What are System Archetypes?
- Archetypes are commonly occurring combinations of two or more reinforcing and balancing loops
- Each archetype has a characteristic theme, behaviour patterns, structure, mental models and interventions
- System Archetypes are also known as ‘classic system stories’ and ‘templates’
- They enable us to ‘see’ structures when hearing one of these classic stories
- The facilitate rapid joint understanding by diagramming the system
| Name of Archetype | Description |
| Vicious / Virtuous cycle / Reinforcing Loop | Amplification and reinforcement |
| Balancing Loop / Process | Correction: We try to reduce the gap |
| Fixes that Backfire | Unintended Consequence |
| Shifting the Burden | Unintended Dependency |
| Limits to Growth / Success | Unanticipated Constraints |
| Escalation | One-upmanship, Unintended Proliferation: the harder you push, the harder the competitor pushes back |
| Drifting Goals | Inadvertent poor performance, actual and desired performance levels gradually falling |
| Success to the Successful | Winner takes all: Your success produces my failure |
| Growth and Underinvestment | Self-imposed Limits |
| Tragedy of the Commons | Optimizing each part destroys the whole: Everyone takes advantage of a resource that doesn’t belong to anybody |
| Accidental Adversaries | Partners who become enemies: Two parties want to cooperate, but each sees the other undermining their success |
Systems Thinking Research & Leadership Development Institute (STRLDi) 