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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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Privacy Policy

This policy explains how Ursa Major handles personal information during early testing. We aim to follow Quebec’s Act respecting the protection of personal information in the private sector (Law 25) and applicable Canadian law.

  • Legal
  • 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.

Person responsible

Person responsible for the protection of personal information: Philip Oligny, reachable at philip.oligny@gmail.com. Send access, correction, withdrawal-of-consent, deletion and complaint requests there. We respond within 30 days.

What we collect, and why

  • Account details (email address, name) via our sign-in provider, to create and secure your account.
  • Workspace and canvas content you create: canvases and their hierarchy, blocks, connections, descriptions, costs, durations and delays, people and resources (including stated capacity and rates), risk entries and your settings, to provide the service to you.
  • Results the service calculates from that content, with their diagnostics, revision numbers and timestamps, to show you your own figures.
  • Technical data such as request logs and your sign-in session, to operate, secure and debug the service. Your browser also keeps a few display preferences locally on your device.
  • Your email address if you join the waitlist (handled by Clerk), to contact you about access to the testing service.
  • What you send us for support or feedback, by email or, once available, through a form we host on Notion, to answer you and improve the product (not to analyse your canvas content).

We collect only what is needed for these purposes and use it for nothing else without asking you first. We do not sell your information or use it for advertising.

By creating an account you consent to this collection and use. You can withdraw consent at any time by contacting us; withdrawing means we can no longer provide the service to you.

Who handles it, and where

Service providers process information on our behalf: sign-in and waitlist (Clerk), email for support requests (Gmail), support and feedback forms (Notion, once in use) and hosting and storage ([HOSTING PROVIDER]). Your information may be stored or processed outside Quebec, in [COUNTRY / REGION]. Before any such transfer we assess the privacy risks and rely on written agreements requiring protection comparable to Quebec law. [OWNER TO COMPLETE AND RECORD THE PRIVACY IMPACT ASSESSMENT.]

No artificial-intelligence features process your content at this time. We will update this policy and ask before that changes.

Retention and deletion

We keep your information while your account is active. On request, or when testing ends, we delete or anonymise it. [OWNER TO CONFIRM RETENTION PERIOD AFTER TESTING ENDS, INCLUDING BACKUPS.]

Your rights

  • Access your personal information and receive a copy, including in a structured, commonly used format.
  • Have it corrected if inaccurate, incomplete or equivocal.
  • Withdraw consent and request deletion.
  • Complain to us, or to the Commission d’accès à l’information du Québec.

Security incidents

We take reasonable measures to protect your information. If an incident presents a risk of serious injury, we will notify you and the Commission d’accès à l’information.

Please keep it light

During testing, avoid entering salaries, health information, customer personal data or other sensitive details about identifiable people, including your employees.