Momentum+/ You're a systems thinker solving complex problems

💡Imagine a tech company facing slow project delivery. To fix it, management enforces mandatory overtime. In the first month, productivity surges and deadlines are met. Success! But in the following quarter, everything changes. Key developers, suffering from burnout, resign. The remaining team, now understaffed and demoralized, struggles to manage a growing number of bugs in the rushed code. Deadlines are missed again, and the company is now in a worse position than before.

The initial "fix" addressed a symptom, not the system. It failed to account for the interconnections between workload, morale, employee retention, and code quality.

Welcome to BrainTraining+ Series: Seeing the Whole System - Fundamentals of Systems Thinking

This LIVE workshop is for anyone who has ever seen a well-intentioned solution create bigger problems down the road. It provides a practical introduction to systems thinking: a powerful framework for seeing the whole picture. Instead of reacting to individual problems, you will learn to see the underlying structures and feedback loops that drive outcomes. Through interactive exercises and real-world examples, you'll gain the tools to diagnose complex challenges accurately and find high-leverage solutions that create lasting, positive change.

Key Takeaways

By the end of this session, you will be able to:

Deconstruct a problem using the "Iceberg Model" to see beyond surface-level events.🧊

Identify and map the key elements and relationships within any system (a team, a project, a market).

Visualize system behavior using basic causal loop diagrams to uncover reinforcing (vicious/virtuous cycles) and balancing (stabilizing) forces.

Recognize common patterns or "system archetypes," like "Fixes that Fail," to anticipate unintended consequences.

Pinpoint leverage points where a small, well-placed intervention can produce significant, enduring improvement.

Who Should Attend?

This workshop is designed for anyone who navigates complexity, including:

Leaders and Managers seeking to understand and improve organizational health and team dynamics.

Project and Product Managers aiming to prevent project delays, scope creep, and team burnout.

Strategists, Analysts, and Consultants who need to model complex business challenges and foresee market behavior.

Anyone feeling "stuck" on a recurring problem and looking for a fresh, more effective approach.

Agenda (But not limited to)

Module 1: Beyond the Obvious

• Use Case Deep Dive: Why did the overtime "fix" fail?
• Introduction to Systems Thinking: Moving from linear to circular causality.
• Activity: The Iceberg Model - What’s really going on?

Module 2: The Language of Systems

• The Building Blocks: Stocks, Flows, and Feedback Loops.
• Reinforcing Loops (The Snowball Effect) vs. Balancing Loops (The Thermostat Effect).3
• Interactive Exercise: Spotting loops in everyday scenarios.

Module 3: Mapping the Unseen

• Introduction to Causal Loop Diagrams (CLDs).
• Group Activity: Let's map a real-world system, such as customer satisfaction or technical debt.

Module 4: Intervening with Wisdom

• Discovering System Archetypes: Common stories systems tell.
• Finding Leverage: How to change a system effectively.
• Personal Application: Applying the concepts to a challenge you are currently facing.
• Q&A and Wrap-Up.

____

Reading Appetizer 🍰: The art of building: Platform as a Service