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AbstractI provide a personal reflection on the history of interactive gaming and "management flight simulators" in system dynamics, offering practical advice on the attributes of effective games and gaming. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

AbstractThis paper was presented at the annual meeting of the System Dynamics Society, Atlanta, Georgia; 25 July 2001, in a special session in memory of Dana Meadows. In this talk, Dennis Meadows reviews Dana's career, the fundamental contributions she made to the field of system dynamics, and the continuing relevance of her work to the issues facing us today. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

AbstractIn this unpublished memoir, written in the early 1990s, the late Dana Meadows reflects on the history of The Limits to Growth, including its origins, conclusions, and the reactions it generated. This memoir had been condensed and edited by Dennis Meadows. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The vast majority of the decisions made in our global society are responses to problems in which cause and effect are closely related in time and in space. When a problem becomes important, its source is usually obvious, and any appropriate response usually becomes effective in time to eliminate the difficulty. For this class of phenomena it is satisfactory to react after a problem is already apparent. Thus, the institutions involved need only monitor the current status of the system; they need not maintain a long planning horizon. It is important to realize that most environmental problems do not fit into this category. The delays associated with most environmental processes will require us to add an explicit consideration of the time dimension in formulating environmental policy.

Intro -- Contents -- Preface -- How to Use This Book -- Guiding Ideas -- 22 Games -- 1. Arms Crossed: When conditions change, habits must change. -- 2. Avalanche: Understand the implicit rules. They can produce different results than desired or expected. -- 3. Balancing Tubes: You can't achieve long-term goals with short-term perspective. -- 4. The Bathtub Game: A level will decline only if outflows are greater than inflows. -- 5. Biodiversity Game: You can't change only one thing. -- 6. Circles in the Air: Our perspective affects the actions we take in complex systems. -- 7. Frames: To obtain consensus be clear about the mental framework you are using. -- 8. Group Juggle: Adding one more apparently minor problem can sometimes collapse the whole system. -- 9. Hands Down: When trying to understand a complex situation, don't limit your focus to where the action is. -- 10. Harvest: Over the long term, individuals often get more from cooperation than from competition. -- 11. Hit the Target: Delays between perception and response can lead to overshooting the goal. -- 12. Living Loops: It's easier to reach your goals by building a system that achieves them for you. -- 13. Paper Fold: With exponential growth, small growth rates can quickly lead to extremely large numbers. -- 14. Paper Tear: One-way communication is much less effective than interaction. -- 15. Pens: Sustainability depends more on culture than on technology. -- 16. Space for Living: Thinking outside the box can produce win-win solutions. -- 17. Squaring the Circle: Without a shared goal, cooperation is ineffective. -- 18. Thumb Wrestling: Life is not a zero-sum game. -- 19. Triangles: If you want big changes, look for the high-leverage points. -- 20. Warped Juggle: Incremental changes produce improvements -- structural changes produce transformation.