Archetypes
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Community
Intimacy
Learning
Mental Models
System
Systemic Structure
Systems Thinking
Teams
Theory, Method, Tool
Vision
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The word comes from the Greek archetypos, meaning "first of its kind."
A stepchild of the field of systems thinking, systems archetypes were developed at Innovation Associates in the mid 1980s.
At that time, the study of systems dynamics depended upon complex causal loop mapping and computer modeling,
using mathematical equations to define the relationships between variables. Charles Kiefer, I.A.'s president,
suggested trying to convey the concepts more simply. Jennifer Kemeny (with Michael Goodman and Peter Senge,
based in part upon notes developed by John Sterman) developed eight diagrams that would help catalogue the most commonly seen behaviors.
Some archetypes, including "Limits to Growth" and "Shifting the Burden," were translations of
"generic structures"--mechanisms which Jay Forrester and other systems thinking pioneers
had described in the 1960s and 1970s. (Art Kleiner)
Excerpted from The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook.
Copyright 1994 by Peter M. Senge, Art Kleiner, Charlotte Roberts, Richard B. Ross, and Bryan J. Smith.
Reprinted with permission.
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