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The Systems Thinking Puzzler
by Chris Soderquist
You've recently become aware that there's been a dramatic increase in the
number of cases of severe peanut allergies in children during the past twenty
years. You found an article describing this issue:
http://www.cnn.com/2003/HEALTH/conditions/03/10/peanut.allergy.ap/ 
You're interested in the rise of peanut allergies for two reasons: your child
has been diagnosed with the allergy in the past couple months, and
your best friend works in marketing for a peanut company. In fact, your friend
is asking your advice. Due to the rise of peanut allergies, her company has
been noticing a drop in profits. Your friend has developed a plan to increase
revenue by marketing the value of peanut oil for cooking and as a moisturizer.
Their thought is that if people aren't buying peanuts for direct consumption as
much, they need to sell peanut products in different ways.
Because you've got firsthand experience as the parent of a child with peanut
allergies and you're a Systems Thinker, your friend has asked you to help them
think through the implications of this strategy. What do you think of their
plan to increase the amount of products containing peanut oils? Good idea? Bad
idea?
Note:
You must use iThink/STELLA 8 to view
the September - October Puzzler Solution:
Download September - October 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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