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.

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

What do activities of these images have in common?

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.

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

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

Simplest Innovation diffusion model from Sterman's Business Dynamics Ch 9

We create the future as a result of the manner in which we choose to engage with situations which concern us. There is a also a video for this insight.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

Simplest Innovation diffusion model from Sterman's Business Dynamics Ch 9

Introduce the concept of modeling and simulation.

Based on 1990 SDR Article. Control systems act to make their own input match internal standards or reference signals. Competent control systems create illusions of stimulus response causality. Stimulus-response theory can approximate the relationship between disturbance and action, but it can't predict the consequences of behavior. These consequences are maintained despite disturbances. See also Double loop learning and Nurse Thinking Insights

All the following have a common characteristic.

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

How we know what we know.

Introduce the concept of modeling and simulation.

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