Due to human’s limited mental model, people tend to look at a problem from a local and partial perspective and enact solutions that create unintended consequences in the long run. As a result, today’s problem comes from yesterday’s solution. The harder we push, the harder the system pushes back. How to break out silo-thinking in organization? How to expand our mental models to “bring the system in the room”? Systems thinking is a critical leadership capability that enables one to look at a problem holistically, identify root causes and design high-leverage solutions. It is called by MIT Sloan School professor Peter Senge “the core discipline of a learning organization” in his seminal book: “The Fifth Discipline: the Art and Practice of the Learning Organization.”

In this intensive two-day course, we will learn the core concepts and tools of systems thinning and learning organization. We will learn a set of tools that let you (1) graphically depict your understanding of a particular social system's behavior and its underlying structure, (2) communicate with others about your understandings explicitly, and (3) design high-leverage interventions to address root causes of a problem. These tools include causal loop diagrams, behavior over time graphs, stock and flow diagrams, and system archetypes—all of which let you depict your understanding of a system—to computer simulation models and “management flight simulators," which help you to test the potential impact of your interventions.