This article briefly defines and describes the pathway participation metric (PPM), a mathematical calculation that can help to identify the linkages between the structure and behavior of a dynamic system. PPM has been implemented in an experimental piece of software called Digest, which we then present. Digest is not a simulation language, but rather a companion to any commercial system dynamics package, which accepts a text version of a simulation model and performs post formulation analysis of the model. Digest detects and displays which feedback loops are most influential in explaining a selected pattern of behavior in a model. Output from a sample Digest run is presented and described. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Working periodically between 1995 and 2005, a team of scholar-practitioners involved in related streams of strategic management and systems thinking developed a series of conceptual maps that attempted to integrate ideas from these theoretical and practical fields. Whimsically dubbed the Thinking Persons’ Institute Worldview, these maps provided the basis for an integrated approach that has been used over the past five years to improve teaching and practical interventions in both areas. This paper reports on successful efforts to teach the TPI worldview to classes of students at the University at Albany, the University of Minnesota, and the University of Strathclyde, although the main emphasis is on a one-week seminar at the Humphrey Institute at the University of Minnesota. The paper concludes with an evaluation of these experiences.