I don't know about you, but I get excited every time I read the phrases "vicious cycle," "feedback loop," and "housing bubble" in 
the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, or other mainstream news source (and I become a road hazard when I hear them mentioned in an NPR report on my commute).
For the first 10 years I worked as managing editor of The Systems Thinker, I felt a bit like a Talmud scholar, reading between the lines of news stories for hints at the structure that was driving the behavior under discussion. With the emergence of two critical global crises--the economic meltdown and climate change--wise observers have begun to use the language of loops and links to get at the root of the behaviors we're now experiencing in a big and painful way.
For those who have been working in the trenches to convince organizations and governmental bodies to adopt a systemic perspective, it would be tempting to kick back and think the work is done. I mean, if an award-winning journalist such as Tom Friedman and Nobel laureate like economist Paul Krugman can look at the world through this lens, then what more can we add?
But as anyone who has applied systems thinking tools to problems within their organization, community, or even family knows, the real challenge is in the implementation. It's all well and good to recognize the feedback loops that prevent a business unit from performing up to potential; it's another thing, though, to then set about using that knowledge to improve the current situation and avoid such quagmires in the future.
We're launching this blog as a way to look at the dynamics at work in our organizations and the world and to explore how a systems understanding can help us take effective actions. We've invited contributors from a wide range of experience and expertise to share their stories, successes and failures, and tried-and-true tips for using systems thinking in action. To us, systems thinking is not an academic activity but a practical toolset that can have a real impact, both in diagnosing the issues holding us back and in creating a more successful tomorrow.
So, welcome and please join us in creating this practice field together!
--Janice Molloy
photo: Nancy Daugherty