Hennessy, Gregory, "Competitive Simulations: Introducing Corporations to Organizational Learning", 1994
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System Dynamicists usually view simulation as a means to help them understand the counter-intuitive behaviors commonly exhibited by complex systems and to facilitate others’ learning about these behaviors. However, a second and closely-related application is typically overlooked: the elicitation of barriers to organizational learning in a non-threatening environment. In our experience, when clients are placed on teams and presented with a simulated future, the organizational defensive routines which prevent effective decision-making in the real world soon arise in the simulation setting. A skilled facilitator can then begin to address these behavior patterns in the (relatively) safe context of the simulation.