Deconstructing System Behavior - Reinforcement and Regulation

How to use systems thinking to deconstruct system behavior? We can start with two things: deepen our understanding of how the system works, and become familiar with system tools and related words (you can look at the first two articles: [What is "system thinking"?] and [Basic concepts of system thinking - Feedback " Feedback”] ) This article will combine the concept of feedback with causal loop diagrams and behavioral trend diagrams to illustrate the ground-enhancing process and adjustment process of system behavior.

Let's start with a few examples of system behaviors that exist in life:

1. A company's revenue index grows initially and begins to decline dramatically after a few years.
2. I lost five kilograms on a diet and regained my original weight, and then started to lose the same five kilograms and gained weight again...
3. When I first learned to ride a bicycle, I struggled to maintain my balance and eventually fell

The above three examples obviously seem unrelated, but they actually have something in common behind them - they can all be described through the process of enhancement and balance. More broadly, the processes of reinforcement and balance, which involve disparate feedback responses, are the basis for constructing the various behaviors of the systems that surround life.

Drivers of Growth and Decline: The Enhancement Process

The enhancement process can be interpreted as "positive feedback". Here, of course, positive feedback does not praise how perfect a thing is done, but conveys the concept that "when events develop in one direction, they will continue to strengthen in the same direction in the future".

Let's use a deposit account as an example.

Every time interest comes into the account, the deposit will be larger. More deposits bring more interest income, and more interest income will continue to accumulate in the account, and the cycle repeats. (provided we did not withdraw money from this account!)

To give another example -

The word-of-mouth marketing that marketers know and rely on. When the number of consumers increases, there are more "mouths" to share products that satisfy them, further increasing sales. And as the number of consumers increases, there will be more satisfied consumers who can't wait to share it with others.

Both of the above examples show a process of increasing dynamics where the dynamics continue to change in the same direction . Such loops are particularly easy to see in situations of exponential growth (eg a rapid diffusion of a new idea) or exponential decline (eg a company abruptly exiting the market). . Reinforcement can be seen as a "forward cycle" when good results are consistently produced, such as learning curves or increasing economies of scale; and when the reinforcement process causes bad behavior to recur and become more severe, it can be It is called a "vicious circle". Sometimes a positive cycle can turn into a vicious one. Judging from the example of word-of-mouth marketing mentioned in the previous paragraph, if more consumers in this loop share their disappointment with the product, sales will drop, and the number of consumers who gradually leave will continue to increase, thus forming a vicious circle.

The concept of the enhancement process introduced above is actually not unfamiliar. Usually, we will use sentences such as "little things will grow bigger and bigger like a snowball", "in a death spiral" and so on. But if we incorporate this familiar concept into feedback loop diagrams (also known as causal loop diagrams in the field of systems thinking), we can better understand them and respond more effectively to the challenges we encounter.

The Best Stabilizers: The Tuning Process

Life experience tells us that nothing grows forever (well...besides taxes), so of course there cannot be only enhancement processes within the system, we also need other expressions to show that these are not behaviors of exponential growth or decline. Although we often say how fast the times are changing, there are still many things in life that adjust and operate, just like the overall global economy is still developing steadily despite the ups and downs of each company's operation; although the world has been changing, But it is constantly adjusting and changing on a stable structure .

Like a thermostat in a home, the adjustment loop is designed to continuously maintain the system in a well-functioning condition. While the enhancement loop, which always snowballs things, tries to move the event out of the current equilibrium point, the adjustment loop is an effort to stabilize the status quo or move toward a goal. The adjustment loop does not change by operating in the opposite direction, as this would negate the effect already produced by the previous system (that is, it would become a negative feedback loop). For example, a thermostat doesn't stop supplying hot air just because it detects a temperature above room temperature.

There must be an endogenous goal in the adjustment process, and the key to driving the adjustment process is the "gap" between the actual situation and the ideal goal. As the status quo moves further and further away from the target, correct behavior within the system will help adjust the status quo and reduce the gap. In the case of the thermostat, the difference between the room temperature and the temperature set by the thermostat causes the thermostat to adjust the delivery mechanism of hot and cold air in the home. This process brings the room temperature closer to the ideal temperature. In summary, the adjustment process is an attempt to bring certain conditions into equilibrium.

In life, the process of adjustment is far more than the process of enhancement, and it can even be said to be omnipresent. However, because we are more likely to observe events of varying magnitudes, silent conditioning processes that maintain ideal conditions are more difficult to detect than reinforcement processes. Take body temperature as an example, usually, we will notice a change in body temperature because of a fever or hypothermia. Likewise, when do we pay attention to the operation of a car's engine? Most likely only noticed when it went off on its own. In the above two examples, there are actually countless adjustment loops to make the system work smoothly.

In an organization, the most common form of regulation loop is the control loop, such as "damage control", "inventory control" and so on. All management responsibilities can be accounted for by different regulatory processes. To be a good manager, you must first understand how to manage these adjustment loops. Sound a little hard to reach? The secret to really being a good manager is -- to pick out the factors that might cause the intervention, and then see which part of the system architecture caused the result. In conclusion, seeing the world in terms of enhancement loops and adjustment loops can help you develop some management skills, problem-solving skills, and more.

Replenish:

The graph shown below is a behavioral trend graph that can tell us how variables are changing, such as describing changing deposits, number of consumers, weight, and so on. And it also shows why a systemic process makes sense. A rapidly increasing or decreasing variable change map suggests an enhancement process, while a constantly fluctuating variable change map may indicate an adjustment process.

Source: Introduction to Systems Thinking — The Systems Thinker

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