I have alway learned a lot by deciphering other people’s models. I have also found them most useful evolving them to create new models. And, with hundreds of people creating models on an ongoing basis I have to ask, Where’s the Model Library. It would seem that with all this ongoing creation we’re missing a great potential for leverage. Admittedly Tom Fiddaman’s Model Library is a great beginning in the right direction, and the addition of the ModelWikiexperiment is a step in the right direciton.
http://www.systemswiki.org/index.php?title=Where’s_the_Model_Library%3F
A company with a new innovative product, well received by the market, generates increased sales. The sales, if the company believes they are a result of the product innovations, result in additional r & d investment. And, the r & d investments should then result in additional product innovations, or at least that’s what the hope was for the investment. The new product innovations should then add even further to sales supporting the company’s growth, and further r&d investment.
And then…
http://www.systemswiki.org/index.php?title=Innovation_Overload
Magic Connections is a small rapidly growing company due to the market acceptance of its newly announced family of network routers. As its customer base is growing rapidly the support organization, in an effort to position itself to service customer demand, is continually hiring and training new employees. Actually the whole company is growing rapidly, and as such the rest of the organization is also in need of additional resources. And, where better to acquire resources that know the company’s products and its customers, support of course. Because the rest of the company continues to raid support’s resources, support is continually struggling to maintain what it considers a desired level of readiness to support its customers. So what’s to do?
http://www.systemswiki.org/index.php?title=Raiding_Resources
A small high tech company experiencing sagging sales decides to ramp up its marketing efforts in the hopes of increasing sales and revenue. To their great relief the marketing effort actually begins to increase demand, and even better sales increase with an increase in revenue. Because things are moving in exactly the direction the organization wants they invest even more in marketing, which results in even greater demand, sales, and revenue. As this continues for some time the organization begins to think it’s found the magic formula for future success, and the organization continues to experience greater and greater success. Until that is, the organization begins to realize that additional marketing efforts are only producing marginal increases in demand, sales, and revenue. And, because the organization has learned the secret of success it focuses even harder on its marketing efforts, though things don’t seem to be improving. So what now?
http://www.systemswiki.org/index.php?title=The_Failure_of_Success
The “Ladder of Inference” was, I believe, initially developed by Chris Argyris, and subsequently presented by Senge (1990). While the “Ladder of Inference” is usually presented as a ladder it seems far more appropriate to present it as a circle. And the “Reflexive Loop” is then apparently a short circuiting of reality, though there are other insights to be gained.
http://www.systemswiki.org/index.php?title=Ladder_of_Inference:_Short_Circuiting_Reality
The Prey/Predator Model recast as an Emergent Limits to Growth Structure.