ABSTRACT
This chapter explains how to turn a set of systemic issues into a core conflict in order to identify the constraint or main problem in the system. It describes the issues in a simple nonemotional, nonconfrontational manner. The chapter reviews how an issue must be defined as an undesirable effects (UDEs). An issue or UDE creates a want or an action or a condition as the result of a want or an action. The chapter introduces the idea of a Negative Branch Reservation and a positive branch. A negative branch helps us to visualize the negative and/or unintended consequences of an UDE or an action that we want to take. The chapter provides a discussion on an elaborate branch called the current reality tree (CRT) that consists of a logically connected set of UDEs. Making a single CRT with a unifying root out of disconnected sets of UDEs needs additional work and knowledge of an additional tool called a Cloud.
