System Archetypes - tools to master problem framing

What is a system archetype?

From fairy tales, children learn to stay away from powerful and cruel creatures, build sturdy dwellings, and respect the elderly, without actually climbing up a pea tree like Jack in Jack and the Beanstalk, or even like Gretel in "Candy House Adventures" pushes the witch into the oven. You may have noticed that literary themes often revolve around the journey of a hero, the ending of true love, the zeal of bewilderment, and the dullness of materialism. These story archetypes all mean recurring and resonant characters, symbols, and storylines. In systems thinking, the word "archetype" has a very similar meaning, representing a recurring and common system framework in different kinds of organizations, different situations, and even different levels and scales.

Similar morals about competition, addiction, and quick-fix failure are revealed in stories, frames, and actions. Just as we use stories and fairy tales to explore general issues and resonate with others, archetypes can be used in organizations. We can even use schemas to strengthen our abilities, anticipate potential difficulties, discuss with colleagues and find solutions.

The systems archetype currently contains five systems thinking tools, each archetype has a theme-specific storyline, articulates behaviors that can be depicted over time, and a unique system architecture that can be shown in a causal loop. The value of archetypes is that we can apply their generic and transferable properties to many different situations in our lives.

How did the archetype come about?

In the 1960s and 1970s, Jay Forrester, Dennis Meadows, Donella Meadows, and other systems thinking pioneers observed many recurring system architectures. By the 1980s, Michael Goodman, Charles Kiefer, Jenny Kemeny, and Peter Senge, based on their predecessors' findings and John Sterman's notes, organized these general system architectures into system templates through description, drawing, and classification. When Peter Senge wrote The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization, he referred to these architectures as system archetypes. Since then, the concept of systems archetypes has been known, and practitioners of systems thinking have actually taught, applied, and written about these recurring and common frameworks. Further, they began to research and test the possibility of new archetypes.

How do you use these archetypes?

Systems thinking tools can assist you when you are trying to systematically examine an issue, a problem, or a situation. Among them, system schemas can open up a whole new dimension to your learning process, because each schema has its own story line, causal theory, behavioral context, or system framework depicted through causal loops. When you focus on a problem, tell the whole story, identify key variables, and then draw the causal loop, you will suddenly find that certain parts of the story echo one or more archetypes, giving you a look Some or all of the problem-oriented keys. At other times, when you have traced the behavior of key variables over a period of time, you will find that the contour is connected to a certain schema. In your ensuing discussion, a series of questions, theories, and possibilities will arise. Or, you might observe a particular combination of loops in a causal loop drawn by a colleague, allowing you to discover the core framework of a particular schema, prompting you to ask a question that neither you nor your colleague thought about.

First, you apply the system schema you know about in your own way, be it story themes, frameworks and behaviors or a generic causal loop diagram. But eventually, you will use the above 3 ways to expand your view of system problems, generate additional or unanticipated problems, and find that you are experiencing 1 or more recurring dynamics, and finally be able to speculate on the current What future outcomes actions and events may have.

In this series of articles, we will introduce five system archetypes. Each archetype has a unique combination of enhancement and modulation loops, some of which are based on others.

• Fixes That Fail
• Shifting the Burden
• Limits to Success
• Drifting Goals
• Growth and Underinvestment

Most of the data have system schemas in alphabetical order to facilitate searching. However, if you are a beginner, there is a presentation that allows you to see the connections between the archetypes, and to compare and contrast them. The first 3 archetypes in this book are the easiest to identify, and once you learn them, you'll find them everywhere. Because of this, they are brought up front so you can explore first.

"Drinking poison to quench thirst" is the first archetype that will be discussed, because it involves a situation we often deal with, which is "problem solving." You can think of the next archetype, "Follow the Roots" as its sibling, as it takes you deeper into the difference between quick and fundamental solutions. The third archetype that will be discussed is the "growth ceiling". When many organizations are immersed in the desire to grow, they tend to ignore the constraints they face, and "growth ceilings" can help you manage stress and help you select, anticipate and prepare for the inevitable constraints in order to achieve a more realistic grow up.

Other archetypes also have a specific order of appearance. Most of them are related to the first three archetypes, but will be explored and extended in more depth. For example, "no agreement" is a combination of "growth ceiling" and "go against the grain".

I believe you are also looking forward to exploring the world of systems thinking schemas? Then don't miss the next series of articles and join us to systematically examine problems and create change!

If you are interested in systems thinking, please refer to our official website: Omplexity Systems Thinking Consulting Company