding unintended consequences, and doing this with a group of collaborators who are geographically distributed and only able to contribute asynchronously on a periodic basis. This is being evolved into the Asynchronous Virtual Collaboration project.

In this piece, we explore the counter intuitive nature of systems where the best of intentions to address the homelessness situation using the most expedient approach is likely to make things even worse.

Economic Sector Model

It's one reason we're poorer than our parents.

Attractiveness Principle Archetype

Addiction Archetype

Experiences of a company trying to manage their average accounts receivable period to an acceptable level.

Accidental Adversaries Archetype

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Investigation of Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) as to whether it is really Myopic Monetary Theory since it doesn't address the cause of the problem it seeks to fix.

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How the development of a relationship model promotes understanding and insights as a basis for more effective action dealing with a situation.

Enabling Virtual Collaboration is a collaborative endeavor to figure out how to curate virtual collaboration endeavors. That is, undertaking to develop a systemic understanding of complex situations and evolve strategies for improving the situation with a high likelihood of avoiding unintended consequences, and doing this with a group of collaborators who are geographically distributed and only able to contribute asynchronously on a periodic basis. This is being evolved into the Asynchronous Virtual Collaboration project.

Investigation of the relationships responsible for the failure of nations.

The Munro Review of Child Protection: Part One: A Systems Analysis

Asynchronous Virtual Collaboration is a collaborative endeavor to develop a set of guidelines for an effective asynchronous virtual collaboration process employed to develop meaningful models of relationships and their implications that might provoke thought, foster deeper understanding, create insights, and enable more effective action.

More often than not we set out to accomplish some goal and it ends up taking far longer than we thought it would. The most common reason for this is that we've misunderstood the effect one or more limits have on the action taken to attain the goal. This is representative of the Limits to Action Archetype.

The relentless pursuit of having less.

Lazy Person Survival endeavors to surface why Diigo is the most used application in my toolbox. It is wasn't for Diigo I'd pretty much go nuts on a daily basis looking for my creations various places on the web. Diigo allows me to index everything and find things with a straightforward search via Google Chrome.

An informative version of The Boy Who Cried Wolf with Storytelling created specifically for the Storytelling with Kumu course.

Aesop's Fable The Boy Who Cried Wolf as an unfolding set of relationships and their implications.

A Systems Approach to Strategic Planning & School Improvement

The insights arrived at when participants in the Certified Systems Thinker program asked how to sell systems thinking to their organization.

Limits to Growth Archetypes

The basic structure of this insight applies across industry boundaries--whether consumer or industrial, products or services.

A way that starting farmers markets may backfire

A description of the dynamics of the bathtub model and why most people don't understand dynamics.

An example of how the most obvious answers to diminish protests just makes matters worse.

Circular Economy Model

Given a performance gap this model investigates the implications of working harder or working smarter.

Fixes that Fail Archetype

Goal Seeking with Delay Archetype

Shifting the Burden Archetype

Surfaces the structure and behavior of the Goal Seeking archetype.

An elaboration of the model from Ezar Klein's "Why Politics Makes Us Stupid" article.

This model investigates the influences which currently work in opposition to sustainable capitalism. The model then presents a view that might actually promote sustainable capitalism.

How to spot a revolution in the making from a Ben Franklin correspondence.

The typical response to road congestion in time simply makes matters worse.

Teacher cheating on standardized tests is a recurring theme in recent national headlines, ranging from teachers looking at tests in advance to develop study guides, to teachers and administrators erasing and correcting student answers after they have submitted tests. The media and the school communities have responded to these stories with shock and out-rage, often vilifying individual teachers and administrators.

How we address symptoms and avoid real lasting solutions.

The evolution of a model started by Geoff McDonnell based on the May 2014 special issue of Science.

Investigation into why we're not all rich

Are we victims of the system or are we just dealing with systems of the victim.

Implications of interactions with a larger system that might initially be considered.

A relationship model which is considered to be at the center of Google's business strategy. Admittedly this is only a perspective as I've not seen it published.

Unexpected implications of acting to respond to tax revenue pressure

Project Systems: Distinguishing Fact From Fantasy

Given a situation where the expected completion data for a project is later than the prescribed deadline what are the options available for the project to get it back on track.

An investigation into the ways we create context that creates poverty. This is also intended to be an example of how the content of articles actually have a systemic structure which may be expressed as one or more stories in relationship models.

Oil System Model from James Breaus

Investigation the extent to which time management actually helps us deal with our lack of time available.

More often than not we set out to accomplish some goal and it ends up taking far longer than we thought it would. The most common reason for this is that we've misunderstood the effect one or more limits have on the action taken to attain the goal. This is representative of the Limits to Action Archetype.

Why is it that changes often return to the way they were before you stopped working on them. Why the jungle always seems to win!

Kumu Help intended to enable one to find that tidbit of information that demonstrates how to do what they want to do when they want to do it.

Level of Documentation Depends on Intent

A not so informative version of The Boy Who Cried Wolf created specifically for the Storytelling with Kumu course.

An overview of the structure of the Kumu environment with additional maps as appropriate to explain concepts covered along the way.

Escalation Archetype

Tragedy of the Commons Archetype

Indecision Archtype

Success to the Successful Archetype

Growth and Underinvestment with a Drifting Standard Archetype

Growth and Underinvestment Archetype

Interconnectedness of World Problems. Our future in a nutshell?

An investigation into influences driving the changes in oil prices the beginning of 2016.

Systemigrams

Polarity Map Diagram

Flying Logic Diagrams

The implications associated with setting goals which makes the activity self-limiting.

Relationship Map

Rich Picture Diagram.

An example of how developing an expertise is shifted to presales support.

Often actions taken to reduce poverty do just opposite, making matters even worse.

How to green the world's deserts and reverse climate change

Investigation into what enables a successful online learning community. This project is the focal point for the synthesizing multiple conversations on this topic underway in multiple locations.

This relationship model was developed to sort out what was presented in the Ezra Klein paper titled How Politics Makes Us Stupid.

Value Network Analysis Project

Dialogue Map

Mind Map

RP/CLD Hybrid

How to create causal loops in Kumu

Learning about Kumu Mapping

Causal Loop Diagram