Policies Measurements and Behavioural Patterns

In order to resolve the UDE, we need to change the policies, measurements and behavioural (PMB) patterns that cause them to exist.  The objective of the next few steps is to surface from the CRT the specific policies, measurements and behaviours that have to change.  This turns the CRT into a roadmap to the solution.

Beside each UDE, make a list of the significant (formal/informal) policies, measurements, and behaviours (PMB) that cause that UDE.  Focus on the PMB that you don’t like (or don’t like some aspect of)... you don’t like them because they force you or someone else to do something that causes a problem, an UDE, a conflict, etc. 

(Note:  'If... then... because...' works for surfacing PMB, just as it did for surfacing assumptions previously.)

There are two ways in which to do this:

You can either list the policies, measurements and behaviours alongside the UDE on your tree... (example)...

Or, you can take each UDE and list the policies, measurements and behaviours on a separate sheet.

Policies, measures and behaviours continued

Work the Policies, Measurements and Behaviours into the causalities of the CRT. They should all be effects of other entities in the trees, not entry points - we want to understand how D and D’ cause them to exist. 

If you feel you might not have captured all of the significant policies, measurements and behaviours, present your tree to someone who will help you surface them and go back to step 14.

Negative Loops:

In reality, there are ‘downward spirals’ or ‘vicious circles’; in a CRT, we call them ‘negative loops.’ They loop back to increase the magnitude of an entity lower in the tree, making things worse and worse.

In your CRT, check for the existence of negative loops. These loops have a lot of inertia in reality, so we’ll want to break them directly when constructing a solution. Breaking an assumption behind any arrow participating in a loop (with an 'injection'), or any assumption behind an arrow leading to the loop, breaks the loop itself.

For each loop in your CRT, find an injection that breaks it.

Note: Make sure that all of these injections are incorporated into the solution you are about to build using the Future Reality Tree in the next module.