A field guide to
systems thinking

How things connect. Why they behave the way they do. And where to find the leverage for change.

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Every system tells
a story

Each concept comes with its own illustration - a dot-grid that shows what the idea does to a system. The healthy grid gets perturbed, and you can see the pattern.

Core building blocks
Feedback loops
Reinforcing loops accelerate change, balancing loops resist it - together they drive all system behaviour.
Systems archetypes
Fixes that fail
A quick fix that addresses the symptom but makes the underlying problem worse over time.
Core building blocks
Delays
The gap between doing something and seeing what happens - the source of most bad decisions in systems.
System behaviours and patterns
Emergence
When the whole does something none of the parts could do alone - behaviour that arises from interactions, not instructions.
System behaviours and patterns
Exponential Growth
When something grows by a percentage rather than an amount - it feels slow until it suddenly feels unstoppable.
Systems archetypes
Shifting the Burden
Relying on a quick fix so much that the ability to do the real thing slowly disappears.
System behaviours and patterns
Unintended Consequences
Every intervention in a system produces effects you didn't plan for - sometimes bigger than the ones you did.
Browse by theme

13 ways into
the territory

Systems thinking is a connected discipline. These themes are starting points, not boundaries - most concepts touch several.

Core building blocks
The fundamental components that make up any system. Learn these and everything else builds on top.
System behaviours and patterns
What systems actually do over time - the shapes you see when you step back far enough.
Systems archetypes
Recurring patterns that show up across wildly different systems. Once you can name them, you start seeing them everywhere.
Leverage and intervention
Where and how to intervene in a system to create change that sticks.
Complexity and uncertainty
The terrain where traditional planning breaks down and different approaches are needed.
Mental models and ways of seeing
How we think about systems - and the tools that help us see them more clearly.
Resilience, adaptation, and change
How systems survive, adapt, and sometimes transform into something entirely new.
Boundaries, perspectives, and power
Who gets to define the system, what's included, and whose interests are served.
Organisational and social systems
Systems thinking applied to the world of work, institutions, and collective action.
Measurement, signals, and sense
How we know what's happening in a system - and how measurement itself changes what happens.
Design and intervention approaches
Practical frameworks for working with systems, not against them.
Natural and ecological metaphors
Concepts from ecology and biology that illuminate how all systems work.
Human dimensions
The psychological and cognitive aspects of working with - or against - systems.
The map

See how everything connects

The interactive graph shows how every concept relates to every other - because the links between ideas are where the real insight lives.

Explore the connections