Ladder of Engagement: Introduction | Knowledge | Understanding | Influence | Enrichment | Collaboration

The Ladder of Engagement

CIESD’s Ladder of Engagement is our characteristic approach to collaborative problem solving; it was developed and refined over the years in which we have worked as educators, first with students and teachers and then with a progressively wider array of clients. It is a structure and sequence of rungs on a ladder that support a powerful and integrated process by which we:

Those three points represent what we seek to accomplish with our clients; our logo acknowledges the critical and fundamental role that that sequence, or ladder, of activities plays in our work on all our projects. The following two, mutually reinforcing points are additional critical elements of how we engage our clients. As we climb that ladder together, we:

• Provide guidance on elaborating these mental models from initially simple depictions of core relationships to systemically richer, more complex, and realistic stories (ENRICHMENT).

• Develop shared insights through a set of tools and templates with which diverse stakeholders can effectively and respectfully express, explore, coalesce, and improve their respective mental models of the system in question (COLLABORATION).

This description of our Ladder of Engagement constituted roughly the middle third of the Keynote Address we delivered at the national Systems Thinking and Dynamic Modeling Conference ( click here for the .pdf document) in July 2004.

Ladder of Engagement: Introduction | Knowledge | Understanding | Influence | Enrichment | Collaboration

KNOWLEDGE

Do we share knowledge of how the system "behaves"?

On the Knowledge rung of the Ladder of Engagement, we define and clarify the problem we are exploring.

• Defining the initial problem is critical, yet it is often surprisingly challenging.
• Next we focus narrowly on the one or several elements of the system that are of central importance. We are challenged to define the behavior over time of those elements. Ideally, we begin with simple, even simplistic, kernels of the system, so that we can maintain a collaborative and constructive approach to the exploration: Has my bank account (a stock) been shrinking or growing? Has my annual salary (a flow) been growing or shrinking?
• Finally, we collaborate to translate these central behaviors into stock and flow maps: If my bank account (a stock) is changing, what flows (perhaps deposits and withdrawals) have been influencing those changes?

Available Tools

Figure Caption: Simple Stock & Flow Maps used to illustrate 4 dynamic behaviors.

• Stock 1 has an initial size of 20, let’s say $20 in a cookie jar. To that stock are added 2 dollars every week for 10 weeks. The stock grows, to a final 40 dollars.
• Stock 2 also starts with 20 dollars, but withdraws 1 dollar each of the 10 weeks. 10 dollars are left at the end.
• Stock 3 is impacted by both flows: 2 dollars are added and 1 dollar withdrawn weekly, ending with 30 dollars.
• Stock 4 is a bit more complex. Here we start with 10 dollars in the jar. For 4 weeks we withdraw 2 dollars per week; then after that we deposit 4 dollars per week for the final 6 weeks of the simulation.

This may seem intuitive, but is meant to illustrate that the dynamic change in the amount of “stuff” in a stock can be explained by the action or interaction of in- and out-flows of that “stuff.” What may be ‘obvious’ at this simple level can become surprisingly subtle in more complex systems. In order to deepen an appreciation for (and ability to manage) such “realistic,” or real-world, finances, we need to begin developing an understanding of the feedbacks that control those flows. That takes us to the “Understanding” rung of the Ladder of Engagement.

Ladder of Engagement: Introduction | Knowledge | Understanding | Influence | Enrichment | Collaboration

UNDERSTANDING

Do we share an understanding of how feedbacks and delays control the behavior of the system?

Once we have a shared knowledge of what is important in the system and how it is behaving, we move to the next rung of the Ladder of Engagement to begin to explore what is controlling the behavior of the system. By “control,” we primarily mean the feedback loops that, from within the system, control its behavior. Exogenous factors may influence the system, but the primary drivers, and those that we have control over, will be within the system.

Available Tools

1. Elaborating Feedback Loops & Delays:

2. Computer Simulations

The precision of computer simulations ultimately provides the best test of our mental models. Does that structure produce behavior that acceptably replicates what we saw in the “real world”? Assume in the previous illustration that you earn a gratifying 10% annual interest on your account. You start with a balance of $100; whenever the balance exceeds $200, you will be tempted to spend $50 of the balance on some frivolous whim. What will your account look like over the years?

After 20 years, you’ve made 5 $50 purchases and accumulated about an additional $100 for a $350 gain. Not bad, but what would have happened if you had restrained from spending any of that account?

