Jig: XY Graph
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Derek & Laura Cabrera
Derek Cabrera (Ph.D., Cornell) is an internationally known systems scientist and serves on the faculty of Cornell University where he teaches systems thinking, systems leadership, and systems mapping and is Program Director for the Graduate Certification Program in Systems Thinking, Modeling, and Leadership (STML). He is a senior scientist at Cabrera Research Lab. Laura Cabrera (B.S., M.P.A, & PhD, Cornell) currently teaches Systems Thinking and Modeling and Systems Leadership at Cornell University at the Institute for Policy Affairs. She is also a senior researcher at the Cabrera Research Lab. Over the past decade, Cabrera has applied her expertise in research methods and translational research to increase public understanding, practical application, and dissemination of sophisticated systems science and systems thinking models.
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Derek & Laura Cabrera

Excerpt from the book: Systems Thinking Made Simple, Chapter 8
This blog is part of a set of blogs under the tag "cognitive jigs." Be sure to check out the tag to read them as a group and learn how cognitive jigs are at play in our everyday lives.
Graphs are immensely useful in every discipline of knowledge. Understanding DSRP not only reveals the implicit structure of graphs but also allows us to
extend graphs and to make them better. Figure 8.1 illustrates that every XY graph is a relationship between two systems (the system of X and the system of Y).

Figure 8.2 shows that X and Y are also systems made up of parts (e.g., the numbers on their axis), each of which are individual distinctions.

By combining the points illustrated in Figures 8.1 and 8.2, Figure 8.3 shows something surprising: every graph is actually an R-Channel (see Chapter 5). R-Channels are common cognitive jigs where the parts of two systems are being related. In addition, all graphs also have a root perspective and many graphs could benefit from using various perspectives to analyze them further.



