What are System Archetypes?

System Archetypes – A Facilitator’s Guide

System archetypes are recurring structural patterns composed of interacting reinforcing and balancing feedback loops that generate characteristic behaviour-over-time (BOT) patterns.

In the lineage of Jay Forrester’s system dynamics, archetypes are not metaphors or storytelling devices. They are diagnostic structures — compact representations of feedback configurations that repeatedly produce similar system behaviour across domains such as organisations, economies and nations.

• System archetypes are commonly recurring configurations of two or more reinforcing and balancing feedback loops that generate recognisable patterns of behaviour over time.
• Each archetype is defined by a distinctive systemic theme, a characteristic behaviour-over-time (BOT) pattern, an underlying causal structure, associated mental models, and a recurrent intervention logic. The links provided below allow these distinctions to be examined explicitly.
• Once identified, each archetype functions much like a fingerprint: it reliably points to a specific systemic structure — an interrelated set of causal feedback loops. These structures embody prevailing assumptions, beliefs, and judgments that shape decisions and actions, producing consequences that reinforce and reproduce the structure over time.
• System archetypes are also known as “classic system stories” or “system templates.” They enable practitioners to recognise structure through narrative, often before formal modelling begins.
• Because these patterns are widely shared, system archetypes facilitate rapid collective understanding by allowing teams to externalise, map, and discuss structure through causal loop and stock-and-flow diagrams.

How to Use the Guide:

So which system archetype is generating the behaviour-over-time pattern you are holding?

The only way to find out is to explore the links below.

To make the inquiry more engaging, begin by selecting three archetypes you believe are most likely at work. Click into each one and observe how closely its characteristic behaviour pattern and structure match what you are seeing.

Notice where your initial judgment aligns — and where it does not.

Then proceed to examine the remaining archetypes to complete the diagnosis and see the full structural landscape.

Happy discovering — and disciplined learning.