Note that after eliminating the expenditures, your account grows to nearly $700 (the red line 2 superimposed on the original blue line 1. Note the change of scale on the y-axis.) over 20 years, a net gain of nearly $600. If allowed to operate, compound interest can be very powerful indeed. We’ll explore that in more depth in the next section where we discuss “Influence,” the third rung of the Ladder of Influence.

Ladder of Engagement: Introduction | Knowledge | Understanding | Influence | Enrichment | Collaboration

INFLUENCE

Are we able to devise an effective policy to affect the behavior of the system and communicate effectively to convince others of the policy’s power?

Effectively influencing the behavior of the system is a two-step process:

• Use computer simulations to test and fine-tune our mental models of where the effective leverage for change can be found.
• Use the systems tools available to us to develop and present effective arguments as we advocate the high leverage policies to a broader citizenry.

Available Tools

1. Computer Simulations:

Computer simulations continue to be the principle tool in our kit available for objectively testing the efficacy of a given policy. Systems with more than two or three non-linear feedback loops are simply too complex for us to reliably intuit their behavior without the power of a computer simulation to assist us. The following illustration was extracted from one of our Demo Dozen models.

1. We start with an open-ended question challenging us to design a policy to guide a system to a particular goal:

2. Next we use a computer simulation to explore various policies to see which provides the greatest leverage:

3. Finally we “debrief” the exercise to be sure that the reasons for the simulated behaviors are understood and can enhance our mental models of similar situations we might encounter in the future:

2. Communication Tools:

In our efforts to communicate and advocate our proposed policy, we can use the tools of system dynamics (Behavior Over Time Graphs, Causal-Loop Diagrams, Stock & Flow Concept Maps, and Computer Simulations) to help communicate our mental model of the system in question and to illustrate the implications of our proposed policies.

Ladder of Engagement: Introduction | Knowledge | Understanding | Influence | Enrichment | Collaboration

ENRICHMENT

Can we begin with a simple shared ‘kernel’ of an idea and expand and elaborate on our mental models to build progressively to a complex and realistic depiction of our real world system?

We use a linguistic model to describe this part of our work with clients. Exploring a complex system is a parallel process to acquiring a new language.

1. We begin with the simplest possible sentence, just a noun (one stock) and a verb (one flow). Then we build clearly and logically to compound (two flows) and complex (stock and flows with feedbacks) sentences that tell a part of the system’s story.

2. Sentences (separate stock & flow structures) can then combine in progressively greater richness creating ‘paragraphs.’

Here we move from a ‘personal’ finance context to a corporate one, where the company’s balance sheet is tightly bound to its process of manufacturing and selling some product. This is still a simple depiction of such a system, but it begins to capture the mutual dependency of these two corporate sectors, or paragraphs.

3. Paragraphs can be further combined and elaborated to tell compelling and rich stories of whatever complexity is needed or desired to enable real-world policies to be explored.

Richer still is the story that can be told when that corporate structure can be placed in the wider context of a population (market) and the attitudes of that market that drive their reaction to the product being offered.

This combination of three sectors, Population, Resources, and Attitudes, appears to be at the base of many, if not most, of the interesting systems with which we are surrounded.

Ladder of Engagement: Introduction | Knowledge | Understanding | Influence | Enrichment | Collaboration

COLLABORATION

Can we use these insights & communications tools to constructively engage other stakeholders and facilitate those stakeholders in sharing their mental models and working together to mutually improve those models?

We begin with the assumption that most real-world problems are, in fact, “problems” because different people harbor diverse assumptions about how the system works and/or divergent views of how the system should work. If people of good will can ever expect to collaborate on devising and implementing solutions to such problems, they will need to:

• Agree on how the system is actually behaving. What are the important elements of the system? How have they changed dynamically over time? How do we anticipate they will change in the future, given the current trends?
• Come to a mutual understanding of what is controlling that behavior. What are the internal feedbacks that drive the system’s behavior? Are there delays that complicate the system? Are there external drivers over which we have little control?
• Use our knowledge of the system’s dynamics and our understanding of the feedbacks that operate as drivers to devise strategies or policies to push or pull the system in a mutually desirable direction. Can we identify high leverage policies, where relatively small or simple actions yield large results? Can we anticipate and avoid undesirable consequences of a possible policy?

Each of these necessary steps is facilitated by careful and skilled use of the tools of system dynamics and their application through the “Ladder of Engagement” described here.