{"id":82184,"date":"2022-11-04T09:33:00","date_gmt":"2022-11-04T13:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=82184"},"modified":"2022-11-16T15:17:49","modified_gmt":"2022-11-16T19:17:49","slug":"feedback-loops-systems-thinking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/feedback-loops-systems-thinking\/","title":{"rendered":"Feedback Loops &#038; Systems Thinking: Think in Loops, Not Lines"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What is &#8220;systems thinking&#8221;? In what way is systems thinking superior to the conventional cause-and-effect pattern of thinking?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Systems thinking is a non-linear pattern of thinking that relies on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/feedback-loop-meaning\/\">feedback loops<\/a>. Systems thinking enables you to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-look-at-the-bigger-picture\/\">see the big picture<\/a> of any situation or event and predict how it will unfold in the future with better accuracy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here&#8217;s why you should think in loops instead of lines. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-what-is-systems-thinking\"><strong>What Is Systems Thinking? <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>People naturally think in linear, cause-and-effect relationships because they\u2019re clear and easy to understand.<strong> <\/strong>However, systems thinking relies on feedback loops. This means when you take an action, that action creates some effect; that effect eventually circles back around and influences the cause (you), often in an unexpected way. Studying feedback is how you see the effects of your actions on the entire system, rather than just the part of it your decision directly altered.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One example of a feedback loop is an investment bubble: Investors overvalue a company or industry and invest heavily in it, which drives up its value. That causes others to overvalue it even more and invest even more, creating a loop of accelerating investment. However, this loop doesn\u2019t last forever: Eventually, market forces catch up with the investment, the bubble bursts and the value plummets, and those investors unexpectedly lose a great deal of money.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Systems thinking through feedback loops could prevent you from being one of those unlucky investors\u2014an accurate view of the market as a whole, rather than a narrow view of a single skyrocketing investment, could help you avoid <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/bad-investments\/\">bad investments<\/a> or cash out before the bubble bursts.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What Does \u201cFeedback\u201d Mean Here?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Recall that Peter Senge is a systems scientist, and therefore a lot of the vocabulary in <em>The Fifth Discipline <\/em>comes from systems science rather than from business or marketing. In this case, he\u2019s discussing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.encyclopedia.com\/medicine\/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps\/feedback-systems\">feedback systems<\/a>, which are systems that monitor their own outputs and make changes to produce the desired result. As an example, the human body has numerous feedback systems regulating it, such as producing sweat if it detects that your body temperature is too high.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At its most basic, a feedback system needs a <em>sensor <\/em>to detect output, a <em>control center<\/em> to make necessary adjustments, and an <em>effector pathway <\/em>so that the control center\u2019s decisions can be put into practice. In an organization such as a business, various metrics serve as the sensors, and the decision-makers serve as the control center, making adjustments to the organization based on those metrics.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is &#8220;systems thinking&#8221;? In what way is systems thinking superior to the conventional cause-and-effect pattern of thinking? Systems thinking is a non-linear pattern of thinking that relies on feedback loops. Systems thinking enables you to see the big picture of any situation or event and predict how it will unfold in the future with better accuracy. Here&#8217;s why you should think in loops instead of lines.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":16504,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,9],"tags":[778],"class_list":["post-82184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-management","category-psychology","tag-the-fifth-discipline","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Feedback Loops &amp; Systems Thinking: Think in Loops, Not Lines - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Systems thinking is a non-linear pattern of thinking that relies on feedback loops. 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Here&#039;s why you should think in loops instead of lines.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/feedback-loops-systems-thinking\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-11-04T13:33:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-11-16T19:17:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/the-systems-thinker-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1707\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Darya Sinusoid\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Darya Sinusoid\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/feedback-loops-systems-thinking\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/feedback-loops-systems-thinking\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Darya Sinusoid\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46\"},\"headline\":\"Feedback Loops &#038; Systems Thinking: Think in Loops, Not Lines\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-11-04T13:33:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-11-16T19:17:49+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/feedback-loops-systems-thinking\/\"},\"wordCount\":435,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/feedback-loops-systems-thinking\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/the-systems-thinker-scaled.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"The Fifth Discipline\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Management\",\"Psychology\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/feedback-loops-systems-thinking\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/feedback-loops-systems-thinking\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/feedback-loops-systems-thinking\/\",\"name\":\"Feedback Loops & Systems Thinking: Think in Loops, Not Lines - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/feedback-loops-systems-thinking\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/feedback-loops-systems-thinking\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/the-systems-thinker-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-11-04T13:33:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-11-16T19:17:49+00:00\",\"description\":\"Systems thinking is a non-linear pattern of thinking that relies on feedback loops. 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