REPLY Future Development Directions (SD6275)

[System Dynamics Mailing List]

Posted by  "Paul Martin" <paul_m at profitfoundation.com.au>

SD has the capacity to provide nuanced understanding of complex systems where there are non-
linear dynamics at work. So why is the conversation about SD itself taking the direction it seems to 
be - towards the idea of 'right' and 'wrong' and bald comments about whether business is or is not 
poitical or is or is not rational etc. 

SD is both a tool and a culture. It is both rational and political. Acceptance or not is both rational and 
political. The world is complex.

What is important in the discussion is trying to decipher how to make the tool more useful to more 
people, not because SD has any intrinsic worth but because we need more better tools all the time.
I use SD logic but not the modelling because I found that I got the thinking value out of doing so, 
and found myself not able to see the return on effort from going deeper. However I have 
commissioned quite in-depth and complex models in the healthcare arena, primarily to achieve a 
pollitical goal of drawing attention to some of the key relationships and trying to reframe the debate 
towards cause/effect. In the end result the approach worked and made a material difference to the 
national politics around the health issues we were dealing with. 

The model had to be credible and 'readable' in terms of the key relationships. It did not have to be 
'accurate' (and indeed it did throw up some counter-intuitive and I suspect incorrect predictive 
outcomes.

So the dimensions that I see as important are
1. better support in using the tools to understand causal relationships
2. Easier to use modelling at a base level, but more complex and sophisticated tools for the in-
   depth uss; and
3. Really solid ways of exposing for discussion and critique the relationships that are embedded.

As yet none of the tools that I have seen really do all three - they do bits of each. 
Hope this helps 


Paul Martin
Posted by  "Paul Martin" <paul_m at profitfoundation.com.au>
posting date  Fri, 16 Feb 2007 06:29:35 +1000