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Think In Systems: The Skill Most People Never Learn

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Get The Systems Workbook with worked examples and fill-in prompts:

https://ideastosthrive.gumroad.com/l/systems-workbook?utm_source=acast&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=systems_workbook&utm_content=show_notes


PREFER WATCHING?

Check out the video on my Youtube channel - https://youtu.be/t1xKo4spo3s


Most problems that keep coming back are not effort problems. They are structure problems. You have been working against a system without realising it.


This course teaches you 20 tools for reading the structure of any repeating problem - whether it is in your health, your work, your relationships, or your finances - so you can find where to intervene instead of applying more effort to something that has already failed more than once.


Seven parts. Twenty tools. One capstone to apply them all on a real problem of yours.


TIMESTAMPS


0:00 Introduction

1:37 Part 1 — Why Problems Keep Coming Back

1:46 Tool 1: The System Test

4:18 Tool 2: The Iceberg

7:17 Part 2 — Learning to See It

7:26 Tool 3: Variables and Links

10:25 Tool 4: The Reinforcing Loop

13:10 Tool 5: The Balancing Loop and the Set-Point

16:02 Tool 6: Loop Dominance

19:39 Part 3 — The Plumbing

19:46 Tool 7: Stocks and Flows

22:51 Tool 8: The Valve Rule

25:38 Tool 9: The Buffer

28:57 Tool 10: Rate vs Level

31:53 Part 4 — Why It Keeps Fooling You

32:06 Tool 11: The Delay

35:00 Tool 12: Overcorrection

39:26 Tool 13: The Bullwhip Effect

42:56 Part 5 — The Shapes Problems Take

43:10 Tool 14: Shifting the Burden

46:56 Tool 15: Fixes That Fail

50:25 Tool 16: Limits to Growth

53:48 Tool 17: The Commons Trap

57:44 Part 6 — Which Kind of Problem Is This?

57:54 Tool 18: The Cynefin Sort

63:15 Part 7 — Where to Actually Push

63:26 Tool 19: The Leverage Ladder

68:17 Tool 20: Niche Strategy

73:04 Capstone — Read the System

76:36 Close


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WHAT THIS COURSE COVERS


Part 1 introduces the core diagnostic: how to tell whether a problem is structural or an execution failure, and why the difference matters before you do anything else.


Part 2 teaches you to draw any system on a page. You will learn to identify variables, trace the links between them, and recognise the two loop types that drive almost every repeating pattern.


Part 3 covers stocks and flows — the actual plumbing of any system. Once you can name what is draining and find the valves that control it, the right intervention becomes obvious.


Part 4 explains delays and oscillations. Most bad decisions come from reading the wrong signal at the wrong time. These tools show you why, and how to stop.


Part 5 maps the four classic problem shapes: the patterns that trap people who are trying hard and still losing ground.


Part 6 gives you a sorting tool for problem type before you choose a method. The right technique applied to the wrong category of problem reliably fails.


Part 7 introduces leverage. Five rungs, ranked by impact. Most people operate on the bottom two without knowing it.


The capstone walks a four-question protocol on one real problem of yours from start to finish.


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THE COMPANION WORKBOOK


If you want to go further than notes, The Systems Workbook has all 20 tools with a worked example and a structured fill-in prompt for each one. Formats included: print PDF, fillable PDF with 51 fields.


https://ideastosthrive.gumroad.com/l/systems-workbook?utm_source=acast&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=systems_workbook&utm_content=show_notes

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#SystemsThinking #MentalModels #DecisionMaking #FullCourse #PersonalDevelopment

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