Create Your Own “Shifting the Burden” Story

Objective: The purpose of this lesson is for you to describe a personal mental model

using the “shifting the burden” archetype.

1. Create a half-page “shifting the burden” story based upon one of your own

personal life experiences other than work. Your story must be told from the “I” or

“we” perspective. Do not use an organizational issue in your company or your coworkers.

2. Succinctly explain the issue you are addressing?

3. Explain the problem symptom?

4. Explain the symptomatic solution?

5. Explain the fundamental solution to the problem?

6. Explain the symptomatic solution “side effect”?

7. Create a companion “shifting the burden” causal loop diagram that clearly

illustrates the essence of your story.

8. Explain the cause and effect relationships between the key systemic variables

included in your causal loop diagram.

9. Construct a behavior-over-time graph that charts the movement of the key

variables relative to each other as a function of time (see page 109).