Toen ik door mijn mail aan het kijken was viel jouw naam direct op als =
een van de weinige Nederlanders die zich tussen al dat Amerikaans geweld =
op de mailing lijst heeft geplaatst. Wat een toeval! En 'doei' was al =
bekend.
It was interesting to hear of the problems you have encountered with =
passing on the modeling paradigm. The consultancy firm I work
for here in The Netherlands specializes in management information =
systems. One of the main activities we are involved in is the modeling =
of business processes to help improve the decision making skills of =
managers. The "hard" modeling is done using the system dynamics paradigm =
and in particular we use the software tool Powersim to support our =
activities. Our approach to the business modeling endeavor, whether it =
is the modeling of financial accounts or the dynamics of personnel or =
building complex management games, is to provide insight into the =
working and behavior of the system as a whole. This is where the ideas =
of the learning organization play an important role in our advisory =
practice. As you mentioned it is a challenge to involve people in the =
modeling activities. We have first hand experience in being given the =
assignment to model a particular issue were a modeler will go off to his =
quiet little room in the basement and put together the most fantastic =
model you could imagine. But the challenge is not to put together the =
model rather it is to capture the "mental model" of the person(s) who =
will be using it to help support their decision making skills. As we =
often tell our clients the use of a tool like Powersim is a very =
efficient way to build very bad business models. Having organized a few =
workshops myself for clients I know how difficult it can be but we have =
had quiet a lot of success in easing them into systems thinking and =
system dynamics.
Excuse me that the previous message was not complete. The only thing I =
still had to add was that the problem you face is one sometimes referred =
to as the "soft" aspect of modeling. I have found that it is important =
to assess the group and, depending on their know-how, develop an =
approach that will ease them into a modeling session. But no modeling =
session will bring success unless you are able to define a common =
problem to the group. In my opinion, this is where the first crucial =
mistake is made in modeling attempts. That is why I can recommend =
literature that assesses that first phase. One book which my prove =
useful is Rational Analysis for a Problematic World: Problem Structuring =
Methods for Complexity, Uncertainty and Conflict edited by Jonathan =
Rosenhead (ISBN 0-471-92286-2).
Hopefully it will help.
Groeten,
Rhoderick van der Wyck
Oasis Process Consulting=20
Tel. +31 30 6066336
Fax +31 30 6065844
-- Rhoderick van der WYCK <twofold@wirehub.nl>