Consider the following "Sustaining the Forest" model intended to provide another example of how unexpected the behavior of a web of extended interactions can be.

The interaction of a population of Moose and Wolves.

Yesterday's actions are responsible for the world we experience today. And today's actions are responsible for the world that we will experience tomorrow. The "Creating the Future" model is intended to provide a better sense of the common process associated with the unexpected unfolding of the future..

Thoughts on why storytelling is critical for enabling others to understand relationship models once they're developed. This was done for Deeanna Burleson Topics in Systems Science Apr 2019.

Understanding relationships is the foundation of effective problem solving. Though relations exists on multiple levels.

Our actions are based on our beliefs and the results of those actions are the basis for our beliefs. The difficulty we create for ourselves is that we make assumptions as to how to interpret the results we select based on our beliefs. As a result we are often operating on a flawed perspective of reality.

OK, we have a problem. Yet, do we really know what the problem is? More often than not we look at the symptoms, consider them the problem and attempt to fix them. This actually dooms us to failure because they're only symptoms.

The strategy is actually a set of structural changes that have to be made to the relationships that cause the future to be different than the past.

While all things are related for a particular situation all things are not relevant. We need to develop a simplified model of reality which depicts those interactions which are responsible for the patterns of behavior and current situation. We want the simplest model which enables the requisite understanding. This is no easy task though.

There are things we can influence and usually a broader array of things we are concerned about though can't influence. It's important to know the differerence otherwise we waste our energies trying to change things we have no influence over. 

This is a model used to generate the historical patterns of behavior for the Network Magic example.

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Thoughts on why storytelling is critical for enabling others to understand relationship models once they're developed. This was done for the Disruptive Innovation Festival (DIF) 2018.

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In addition to identifying the relevant stakeholders it is essential to understand which elements of the situation are relevant to which stakeholders. Often this is quite apparent and at times it's not so obvious. 

There exists a well defined set of possible ways to alter an existing set of interactions. Each of these alterations will produce a particular effect depending on the relations the change is relative to. Identifying which are possible and which will migrate the interactions to produce the desired situation is the essence of the strategy.

Imagine you could create anything you chose with the existing technology and resources. What would it be?

It's now time for the stakeholders to take the investigation resulting from leverage and craft a strategy which will address the current situation in a manner that is beneficial to the whole system.

Assumptions to this point need to be challenged to ensure we are on solid ground before moving forward.

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This is a summary version of the theWay model which presents the essence of the overall model though not all the detailed pieces. It was created as a way to get a quick sense of all the pieces at once.

An escalation structure results from two or more competing entities with the competition taking them to somewhere none of them want to be. See also Archetypes.

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The situation Big Box Distribution considers to be a problem is an average accounts receivable period which is considered unacceptable as it is costing them money.

Once the strategy is developed the relationship model must evolve to represent that implementation appropriately sequenced.