Modeling for Learning Organizations

Conventional wisdom says that we can learn from our errors, but errors in the business world can be prohibitively costly. To truly understand how complex business organizations function requires different tools than most managers have been given. Yet managers need methods to understand how their organization works in order to test policies, discover flaws in thinking, and find the hidden leveragepoints within the complex systems they manage. Through a system simulation, the dynamics of the whole system, not just the individual parts, becomes apparent. The outcome of current and future situations becomes possible to predict and with this information, managers can focus on the changes that need to be made.

The distinguished contributors to Modeling for Learning Organizations include Jay W. Forrester, Peter Senge, and Arie De Geus. You will learn about leading applications such as:

• Shell's work on modeling the oil producers.
• The Management Flight Simulator, a computer-based case learning environment pioneered by John Sterman and others at MIT
• The landmark Claims Learning Laboratory at Hanover Insurancecompanies.

For managers, professionals, academicians, and everyone who recognizes the profound implications of modeling, this book is an excellent resource. It offers a broad understanding of the modeling process, discusses a multitude of case studies, and provides a review of the most recent simulation software.

Contributors

Publisher's Message
N. Bodek and D. Asay

Foreword: Modeling to Predit or to Learn?
J.D. Morecroft and J.D. Sterman

PART 1: PERSPECTIVES ON THE MODELING PROCESS

1. Executive Knowledge, Models, and Learning
J.D.W. Morecroft
2. Model Building for Group Decision Support: Issues and Alternatives in Knowledge Elicitation
J.W. Forrester
3. Policies Decisions, and Information Sources for Modeling
J.W. Forrester
4. Modeling as Learning: A Consultancy Methodology for Enhancing Learning in Management Teams
D.C. Lane

PART 2: FEEDBACK MODELING IN ACTION
5. Knowledge Elicitation in Conceptual Model Building: A Case Study in Modeling a Regional Dutch Health Care System
J.A.M. Vennix and J.W. Gubbels
6. Modeling the Oil Producers: Capturing Oil Industry Knowledge in a Behavioral Simulation Model
D.W. Morecroft and K.A.J.M. Van Der Heijden
7. A Systematic Approach
E.F. Wolstenholme
8. Systems Thinking and Organizational Learning: Acting Locally and Thinking Globally in the Organization of the Future
P.M. Senge and J.D. Sterman

PART 3: LEARNING FROM MODELING AND SIMULATION9. Model-Supported Case Studies for Management Education
A.K. Graham, J.D.W. Morecroft, P.M. Senge, and J.D. Sterman
10. Experimentation in Learning Organizations: A Management Flight Simulator Approach
B. Bakken, J. Gould, and D. Kim
11. Overcoming Limits to Learning in Computer-Based Learning nvironments
W. Isaacs and P.M. Senge

PART 4: NEW IDEAS IN REPRESENTATION AND SOFTWARE

12. Software for Model Building and Simulation: An Illustration of Design Philosophy
S. Peterson
13. The System Dynamics Approach to Computer-Based Management Learning Environments
P.I. Davidsen
14. The System Dynamics Modeling Process and DYSMAP2
B. Dangerfield
15. Managerial Microworlds as Learning Tools
E.W. Diehl
16. Understanding Models with Vision
R.L. Eberlein and D.W. Peterson
17. Professional DYNAMO: Simulation Software to Facilitate Management Learning and Decision Making
J.M. Lyneis, K. Skylar Reichelt, and T. Sjoblom
18. Hexagons for Systems Thinking
A.M. Hodgson

Annotated Bibliogray
J.D.W. Morecroft and J.D. Sterman

About the Editors
Index