Systems Thinking Research & Leadership Development Institute (STRLDi)
Strategy Consulting & Corporate Development Training for Learning Organizations
The global attention economy is reshaping employment dynamics, particularly for youth, who increasingly divert their focus from foundational sectors to unstable digital careers. This shift leads to an oversupply of creators, low income stability, and potential societal impacts, threatening essential economic capacities and exacerbating issues like unemployment and mental health crises.
A Case Study of the Fixes-That-Fail Archetype (STRLDi Compendium of System Archetypes — Draft Edition) “THE LEADERSHIP MIRROR” Every leader believes they are solving problems.Few notice that the problems are quietly solving them. The more effort they invest, the deeper the pattern takes hold — until exhaustion feels like purpose and urgency feels like success. … Continue reading “Urgent Files”
**Twenty-five years ago, two teachers changed the way I see the world.**
This tribute is for **Daniel Kim and Diane Cory** — mentors and catalysts who shaped how I understand *The Fifth Discipline*, and how I have carried it across continents and generations.
From our first sessions together in Singapore to the work unfolding today through **STRLDi in Africa**, their influence continues to echo — in every system mapped, every dialogue convened, and every leader learning to see anew.
I wrote this piece to honour not only their memory, but the larger *Learning Organisation* community that keeps their work alive — in boardrooms, classrooms, and ministries alike.
🕊️ *“There are teachers who change what we know, and teachers who change how we see.”*
Daniel and Diane did both.
Read the full reflection here:
👉 [When Seeds Take Root Across Continents – A Tribute to Daniel Kim and Diane Cory](https://strldi.weebly.com/strldi.html)
The economic dynamics of a kilogram of beetroot illustrate complex interdependencies among farmers, retailers, caterers, consumers, laborers, and the state. Price changes create ripples affecting all layers, often leading to inflation and diminished profits. Effective coordination and productivity improvements, especially through regenerative practices and STEM, are vital for stability and growth in Botswana’s horticulture. From a P5 beetroot to a P40 plate—see why profits don’t grow without a coordination spine, and how STEM + regen can change the economics.
The parable “I Can Sleep When the Wind Blows” illustrates the importance of preparation, mirrored in agricultural practices and national budgeting. Effective industry planning, guided by STEM principles, ensures sustainable growth and stability. Without this backbone, the system falters, leading to volatility and inefficiency, hindering farmers and economic progress.
She had done everything right. Bought the seeds. Paid for inputs. Hired labour. Measured every drop of water. Watched over her crop with the kind of personal care only farmers understand. After weeks of nurturing, her cherry tomatoes gleamed on the vines — plump, red, and ready. She took them to the retailer who once … Continue reading Horticulture Farmers Can’t Plant Blind: Why Botswana Needs a National Horticulture Coordination System
Your thinking is incisive — and it touches a painful global fault line. ✳️ Introductory Paragraph: The world is not waiting. Nations are restructuring their economies, education systems, and regulatory frameworks to meet the demands of an AI-powered, STEM-led global future. That shift was happening as far back as 200 years ago. In the span … Continue reading Builders or Bystanders? Three Strategic Scenarios for Botswana’s STEM Future
Public servants’ regulatory styles adapt based on their understanding of systems, scale, and causality, influenced by their STEM training and the public’s literacy. STEM-trained regulators prioritize design-based control, while non-STEM counterparts often overregulate for self-preservation, risking bottlenecks and stifling innovation in agriculture and manufacturing.
Botswana’s professional horticultural farmers face growth limitations, reliant on institutional markets for stability. Retail and hospitality hold vast potential, necessitating structured partnerships, particularly with Sefalana. The proposed trial aims to increase local sourcing and empower farmers, enhancing aggregation and processing capabilities, ultimately positioning Botswana as a horticulture hub.
The content details the historical and contemporary dynamics of cattle populations in Southern Africa, focusing on the impacts of rinderpest, land policies, and disease control. The article traces cattle population trends in Botswana, Zimbabwe, and South Africa, highlighting challenges such as malnutrition, drought, and socio-cultural values in cattle ownership, influencing production systems in the mind of the cattle farmer in Botswana.
The post discusses the challenges and opportunities for enhancing trade and production collaboration between Zambia and Botswana. It explores historical barriers such as colonial infrastructure and national self-sufficiency mindsets. The call for shared production planning emphasizes regional interdependence, addressing food security and economic resilience, while leveraging frameworks like AfCFTA for sustainable development.
