The application of the eight systems archetypes in public health is explained using examples of health services with causal loop diagrams and stock and flow diagrams. Examples cover aspects such as hospital readmission (limits to success), childhood obesity (drifting goals), nurse burnout (fixes that fail), telehealth services (growth and underinvestment), waiting times in the emergency department (shifting the burden), care planning (escalation), cancer disparity (success to the successful), and water consumption (tragedy of the commons).