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.

While these pictures represent very different things there is a common essence.

This model is derived from the paper "Nobody Ever Gets Credit for Fixing Problems that Never Happened: Creating and Sustaining Process Improvement" by Nelson P. Repenning and John D Sterman. See Insight 1899 for a simulation of this model.

This Loan Cost Model is the second in the series. It takes into account the potential cost of student loans in the case that the student does not manage to graduate college or does not succeed in their career.

• Traditional Career Model
• Savings Model

When endeavoring to develop an understanding of the nature of something it is generally useful to create a model of some type to aid in surfacing that understanding.

There are about fifteen known archetypes with an interesting set of relationships among them.

SystemsWiki's Musings

The interaction of a population of Moose and Wolves.

To develop insights regarding a situation of interest there are a number of things should be considered to ensure a view of the relevant influences.

This model is derived from the paper "Nobody Ever Gets Credit for Fixing Problems that Never Happened: Creating and Sustaining Process Improvement" by Nelson P. Repenning and John D Sterman. See Insight 1899 for a simulation of this model and SysNet for a Video.

The model construction process is actually a balancing loop which endeavors to employ an abstract version of real events to form a model which produces conclusions and behavior which mimic the real events.

While these pictures represent very different things there is a common essence.

Introduce the concept of modeling and simulation.

If we pay close attention to our actions and the typical outcomes of those actions it would be evident that there are frequently occurring patterns that develop. And there is a relation between the patterns.

The interaction of a population of Moose and Wolves.

The interaction of a population of Moose and Wolves.

When endeavoring to develop an understanding of the nature of something it is generally useful to create a model of some type to aid in surfacing that understanding.

What do activities of these images have in common?

All you wanted to do was put a bird feeder in your yard to attract birds and make for a more pleasant morning. And...

All you wanted to do was put a bird feeder in your yard to attract birds and make for a more pleasant morning. And...

Little Red Riding Hood walking through the woods to Grandma's house. How long will it take?

There are limits to what one can infer from a qualitative model.

All the following have a common characteristic.

New Learning tend to reduce Outdated Thinking, Communicating & Learning though our Outdated Thinking, Communicating & Learning inhibits new learning. The question is then how do we break this cycle. Adopted from "An Introduction to Systems Thinking with STELLA" by Barry Richmond.

There's actually more to filling a swimming pool with water than you might realize.