Success to the Successful

Named as a systems archetype in Peter Senge's The Fifth Discipline (1990) and restated in John Sterman's Business Dynamics (2000).

Describes how two efforts competing for one resource drift apart because the early leader keeps winning the allocation, so the gap comes from the rule more than from merit.

When to reach for it

A favored product, division, or rising star that keeps drawing resources while its rival starves, when the allocation rule may be producing the result.

How it runs

1. Name the two competitors and the resource they share.
2. Check whether allocation follows past performance.
3. Decide whether the runaway helps or hurts the organization.
4. If it hurts, change the allocation rule.
5. Consider protected funding for the trailing option.

Where it sits in SOLVE eX

• 3.3 Mapping the System Around the Problem
• 4.1 Root Causes and the Case for Going Back

Go to the source

• The Fifth Discipline, 1990
• Business Dynamics, 2000