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Date: Tue, 14 Feb 1995 19:58:00 MET
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From: Lars-Christian SMITH +352 67287 <LCSMITH@RESTENA.LU>
Subject: Re: positive feedback and parties
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From: [Marc S. Abrams (950214.1900)]

To:
[Lars Christian Smith (950214 16700 CET)]

To: James Wilk (950209.1737), Dag Forssell

Re: Control leading to positive feedback in non-controlled variables

Lars Asked:
I don't have a copy of _The Fifth Discipline_ here,  but didn't Peter
Senge have a set  of diagrams defining various "archetypes" of 
systemic interactions leading to positive feedback?

Marc said:
Yes he did, both in _The Fifth Discipline_ and the subsequent 
_Field Book_.
 
Lars Stated:
Presumably this could be useful as a diagnostic, i.e. on could say 
that a process is of "type X".

Marc Responded:
The original intention of the diagrams was to help teach _System 
Dynamics_ at MIT. Dan Kim (publisher of _The Systems Thinker)
expanded upon the original concept and utilized the diagrams as a
diagnostic tool. The jury is still out. The main critisism of the
archetypes is that people try to "shoe horn" the problem to fit
the model.

Lars Asked:
Whose work is it anyway? I presume it is not Senge's. Is it useful?

Marc Answer:
See above. I personally believe that systems thinking is a very 
useful set of skills, especially within the framework of PCT.
Unfortunately, all of those systems thinkers out there are 
generally unaware of the existence of PCT. Maybe we can help
change that. I know I am going to give it a shot.

Lars, or anyone else, if you want more info on this stuff, zip me a
line and I'll get off some references and ftp sites.


Marc


Best,
Lars