Based on a dialogue on the System Dynamics mailing list regarding the current level of acceptance of System Dynamics after it has been promoted for over 70 years I dredged up the following set of influences as a thought exercise. This is an example of a Drifting Goals Archetype.

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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.

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

Population Growth in an Agrarian Society with the addition of agriculture.

Model is created by Gene Bellinger. Original model can be accessed from https://insightmaker.com/insight/2249/Adjusting-the-Shower-SFD.

Often times there are a number of parameters in a model you want to set to specific values and run the model to demonstrate a particular behavior. When there are several variables involved remembering the setup is often difficult and takes time. And can you demonstrate the behavior when you're not there? Developing scenarios with Button scripts is a quick way to overcome these difficulties.

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

Examples of Systems.

Population Growth in an Agrarian Society with the addition of agriculture.

A map of the elements associated with Systems Thinking as defined by different sources.

Once the strategy has been developed it's up to the Stakeholders who own the segments of the revised model to implement it so a new pattern of behavior is created thus effecting the desired situation.

Demo of changing vector length on the fly.

A spatially aware, agent based model of disease spread. There are three classes of people: susceptible (healthy), infected (sick and infectious), and recovered (healthy and temporarily immune).

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Cloud example. If you really want clouds a sources in your model it's pretty easy to create one.

Model is created by Gene Bellinger. Original model can be accessed from https://insightmaker.com/insight/2249/Adjusting-the-Shower-SFD.

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

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Jackson's System of Systems Methodology (SOSM) framework presents a construct that enables one to begin to make sense of the broad array of approaches that claim to embrace the Systems Thinking paradigm.

Some people have found it easier to communicate interactions and their implications with Connection Circles rather than Causal Loop Diagrams.

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Examples of reinforcing and balancing loops enhanced with images to maybe them more visually engaging.

A map of the elements associated with Systems Thinking as defined by different sources.

This is a simplification of the Austerity vs Prosperity model in the hope that it will be easier to understand.

A Growth and Underinvestment structure is simply an elaborated Limits to Growth structure where the growth inhibitor is part of another Balancing Loop with an external standard and some delay. The real nasty thing about this structure is that the two Balancing Loops form a single Reinforcing Loop which inhibits growth.

Video

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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 limits to growth structure is based on the basic growth structure. And, as should be obvious, nothing grows forever as growth requires resources. Those required resources become a limits to growth. See also Archetypes.