Living by Design

About this event

Strategy Te **1\. Short\-Term Fixes vs\. Long\-Term Structures** Schuster warns that reductionist thinking tends to chase quick wins. Think of a decision you made for immediate relief that may have cost you strategically down the road. What would "solving the system" instead of "solving the symptom" have looked like? **2\. Mental Models as Long\-Term Assets** Our mental models compound over time — good ones sharpen judgment, bad ones quietly misdirect it for years. What mental model has served you well over the long run, and what's one you suspect you should retire before it costs you more? **3\. Reinforcing Loops and Compounding Advantage** Reinforcing loops can build slowly and then snowball. What's a reinforcing loop you could deliberately set in motion now — in a career, relationship, or organization — that wouldn't pay off for years, but would compound significantly if you stuck with it? **4\. Playing the Long Game with Unintended Consequences** Short-term thinkers often discount the ripple effects of their choices because those effects arrive later. Discuss a case (personal, historical, or in the book) where patience in anticipating second- and third-order effects would have led to a fundamentally different — and better — decision. **5\. Leverage Points as Strategic Investments** Not all leverage points pay off immediately; some take time to move the system. What's a leverage point in your life or organization that wouldn't show results for a year or more, but that you believe is worth investing in now anyway? **6\. Stocks as Long\-Term Capital** Schuster's stocks-and-flows concept suggests some things (trust, skill, health, savings) are slow to build and slow to drain. What "stock" are you currently under-investing in because its payoff feels too far away, and how might you course-correct? **7\. Strategic Patience and Interconnected Systems** Because systems are relational, changes in one area often take time to reveal their true effect elsewhere. Where…