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The Systems Thinking Puzzler
by Chris Soderquist
Your friend is an architect. His greatest accomplishment is a new office
building that will begin renting office space next week. Just this morning one
of his staff told him they'd just found out the electrician had made a small
wiring mistake on the temperature control system.
The top floor is divided into two sections: East and West. It seems that the
thermostat controls between the two sections were switched. In other words, the
folks on the East side actually control the temperature on the West, and vice
versa. His assistant wondered if your friend should delay renting space until
the electrician can return, which given the current boom in the construction
business might be two to four weeks out.
Your friend doesn't think there's a problem here. How can you use your skills
at Systems Thinking to help him decide if he can open the building as planned?
Note:
You must use iThink/STELLA 8 to view
the July - August Puzzler Solution:
Download July - August Puzzler Solution - Windows
Macintosh
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| About this Feature
A distinguishing characteristic of
highly-skilled systems thinkers is their ability to quickly get to the heart of
an issue, problem, or process. Perhaps you've seen it in action, or perhaps
you've experienced it yourself. Skilled users of the thinking skills, language
and toolset typically are very good at focusing problems, at posing good
questions, at untangling complexities, and at generating high-leverage
insights.
Just as you can get stronger by exercising, you can improve your ability to do
systems thinking by practicing. This feature is a practice field for developing
that capability. Each month, we'll present you with a puzzle-a real-world case
that can benefit from the application of systems thinking. We'll ask you to
spend a couple of hours (maximum) to work through the case, capturing the
essence of the issue. In the next month's issue, we'll provide you with one
approach to the solution of the puzzle. So each puzzle gives you two chances to
learn-first, as you work the puzzle, and again as you compare your approach to
ours.
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Chris Soderquist is the founder of
Pontifex Consulting and one of HPS's first Independent Service Providers. He
works closely with HPS to provide workshop and consulting services to their
client base.
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Chris has over ten
years experience helping individuals and organizations apply the tools and
methods of Systems Thinking to important issues. He is a contributing author to
"The Change Handbook"(1999, Berrett-Koehler) and co-author of "Systems
Thinking: Taking the Next Step" (1997, High Performance Systems, Inc.). Chris
has consulted with several Fortune 500 companies and government organizations,
helping them to create more effective, actionable strategies.
11 Sargent Street
Hanover, NH 03755
ph: (603) 653-0228 fax: (603) 653-0323
chris.soderquist@pontifexconsulting.com
www.pontifexconsulting.com 
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