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.

New Learning tend to reduce Outdated Thinking, Communicating & Learning though our Outdated Thinking, Communicating & Learning inhibits new learning.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.

The interaction of a population of Moose and Wolves.

All the following have a common characteristic.

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.

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.

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

This common archetype of systems that include relapse or recidivism allows exploration of the unintended effects of increasing upstream capacity and swamping downstream capacity. The increase in the relapse rate eventually returns to swamp upstream capacity as well. A social welfare example, based on a TANF case study, from How Small System Dynamics Models Can Help the Policy Process. N. Ghaffarzadegan, J. Lyneis, GP Richardson. System Dynamics Review 27,1 (2011) 22-44 Conference version at http://bit.ly/HlxtZj

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.

The interaction of a population of Moose and Wolves.

All the following have a common characteristic.

What do activities of these images have in common?

This is a model depicting the interactions of the Aesop's Fable "The Boy Who Cried Wolf."

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 752 for a causal loop version of this model.

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

The interaction of a population of Moose and Wolves.

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.

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.

From Jay Forrester 1971 book World Dynamics, the earlier, simpler version of the World 3 Limits to Growth Model. Adapted by Geoff McDonnell from Mark Heffernan's ithink version at Systemswiki.org.

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.

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 issue of increasing private and government debt to banks is a major concern after the financial crisis of 2008 (see Figure at link given below). In order to understand why our society and government is increasingly indebted to banks we need to understand how our current money system works and why we need a continuous infusion of new money in a growing economy. “Why We Are Increasingly Indebted To Banks?” investigates the reasons behind this and suggest a possible solution.

The structure responsible for rabbit population growth.