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..

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

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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

Strategy is simply an idea as to how to move the current situation to the desired situation though it is seldom simple by any means. If the strategy is to be successful how numerous elements will be able support each other through the transition must be defined.

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.

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

This diagram presents the valid relationships between stocks, flows, and parameters. Ghosts of Stocks, Flows, and Converters can be created as needed.

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.

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.

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

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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.

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.

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.

When we're trying to understand a situation it is often very helpful to have a sense of the historical trends of several dimensions relevant to the situation.

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. 

To this point the Situation, Behavior, Model, Stakeholder and Boundary aspects of this situation have been investigated. It is now appropriate to consider the assumptions that have been made to this point and ensure we are on a solid foundation before proceeding to the Leverage and Strategy aspects are considered.

While understanding the interacting components responsible for the situation is important it is even more important to understand the stakeholders as they are the ones responsible for the interacting components being the way they are.

Investigating the behavior of several variables over time has probably raised more questions than answers. As such now it's time to investigate what else might be influencing the trending of these variables.