Systems Thinking World

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.

The Perspectives Project surfaces noteworthy stories about relationships and their implications, to provoke thought, foster deeper understanding, create insights, and enable more effective action.

Some Examples

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. Tags: EaBT

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.

This Kumu project provides learning environments for developing Insight Maker Simulations, Insight Maker Storytelling, and Agent-Based Models.

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.

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

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.

This perspective will endeavor to provide a sense of how to begin with an apparent problem and research the relationships to evolve a relationship model that can be used to convey the current level of understanding.

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.

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

When we encounter a situation other than we consider it should be we typically refer to it as a problem though if we investigate intently we're likely to find the problem is seldom what it was initially perceived to be. This perspective presents a set of relationships I never thought about and as such, I ended up in a predicament I never saw coming.

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

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.

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.

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

Connections

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

An introduction to Kumu which I hope is sufficient for others to begin developing relationship models without having to wade through all the initial Kumu understanding.

Crop Damage presents a synthesis of understanding distilled down to a single question... And? And what does this influence? And what influences this? This is based on an old Sufi saying, "Because you understand one, you think you understand two because one and one is two. But first, you have to understand AND."

Considering the concepts provided Relationships 101 I thought it best to provide a few example structures and demonstrate how they're labeled to tell stories.

People often comment that they are overwhelmed by causal relationships and causal relationship diagrams. I expect that the two basic reasons for this are 1) the relationships were never well defined, and 2) relationship maps are typically presented in a manner that asks of people the equivalent of eating an elephant in a single bite. I'm not surprised by the typical result.

This project was developed to help me sort out what elements connect together to create the various pieces of perspectives and which things reference what other things. Yes, it makes my head hurt.

This project was developed for at the basis for a California Green Academy web presentation on 2017.11.02

This project was developed for at the basis for a California Green Academy web presentation on 2017.11.02

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

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

Investigation of the relationships responsible for the failure of nations.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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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.

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

The relentless pursuit of having less.

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.

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

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.

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!

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.

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