Overview
Booth Sweeney (1995) — Collection of experiential games and exercises for teaching systems thinking concepts. Designed so that anyone — managers, CEOs, teachers, professors — can use them without being an OD professional. Companion to Senge et al.’s “The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook.”
The Ways of a Systems Thinker
A systems thinker:
- Sees the whole picture
- Changes perspectives to see new leverage points
- Looks for interdependencies
- Considers how mental models create our futures
- Pays attention to and gives voice to the long-term
- “Goes wide” (peripheral vision) to see complex cause and effect
- Finds where unanticipated consequences emerge
- Focuses on structure, not blame
- Holds the tension of paradox without trying to resolve it quickly
- Makes systems visible through causal maps and computer models
- Seeks out stocks/accumulations and their time delays
- Watches for “win/lose” mindsets that worsen high-interdependence situations
- Sees oneself as part of, not outside of, the system
Game-Based Learning
Games can:
- Reveal unconscious ways of interacting and solving problems
- Illustrate the power of habits, paradigms, and values
- Replicate systems archetypes (recurring behavioral patterns)
- Create non-threatening environments for testing theories
- Engage participants with diverse learning styles
Two modes: discovery (learn through mistakes during play) and confirmation (learn concepts first, then validate through play).
Design Philosophy
The Western culture of education leaves the problem-solving potential of our bodies virtually untapped. Engage the mind AND the body. Systems thinking and systems sensing potential has been untapped.
Related
- making-better-decisions-systems-thinking — Schaveling & Bryan’s practical decision-making companion — the “what to do” to this book’s “how to learn”
- thinking-in-systems — Meadows’ theoretical foundation for the concepts these exercises teach