Ursa Major
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Get startedYour first canvasFill in a blockPeople, machines and capacityCalculate and read the figuresFix a problem

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Thinking in systems

A business is a systemA business is easier to read when you stop listing its tasks and start watching what builds up, what moves, and how long things take to move. This part introduces five plain ideas from systems thinking: stocks (what accumulates), flows (the rates that fill or drain them), delay (the gap between a cause and what you see), feedback loops (results that circle back and change what happens next) and cadence (the rhythm at which recurring work happens).Seeing what holds you backMost of what slows a business down is not visible on a normal day. Work waits between steps.Systems dynamics applied to businessA business changes through a few patterns: things that feed on themselves, things that push back, waits that make both overshoot, and limits that stop growth. This part applies stocks, flows, delay and feedback to two small businesses: referrals and the morning rush at a bakery, and rework, steel lead time and a bottleneck at a fabrication shop.

Working with the map

Two clocks: work and waitingEvery job in your business runs on two clocks: the hours someone works on it, and the time it takes from start to finish. The gap between them is waiting, and waiting is what customers feel and task lists hide.Ceremonies: what the rhythm costsA ceremony is a gathering that comes back on a rhythm: the morning huddle, the Wednesday order review, the month-end look at the numbers, the yearly planning day. Each one is small on the day it happens and large over a year, because the rhythm accumulates.ChunkingA chunk is a group of things you treat as one thing, so you can think about the group instead of every piece. Chess players, climbers and everyone planning a week do it all the time.Discipline and disciplined processA process written on a wall is a hope. A process that is repeated, on a rhythm, by the same people, in roughly the same way, is something you can look at, discuss and change.Adding up: cost, working hours and elapsed timeWhen you map a process you end up with figures on many blocks: hours of work, costs, durations, waits. It is natural to add them all up, but they do not all add the same way.

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About Ursa Major

Ursa Major is a visual canvas for mapping how your business runs: processes, who or what carries them, the hours and costs involved, and the delays and risks along the way.

  • Information
  • Updated 24 Oct. 2026

Ursa Major is available for testing purposes only. This document applies to the testing period, is provided in English only for now, and may change before any public release.

What it does and does not do

  • It shows structure and numbers you enter. You decide what they mean and what to do.
  • It does not score people, judge compliance or recommend cuts.
  • Cost figures are directional estimates from your inputs, not accounting.
  • It is a plan of record, not a system of record: it does not track what actually happened.

Early access

Ursa Major is in early testing. Features change, and data may be reset or lost during testing. Keep your own copy of anything you cannot afford to lose, and please avoid entering personal data about individuals (such as salaries) that you are not comfortable sharing in a test environment.

Contact

Questions, feedback or privacy requests: philip.oligny@gmail.com.