SD Humour

[fabiansz@consultant.com]

Bob,

Id surely go for visual learning/verbal debriefing, or to
experiential icebreakers.

In some of the presentations I make, I use to project some
cartoons like those generated by Larsen where I could easily
deduce a systemic and/or dynamic mini-debriefing.

There are also some selected Dilberts cartoons you could
shurely pick and use. Some Arthur Andersen ads also may help.

Go for the ST Playbook, by Dennis Meadows/Linda Booth Sweeney
for the experiential part.

Best Regards from Buenos Aires,

Fabian Szulanski
From: fabiansz@consultant.com

["Bob Cavana"]

hi Bob

on a humorous note, Kambiz Maani and i have a cartoon in each
chapter and case of our new systems thinking and modelling book
(based on the system dynamics approach). Jock Macneish
created the cartoons. details of our book are:

Kambiz E.Maani & Robert Y. Cavana (2000), "Systems Thinking
and Modelling: Understanding Change and Complexity". Prentice
Hall, Auckland.

(ISBN 1 877258 00

the book is available internationally from a New Zealand web site:

http://www.flyingpig.co.nz/books/

or contact:

Adrian Keane,
Marketing Manager,
Pearson Education NZ Ltd
46 Hillside Road
Auckland 10
New Zealand

email:

Adrian.Keane@pearsoned.co.nz

regards
Bob Cavana
From: "Bob Cavana" <Bob.Cavana@vuw.ac.nz>

["Lane,DC"]

> How many system dynamicists does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
>
May I build on the spirit of Andrew Jones lovely response to this question?


What a detail complexity question!
You should think in terms of the modes of behaviour of electrical energy
usage.
Or the modes that describe transitions from one energy source to another.
Thinking more braodly yet, how might we create a causal theory which
accounts for the emergence of organisms who use visual information and are
therefore interested in light sources of any kind.

Lets try to take the long view here, people!

David

_______________________________________________________________

Dr. David C. Lane
Management LSE (Operational Research Department)
London School of Economics and Political Science
(University of London)
Houghton Street
London WC2A 2AE
United Kingdom
e-mail: d.c.lane@lse.ac.uk
Tel. (44) (020) 7955-7336
Fax. (44) (020) 7955-6885

["Bob Walker"]

SD Community;

I have an opportunity to present an introduction to System Dynamics, its applications and relationships to the emerging field of Knowledge Management to business executives and public sector officials in a "travelling road show" across Canada later this year. Like may of us in our global community I tend to be rather intense about the value of the SD perspective and often tend to disregard the human touch.

If any of you have stories, jokes or puns that might add a lighter touch to the practice of what is essentially a scientific discipline I would dearly love to hear about them.

For those of you not in British Commonwealth countries I wish to remind you that the Brits did indeed invent humour and the word itself properly has a "u" in it.

Bob

Robert J. Walker
Condor Associates
24 Condor Drive
Ottawa, ON, K1V 9B9
Canada
Tel: (613) 733-7084
Fax: (613) 733-0883
Mail: condora@home.com

[James Melhuish]

Not quite humour, but some time ago we had a discussion of system
dynamics "in an elevator". Not that we want to revisit that, but one of
the best quotes to come out of that was by William S. Bonnell:

"System Dynamics: Things today are the things of yesterday plus any
changes. The changes are the result of the things of yesterday. Now
extend this to tomorrow."

James

--
James Melhuish
Ventana Systems, Inc.
tel: 617 964 8621 email: James@vensim.com
fax: 617 964 3249 http://www.vensim.com

[Tim Joy]

Explaining stocks and flows to a roomful of high school juniors rather than
a roomful of CEOs may at first seem daunting, but each room has its charms.
So, I drank a glass of water.

It was cold, quenched my thirst. One stock flows into another, each gulp a
pulse, collecting in my stomach. Then, another process takes over, that
accumulating liquid absorbed in my tissue, flowing through me. Time passes,
lets say an hour or so. That water, still in me, but diffused over time,
now flows‹‹at a much slower rate‹‹into another stock, collecting in my
bladder, at first a polite reminder, oh; and then, a pounding.

I just passed a student in the hallway who was late to class.

"Hey, Mr. Joy, I got detention. My stock was full, and I just emptied it.
Whats the deal?!"

Tim Joy
From: Tim Joy <joyt@lasalle.pvt.k12.or.us>

[Elaine Lovitt]

Heres one about methodologists that could be recycled:

Q. Whats the difference between an SD expert and a terrorist?

A. You can negotiate with a terrorist.

From: Elaine Lovitt <lovitte@dteenergy.com>

["Bois"]

Poking a little fun at ourselves:

At a party one evening, there was a physician, an engineer, and a system dynamist gathered
around having a small discussion proposing whose profession was the oldest. "Well," began
the physician, "as you can remember from the Book of Genesis, God made Eve from Adams
rib. That is a medical procedure, therefore, being a physician is the oldest profession in
the world."

"Not so fast," retorted the engineer. "Remember also in the Book of Genesis that prior to
your medical procedure, God made the heavens and the earth from all the chaos. Well that
is an engineering feat, therefore, being an engineer is the oldest profession in the
world."

The system dynamist just looked at the other two, winked, and said, "who do you think
created all the chaos?"


Cordially,

Bob Bois
From: "Bois" <boisj@localnet.com>

[Andrew Jones]

How many system dynamicists does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

What a silly, detail-complexity question! Wouldnt you rather explore the
structure that drives the long-term behavior mode of the "indicated bulb
screwers" -- s-shaped growth, growth and overshoot, oscillating, or other?

Drew Jones
apjones@cheta.net

[Tom Fiddaman]

>How many system dynamicists does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
>

Wait. Lets back up and ask why we want the lightbulb screwed in. What
problem are we trying to solve?

Or:

None. Theyd rather sit in the dark and argue about whether systems
thinking is a subset of system dynamics, or vice versa.

Or:

Who cares. By the time theyre done building the model, the sun will be up.

****************************************************
Thomas Fiddaman, Ph.D.
Ventana Systems http://www.vensim.com
8105 SE Nelson Road Tel (253) 851-0124
Olalla, WA 98359 Fax (253) 851-0125
Tom@Vensim.com http://home.earthlink.net/~tomfid
****************************************************

[Nelson Repenning]

>>How many system dynamicists does it take to screw in a lightbulb?


I think this question is best understood by considering how some of the
great members of the field might tackle the question:

The Pugh-Roberts folk might develop a sophisticated model to predict when
the bulbs would burn out. Ventanna might add a high tech algorithim to
optimally schedule the staff of bulb replacers.

Jack Homer would do the same thing, but only for those light bulbs used in
crack houses and as motorcycle headlights.

David Kreutzer, George Richardson and David Andersen might get the light
bulbs themselves invovled in a discussion and group model building effort
to understand why they so often get burned out.

Peter Senge could pick this up, but would probably refocus the discussion
on whether they aspire to burn out or just to fade away

Mark Paich and his maintenace-minded colleagues would suggest its better to
replace the bulbs proactively rather than wait for them to burn out.

Those from the larger consulting companies might question the value
proposition of the light bulb and perhaps suggest that the service of
illumination provision be outsourced to a cheaper external provider.

Dana Meadows would probably ask whether we need so many light bulbs in the
first place.


And Jay Forrester...


well, after admonishing us for taking such a low leverage approach to the
problem, hed redesign the system so those silly bulbs didnt burn out so
often in the first place.


From: Nelson Repenning <nelsonr@MIT.EDU>