Systems archetypes embody the key to systems thinking

Structural patterns reoccur frequently. Learning to recognize these “systems archetypes” is the key to understanding how systems work, and to implement interventions that shape them in constructive and generative ways.

One of the most important, and potentially most empowering, insights to come from the young field of systems thinking is that certain patterns of structure recur again and again. These “systems archetypes” or “generic structures” embody the key to learning to see structures in our personal and organizational lives. The systems archetypes—of which there are only a relatively small number— suggest that not all management problems are unique, something that experienced managers know intuitively.^[1]

Merely seeing an underlying structure does not lead to solving systemic problems—it may address the symptoms, not the cause. Learning to think in terms of systems archetypes is generative in changing the underlying patterns of thought that created the system in the first place.

It is not even enough to see a particular structure underlying a particular problem (perhaps with the help of a consultant). This can lead to solving a problem, but it will not change the thinking that produced the problem in the first place. For learning organizations, only when managers start thinking in terms of the systems archetypes, does systems thinking become an active daily agent, continually revealing how we create our reality.^[2]

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