Cheat sheetFND-05

Systems Thinking

Foundations / Systems Thinking

See the whole, not the parts. Behaviour lives in interconnections; feedback loops, emergence, and mental models explain why local fixes go wrong.

system
SystemElements interconnected to produce a behaviour. Swapping a part rarely changes behaviour — it lives in the connections.
loops
Feedback loopsReinforcing loops amplify (growth/collapse); balancing loops stabilize. Delays cause overshoot and surprise.
emergence
EmergenceWhole-system behaviour unpredictable from any part. A traffic jam is not a property of one car.
models
Mental modelsSimplified beliefs about how the system works. Make them explicit; revise against feedback. Disagreement = clashing models.
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Before fixing a symptom, find the loop. Ask what structure produces the behaviour, and intervene there rather than on the symptom.

Symptom vs structureHeavy approvals cut incidents, then push devs to batch risky big releases — incidents return. Fix the structure, not the symptom.
Meta-skillCharacteristics (scalability) are emergent; hold each design as a current mental model, revised against feedback.
Behaviour lives in interconnections, not parts
Reinforcing = amplify; balancing = stabilize; delays surprise
Surface the mental model; revise against feedback
systemsfeedback-loopsemergencemental-modelsthe-whole
review in 6d