Ford, Andrew with Peter Gardiner, "Bringing the Results of the Bonneville Project to the Classroom", 1987
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The Institute of Safety and Systems Management of the University of Southern California (USC) operates a Masters of Science Program in Systems Management (MSSM) at the main campus in Los Angeles and at 70 study centers located throughout the United States, Europe and the Pacific Far East. An introductory course in system dynamics is offered as an elective in the program. The students are interested in how managers use system dynamics and in the lessons from previous applications of system dynamics in large organizations.One such application is the on-going project for the Bonneville Power Administration (Bonneville). System dynamics models are used at Bonneville to assist in the formulation of conservation policies. This paper provides a brief summary of the Bonneville project before turning to the main question of interest: What lessons from the Bonneville project are generally applicable to large organizations and worthy of attention in the MSSM program?