4 posts tagged with "systems-thinking"

In our last post, we explored how Soft Systems Methodology can help us make sense of messy, contested situations. We saw how SSM allows us to negotiate a shared understanding of a problem space, creating a foundation for purposeful action. But how do we move from understanding the present to designing a better future?

Russell Ackoff's interactive planning and Wardley Mapping both ask leaders to design the future, not just forecast it. Together, they give teams the narrative, visual, and strategic tools to make that future a reality. Idealised design sketches the destination, while maps expose the terrain we must cross and the moves that will get us there.

In our last post, we explored how double-loop learning keeps Wardley Maps honest by forcing us to question the assumptions and frames that underpin our maps. But what happens when a problem is so messy and contested that we can't even agree on a starting point for the map?

Pairing Soft Systems Methodology (SSM)—Peter Checkland’s approach for exploring messy situations through multiple worldviews—with Wardley Mapping gives leaders a disciplined way to explore these situations, negotiate a shared worldview, and only then convert that clarity into the structure of a map. SSM makes space for conflicting narratives and hidden assumptions, while Wardley Maps translate an agreed purpose into visible components, evolution, and strategic plays. Together, they form a loop: learn the situation, model a purposeful change, map what needs to exist, and then test your strategy against reality.

In the previous post, we explored how the Viable System Model provides a blueprint for designing adaptive organisations. We saw how the VSM helps us balance autonomy and control, creating a system that can sense and respond to a complex environment. But what makes an environment complex in the first place?

Kauffman's NK model explains why the left side of a Wardley Map feels chaotic, and it shows how leaders can deliberately smooth that landscape without losing strategic edge. When N components are tightly coupled (high K), every move can collapse into a local optimum; modularity, doctrine, and adaptive gameplay are the tools for reshaping the terrain.

In our last post, we explored how the NK model helps us understand the rugged landscapes of innovation and the challenges of navigating complex, interconnected systems. But how do these landscapes change over time, and how can we anticipate and adapt to the inevitable cycles of growth, collapse, and renewal?

Wardley Mapping tells us which way the river of evolution flows; Panarchy—the ecological model of nested adaptive cycles—shows how each boat gains, loses, and renews its resilience along the way. Pairing the two reveals why some organisations ride climatic currents toward new value while others sink under their own rigidity.