Systems thinking

Maps value creation and evolution stages so strategic options, levers, and market movements become legible.

Core question: How does user need connect to components, and how evolved are they?

• 1-3 h
• 2-10

Makes an unclear problem situation visible with actors, tensions, and flows before premature solutions emerge.

Core question: Which elements and differing perspectives shape the situation before we impose a premature structure?

• 30-90 min
• 2-10

Draws feedback, reinforcement, and balance so patterns, levers, and side effects become understandable.

Core question: Which hypothesized feedbacks could produce the observed behavior over time?

• 1-3 h
• 2-8

Layers events, patterns, structures, and mental models to find deeper causes and interventions.

Core question: Which conditions produce a recurring pattern, and which assumption keeps it in place?

• 30-60 min
• 2-10

Models stocks, inflows and outflows, and delays to understand dynamics, bottlenecks, and capacity.

Core question: How do inflows and outflows change stocks over time?

• 2-6 h
• 1-6

Arranges components, relationships, and flows into a system picture that exposes dependencies and levers.

Core question: Which components are inside this system from the chosen perspective, and what remains in its environment?

• 1-3 h
• 3-12

Clarifies connections, patterns, and leverage points by collecting undesirable effects, formulating causal links, and deriving interventions.

Core question: Which common causes can sufficiently explain the observed undesirable effects?

• 2-6 h
• 3-8

Clarifies connections, patterns, and leverage points by treating the issue as a polarity, naming the poles, and defining balance actions.

Core question: How can we use the upsides of both poles to reach our shared higher purpose?

• 1-2 h
• 3-12

Clarifies connections, patterns, and leverage points by articulating long-term impact, working backward from outcomes, and defining measurement points and risks.

Core question: Which changes must occur for our initiative to contribute to the intended impact?

• 2-6 h
• 4-12

Traces developments over time and reveals turning points, patterns, and possible causes of a trend.

Core question: How does one clearly defined variable change over a relevant period, and what might explain turning points?

• 20-45 min
• 1-10

Sharpens an ambiguous problem situation through perspectives, transformation, and boundaries up to a root definition.

Core question: Which purposeful transformation makes sense under which worldview, who performs it, who experiences consequences, who can stop it, and which constraints apply?

• 45-90 min
• 3-8

Develops a conceptual picture from a rich picture and root definitions for difficult organizational issues.

Core question: Which different purposeful systems help us understand the messy situation and negotiate changes that are both desirable and feasible?

• 0.5-3 Tage
• 5-15

Moves from current problems through core conflicts and future logic to a viable path through a bottleneck.

Core question: What to change, what to change to, and how to cause change when undesirable effects are causally connected?

• 0.5-3 Tage
• 4-10

Tests a planned change against desired effects and uncovers side effects, assumptions, and weak points.

Core question: Will the proposed injection causally produce desired effects, and which negative branches need protection before implementation?

• 2-4 h
• 3-8

Explains a conflict through positions, needs, the shared objective, and the assumptions that keep the conflict in place.

Core question: Which assumption sustains the apparent conflict between two legitimate needs, and which injection resolves it without compromise?

• 60-120 min
• 2-8

Links problem, target group, determinants, and actions into an actionable change program with evaluation.

Core question: How do we systematically translate an evidenced health or behaviour problem into theory- and evidence-based change objectives, intervention, implementation, and evaluation?

• 1-5 Tage
• 4-12

Moves relationships, patterns, and leverage toward a concrete result through "introduce the twelve leverage points", "collect planned actions", and "formulate a strategy across multiple levers".

Core question: At which place in the system can a small justified change sustainably influence behaviour?

• Half day
• 3-12

Moves relationships, patterns, and leverage toward a concrete result through "formulate current observations", "introduce archetype cards", and "discuss leverage and derive actions".

Core question: Which feedback archetype explains the pattern, and where can the structure change?

• 90-180 min
• 3-10

Moves relationships, patterns, and leverage toward a concrete result through "define the question and time horizon", "define stocks and flows", and "run scenarios and vary assumptions".

Core question: What feedback and accumulation structure generates the behaviour, and how do scenarios respond?

• Mehrere Tage bis Wochen
• 1-5 Modellierende, Stakeholder asynchron

Arranges direct and indirect consequences of a change radially, so future impacts and cascades of consequences become visible.

Core question: Which direct and indirect consequences might this change trigger for different actors?

• 60-120 min
• 3-10