System Archetypes

Peter Senge's catalogue of recurring system behavior patterns that appear across different contexts—templates of dynamic behavior that repeat because the underlying causal structure repeats. Key archetypes include: Fixes That Fail (short-term solution creates long-term problem), Shifting the Burden (treating symptoms rather than causes), Limits to Growth (reinforcing growth meets balancing constraint), Tragedy of the Commons (shared resource depleted by individual self-interest), and Accidental Adversaries (allies become enemies through unintended side effects). Recognizing the archetype is the first step to designing the structural intervention.

When to use it

When organizational problems keep recurring despite being 'solved'; when patterns of behavior seem to repeat across different contexts; when short-term solutions seem to create long-term problems; when systems thinking needs practical pattern recognition tools.

How it can help

When a system problem feels familiar: check it against the catalogue of system archetypes. Fixes That Fail: is your short-term solution creating the long-term problem you're trying to solve? (Painkillers that prevent healing.) Shifting the Burden: are you treating symptoms while the underlying cause strengthens? (Outsourcing capability you should build internally.) Limits to Growth: has your reinforcing growth hit a balancing limit? (Market saturation, organizational capacity.) The archetype diagnosis immediately suggests the structural intervention—address the archetype's root structure, not its surface symptoms.