The interaction of a population of Moose and Wolves.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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..

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.

When the relevant interactions are identified it's appropriate to identify which elements are the responsibility of which stakeholders, which elements are part of the addressable interactions and which elements are part of the environment.

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.

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.

Network Magic's rapid growth creates a growing demand for resources. And the more they satisfy their customers the more difficult the problem becomes.

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Now that we have some context for the situation it's appropriate to begin to investigate, though possibly not where you might think. And the investigation is actually a bit hindered because management fired the accounts receivables department. What I'm really interested in is trends as to how things have evolved over time.

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.

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

Network Magic is high tech start up growing rapidly and having difficulty developing resources to respond to customer demand.

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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.

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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