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objects nonetheless, entities to be identified andreflected from the outside. The systems intelligenceapproach avoids this externalis t trap. Another aspectof the descriptions of systems thinking we feltuncomfortable with was the negative impacts thatsystems are often portrayed as producing. In the beergame described in The Fifth Discipline, for example,the individual can never fully succeed. He cannotflourish. He can improve his game performancesomewhat, but ultimately the system structure forceshim to acknowledge failure.

Similarly, the "system archetypes" of systemsthinking focus on describing how things can gowrong when systems structures are not acknowledged. "Limits to growth," "shifting the burden,""eroding goals ," "tragedy of the commons," and"fixes that backfire" all highlight the negative trapspeople can fall into as a result of not appreciating therelevant systems structures.

The systems intelligence approach, in contrast,focuses on what people do right and could improveupon in systemic settings. It assumes that people possess a kind of inherent pre-rational and pre-reflectivesystems thinking capability. The key idea is what wecall flourishment, a capacity for flourishing, as opposed to simply avoiding pitfalls. Systems intelligencethus calls for a positive systems scholarship, and

Insight, knowledge acquisition,judgment, and analysis must havehad prominent roles in the successstory of the human race.sides with "positive organizational scholarship" 4and "positive psychology'0 move men ts in its focus onhuman flourishing, in contrast to human malfunctions. Systems intelligence also reflects the approachof "action research."6

Since we proposed the idea of systems intelligencein 2002, it has been applied to avoiding conflicts inenvironmental management, merger and acquisitionissues, classroom pedagogy, themes of rewards andcompensation, the theory of constraints , Sun Tzu's

wri t ings , and management and leadership c oa ch r^ Jto name a few applications. 7 During the past frmr]years, the systems intelligence ap pro ach has be ^ -re-something of a movement in organizational lifeFinland, discussed even on the chief editorial page