Replying to LO24914 --
At 11:50 PM 6/18/00 +0800, Joey C. wrote:
>>Not my experience. On the contrary, SD is effective in revealing mental
>>models. Sterman (more MIT) speaks to this, very convincingly in my
>>opinion. Revealing mental models IS the leverage (the "lower" loop in
>>double loop learning).
>
>However, it is not very effective to teach others to have the technique to
>do the exploration. So I am asking the way to do it more effectively. And
>at the mean time, I found TOC is one of the approaches, it is exactly the
>method we need to check on our mental model. And if you are not familiar
>with TOC, may I ask for your practice?
I hope Gavin weighs in here, he often has good insights in this regard.
A simple, almost trivial exercise: model the problem with a group as best
it can. Implicit in the model is their [collective] mental model of the
problem. Consider this the single loop. Take any of the causal influence
pairs and reverse the pair, asking if every time they observe the "effect"
can they count on the "cause" being present?
I've found this very effective in helping people see the limits of their
current mental model. It helps them open their thinking to other
possibilities, in effect taking them through the double loop.
Any other exercises/techniques that people have found to be effective in
nudging people into the double loop?
------
Gavin referred us to some TOC references on his site. Any others that
people know of?
Bill Braun
--Bill Braun <medprac@hlthsys.com>
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