Tool 39

The ripple effect (systems thinking)

What the tool is

A well-designed organisation is like a machine, in which every component has an important part to play. A change to one tiny component in the machine may have severe or complex implications for another part of the machine, although the consequences may be distant in time and space from the change.

A problem solved in one part of an organisation may have ripple effects in other areas of the organisation, again sometimes appearing only some time after the solution is effected. The ripple effect is a technique designed to tease out the effects that a change made in one specific area ...

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