Botswana’s unemployment crisis is rooted in systemic issues like labor absorption gaps, skills mismatches, and household instability. Solutions require rebalancing educational priorities towards STEM, improving family structures, and fostering cross-sector economic coordination. A holistic design is essential to energize key sectors, ensuring sustainable employment and economic resilience amidst persistent challenges.
Botswana has faced decades of investment without addressing the structural causes of high unemployment. This study employs systems thinking to highlight key systemic failures in absorbing the workforce, underperforming sectors, and value circulation. Solutions lie in redesigning economic structures for sustainable growth and job creation, challenging existing policies and practices.
The content emphasizes the importance of mental models in self-discipline and personal transformation. It highlights that true change requires individual introspection, supportive guidance, and shared experiences. A personal journey illustrates how unresolved beliefs can hinder progress and how reframing these beliefs can reinvigorate one’s ambition and sense of value.
The content discusses the concept of manipulated mental models, emphasizing how controlling narratives maintains power across social layers. It argues that transparency can undermine authority and highlights the importance of recognizing the difference between protection and manipulation. By addressing hidden agendas, trust and empathy can improve relational dynamics.
The concept of “Winner Takes All” highlights the detrimental effects of zero-sum thinking within teams, leading to inward competition and information withholding. Successful collaboration requires challenging this mindset, fostering mutual purpose and interdependence. Various developmental frameworks illustrate the need for deeper dialogue and systemic reframing to promote shared success rather than individual victories.
The content discusses the concept of manipulated mental models, emphasizing how controlling narratives maintains power across social layers. It argues that transparency can undermine authority and highlights the importance of recognizing the difference between protection and manipulation. By addressing hidden agendas, trust and empathy can improve relational dynamics.
The post criticizes the exclusion of the informal sector from social protection frameworks, which often view aid as charity, fostering dependency. It calls for challenging assumptions about productivity by reframing inclusion as essential for national resilience and shared investment, promoting empathy and understanding among diverse community experiences.
The developmental map for large-scale organizations outlines how biases in promotions persist due to entrenched mental models. It highlights beliefs about leadership fit and assumptions of vision’s exclusivity, which resist innovation. By questioning these models, organizations can foster shared meaning, feedback, and ultimately, greater adaptability and agility.
Communities often prioritize family honor over personal truth, believing that speaking up about abuse invites shame. It’s crucial to distinguish between silence that safeguards and silence that enables harm. Encouraging open reflection fosters empathy and understanding, allowing individuals to appreciate each other’s experiences and journeys while addressing underlying issues.
Communities often prioritize family honor over personal truth, believing that speaking up about abuse invites shame. It’s crucial to distinguish between silence that safeguards and silence that enables harm. Encouraging open reflection fosters empathy and understanding, allowing individuals to appreciate each other’s experiences and journeys while addressing underlying issues.
Parents 👭Imposing Life Path; Discipline interpreted as rejection The scenario for Parents & Child is now complete, with each developmental stage showing how parental control, care, and the child’s experience can be either reinforced or reimagined depending on the mental model lens. 👨👩👧 Parents & Child Parent imposing life path Assumption: “I know what’s best … Continue reading #5: Testing the Limits of Each Thinking by Situation Series: Parents & Child
Siblings 👭Gendered care expectations and inheritance The situation for Siblings – Different Genders is now mapped with its mental model, self-discipline practice, and responses across the seven developmental stages. The structure continues seamlessly, showing how rigid gender roles can be sustained or challenged depending on the dominant mental model framework at play. 🧑🤝🧑 Siblings – … Continue reading #4: Testing the Limits of Each Thinking by Situation Series: Siblings – Different Gender
Siblings 👭“Unspoken rivalry”: Unspoken competition or comparison Assumption: “They always get more recognition/love.” Surfacing this allows new appreciation and empathy for each other’s journeys. Mental model: “Love is scarce; only one can be favored.” Self-discipline: Recognize and reframe the zero-sum belief.
The content discusses an individual’s career dissatisfaction stemming from a mental model that equates hard work and pleasing others with eventual rewards. It emphasizes the importance of self-discipline in reassessing inherited definitions of success and questioning whose approval is pursued, highlighting the need for clarity in one’s internal narrative.
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