Chapter 6: Natures Templates

1. Chapter 6: Natures Templates Senge: Chapter 6 THE FIFTH DISCIPLINE

2. Nature’s Templates: the Archetypes • Structures of which we are unaware hold us prisoner • The swimmer scenario • Certain patterns of structure occur again and again: called ARCHETYPES

3. We are creating a “language” • reinforcing feedback and balancing feedback are like the nouns and verbs • systems archetypes are the basic sentences • Behavior patterns appear again in all disciplines--biology, psychology, family therapy, economics, political science, ecology and management • Can result in the unification of knowledge across all fields

4. Recurring behavior patterns • Do we know how to recognize them? • Do we know how to describe them? • Do we know how to prescribe cures for them? • The ARCHETYPES describe these recurring behavior patterns

5. The ARCHETYPES • Provide leverage points, intervention junctures at which substantial change can be brought about • Put the systems perspective into practice • About a dozen systems ARCHETYPES have been identified • All ARCHETYPES are made up of the systems building blocks: reinforcing processes, balancing processes, delays

6. Before attacking the ARCHETYPES we need to understand simple structures • The reinforcing feedback loop • The balancing feedback loop

7. ARCHETYPE 1: LIMITS TO GROWTH • A reinforcing process is set in motion to produce a desired result. It creates a spiral of success but also creates inadvertent secondary effects (manifested in a balancing process) that eventually slow down the success. • All growth will eventually run up against constraints, impediments

8. Management Principle relative to ARCHETYPE 1 • Don’t push growth or success; remove the factors limiting growth

9. ARCHETYPE 1: LIMITS TO GROWTH • Useful in all situations where growth bumps up against limits • Firms grow for a while, then plateau • Individuals get better for a while, then their personal growth slows. • Falling in love is kind of like this • The love begins to plateau as the couple get to know each other better

10. Structure growing action state of stock slowing action Balancing Reinforcing

11. Understanding the Structure • High-tech orgs grow rapidly because of their ability to introduce new products • This growth plateaus as lead times become too long

12. How to achieve Leverage • Most managers react to the slowing growth by pushing harder on the reinforcing loop • Unfortunately, the more vigorously you push the familiar levels, the more strongly the balancing process resists, and the more futile your efforts become.

13. Leverage, Continued • Instead, concentrate on the balancing loop--changing the limiting factor • This is akin to Goldratt’s Theory of Constraints--remove the bottleneck, the impediment Prepared by James R. Burns

14. Applications to Quality Circles and JIT • Quality circles work best when there is even-handed emphasis on both balancing and reinforcing loops • JIT has had to focus on recalcitrant suppliers • THERE WILL ALWAYS BE MORE LIMITING PROCESSES • When once source of limitation is removed, another will surface • Growth eventually WILL STOP

15. Create your own LIMITS TO GROWTH story • Identify a limits to growth pattern in your own experience • Diagram it • What is growing • What might be limitations • Example--the COBA and University capital campaigns • NOW, LOOK FOR LEVERAGE

16. Test your LIMITS TO GROWTH model • Talk to others about your perception • Test your ideas about leverage in small real-life experiments • Run and re-run the simulation model • Approach possible resistance and seek WIN-WIN strategies with them

17. ARCHETYPE 2: shifting the burden • An underlying problem generates symptoms that demand attention. But the underlying problem is difficult for people to address, either because it is obscure or costly to confront. So people “shift the burden” of their problem to other solutions--well-intentioned, easy fixes that seem extremely efficient.

18. Shifting the burden scenario, continued • Unfortunately, the easier solutions only ameliorate the symptoms; they leave the underlying problem unaltered. The underlying problem grows worse and the system loses whatever abilities it had to solve the underlying problem. Prepared by James R. Burns

19. The Stereotype Structure Addictioin Loop Symptiom-Correcting Process Problem-Correcting Process

20. Special Case: Eroding Goals • Full employment meant 4% unemployment in the 1960s, but 6 to 7% unemployment in the early 1980’s • Gramm-Rudman bill called for reaching a balanced budget by 1991, but this was shifted to 1993 and from 1993 to 1996 and from 1996 to 1998 • “If all else fails, lower your goals..”

21. EXAMPLE

22. Another Example Raise tuition, add course fees, etc. Costs of Higher Ed not funded by State or Students Perceived cost to the student Enrollments

23. Still Another Example Symptom-correcting process Addiction Loop Problem-correcting Process

24. Still other Problems • What about retention of students • The perceived fix is raise the admission standards • What about drug-related crime • The perceived fix is to remove the drugs from the street

25. “Shifting the Burden” is an insidious problem • Is has a subtle reinforcing cycle • This increases dependence on the symptomatic solution • But eventually, the system loses the ability to apply the fundamental solution • The system collapses

26. Senge Says • Today’s problems are yesterday’s solutions • We tend to look for solutions where they are easiest to find

27. HOW TO ACHIEVE LEVERAGE • Must strengthen the fundamental response • Requires a long-term orientation and a shared vision • Must weaken the symptomatic response • Requires a willingness to tell the truth about these “solutions”

28. Create your own “Shifting the Burden” Story • Is there a problem that is getting gradually worse over the long term? • Is the health of the system gradually worsening? • Is there a growing feeling of helplessness? • Have short-term fixes been applied? • The local Mexican restaurant problem of using coupons to generate business and then can’t get away from using the coupons because their customer base is hooked on coupons

29. To structure your problem • Identify the problem • Next, identify a fundamental solution • Then, identify one or several symptomatic solutions • Finally, identify the possible negative “side effects” of the symptomatic solution

30. Review • We have now seen two of the basic systems archetypes. • The Limits to Growth Archetype • The Shifting the Burden Archetype • As the archetypes are mastered, they become combined into more elaborate systemic descriptions. • The “sentences” become parts of paragraphs • The simple stories become integrated into more involved stories

31. Seeing Structures, not just Trees • Helps us focus on what is important and what is not • Helps us determine what variables to focus on and which to play less attention to

32. Copyright C 2002 by James R. Burns • All rights reserved world-wide. CLEAR Project Steering Committee members have a right to use these slides in their presentations. However, they do not have the right to remove this copyright or to remove the “prepared by….” footnote that appears at the bottom of each slide. Prepared by James R. Burns Prepared by James R. Burns