Pocket Guides Archives - The Systems Thinker

Pocket Guide: Moving from Blame to Accountability

Systems Thinker — Wed, 06 Jan 2016 01:30:40 +0000

This handy pocket guide shows how blaming sets a destructive, addictive cycle in motion, and how you can distinguish between blame and accountability. Includes recommendations for individuals who want to avoid blaming, advice for partnering with others on a project; and tips for managing disputes with integrity within your own organization or community.

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Pocket Guide: Servant Leadership

Systems Thinker — Wed, 06 Jan 2016 01:33:59 +0000

This handy pocket guide compares the characteristics of traditional, hierarchical leadership and servant-leadership. Servant-leadership empowers employees to contribute to decision-making, creating high levels of interdependence, increased job satisfaction, and individual commitment to achieving a collective vision. The guide includes tips for becoming a servant-leader and building a shared vision of servant-leadership in an organization.

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Pocket Guide: Guidelines for Drawing Causal Loop Diagrams

Systems Thinker — Wed, 06 Jan 2016 01:20:30 +0000

This handy pocket guide outlines a 10-step process for drawing effective causal loop diagrams–including selecting variable names, constructing the actual loops, distinguishing between reinforcing and balancing processes, and checking your loops for accuracy. Every tip is accompanied by examples and an accessible diagram.

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Pocket Guide: Using the Archetypes

Systems Thinker — Wed, 06 Jan 2016 01:26:26 +0000

This handy pocket guide builds on Systems Archetypes at a Glance. This guide lays out a specific application for each archetype–for example, using “Growth and Underinvestment” to manage capital planning. Then, a seven-step process for designing an intervention is presented. Finally, an example of the archetype in action’s instance, escalating frequent-flyer promotions, is mapped onto a causal loop diagram for each archetype.

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Pocket Guide: Palette of Systems Thinking Tools

Systems Thinker — Wed, 06 Jan 2016 01:24:57 +0000

This pocket guide is a handy quick-reference guide to the full array of systems thinking tools–from dynamic thinking tools such as behavior over time graphs, causal loop diagrams, and systems archetypes, to structural thinking tools such as structure-behavior pairs, to computer-based tools such as simulation models, flight simulators, and learning laboratories. Includes a diagram for each tool.

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Pocket Guide: Systems Clues in Everyday Language

Systems Thinker — Wed, 06 Jan 2016 01:29:23 +0000

How many times have you heard someone say, “This is spiraling out of control”? When people use these kinds of phrases, they intuitively give hints about the underlying behavior of complex systems. This pocket guide offers guidelines for looking and listening for such “systems clues” and starting to think about the most effective ways to implement change.

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Pocket Guide: Getting Organized to Make a Difference

Systems Thinker — Wed, 06 Jan 2016 01:32:28 +0000

This handy pocket guide serves as a reminder that in this age of information overload, many of us struggle to deal with the seemingly endless stream of data that lands on our desks and floods our e-mail inboxes. But failing to organize this and other aspects of our lives can compromise our ability to honor agreements, meet deadlines, keep track of important documents, and even accomplish what we really want in life. We can become trapped in seemingly endless cycles of sorting through mountains of clutter just to see the piles grow again the next day. Getting and staying organized both at home and on the job is not about simply changing behavior, it requires fundamentally shifting how we think. As we begin to notice the flaws in our deeply held beliefs, we can develop productive new ways of engaging in our daily activities.

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Pocket Guide: Guidelines for Daily Systems Thinking Practice

Systems Thinker — Wed, 06 Jan 2016 01:28:06 +0000

This handy guide provides a reference tool for honing your systems thinking abilities every day. Shows you how to ask different kinds of questions to begin thinking systemically, learn to “slow down” so as to experience time differently and become attuned to the long term, and begin noticing the different kinds of systems around you. Includes guidelines for both individual and collaborative learning.

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Pocket Guide: Vision Deployment Matrix I: Shifting from a Reactive to a Generative Orientation

Systems Thinker — Wed, 06 Jan 2016 01:22:38 +0000

This handy pocket guide shows you what the Matrix looks like, and helps you take the first step in diagnosing your organization’s current reality. Includes step-by-step instructions.

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Pocket Guide: Vision Deployment Matrix II: Crossing the Chasm from Reality to Vision

Systems Thinker — Wed, 06 Jan 2016 01:23:47 +0000

This handy pocket guide presents a comprehensive example of how to actually use the Matrix. Includes step-by-step instructions.

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