Limits to Growth – A reinforcing loop encounters a balancing loop; growth slows down, and additional efforts do not help.

Goal Drift – The goal is lowered to match the current level because it is easier to reduce the goal than to achieve it.

Fixes that Fail – A symptomatic solution provides temporary relief, but the problem eventually returns.

Addiction (Shifting the Burden) – The symptomatic solution undermines the ability to solve the problem fundamentally.

Escalation – An arms race where each side intensifies its actions against the other, until everyone suffers.

Success to the Successful – The winner gains resources for further victories, while the loser becomes weaker.

Tragedy of the Commons – Everyone uses a shared resource until it is depleted.

Develop thinking in terms of both large‑scale and small‑scale quantities.

Develop probabilistic thinking.

Develop thinking in dualisms (opposites).

Develop thinking in terms of effects.

Identify recurring patterns.

Perceive the structure and structural elements within phenomena and objects.

Distinguish the long‑term order of system changes and evaluate outcomes by their effects.

See explicit and implicit connections between elements of phenomena and objects.

Identify key (system‑forming) factors.

Determine factors that stabilise and destabilise the system.

Distinguish linear and hierarchical interrelationships.

Request and analyse multi‑dimensional feedback.

Normalise (calibrate) feedback delay.

Create models (maps, diagrams, graphical schemas) of systems.

See multiple solutions and think in terms of multiple possible outcomes.

Shift frames, methods, and strategies for examining a system.

Perform reframing of the system.

Engage in long‑term planning.

Identify complex patterns over extended time intervals.

Every element of a system acquires, in addition to its own properties, some of the properties of the system as a whole.

Not all interconnections between elements of a system are obvious or easily noticeable.

A change in one element of a system leads to a change in the entire system.

A system is influenced by both internal and external factors.

Larger systems influence the changes occurring in smaller ones.

As it evolves, a system moves from one stable state to another.

The degree of influence of an element on the system is determined by the number of its interconnections with other elements.

The speed of change in a system is determined by the speed of its slowest element.

Interactions between elements in a system are patterned: they recur in a strictly defined sequence at strictly defined time intervals.

Interactions can be of short‑range and long‑range order.

The more elements are involved in a single pattern and the more complex their interaction, the longer the feedback delay.

The processes occurring within a person, between people, and in the environment are systemic. Our bodies, communities, and the universe are an ecology of complex systems and subsystems that continuously interact and influence one another.

It is impossible to completely isolate any part of a system from the rest of the system. Interactions between people form feedback loops, as a result of which a person experiences directly the consequences of their actions on others.

Systems are self‑organising and tend toward a natural state of balance and stability.

To describe a system, one must step outside its boundaries.

No reaction, experience, or action has meaning outside its context or outside the response it elicits. Any behaviour, experience, or reaction can serve as a resource or a limiting factor, depending on how well it aligns with the rest of the system.

Not all interactions within a system occur at the same level. What is positive at one level may turn out to be negative at another. It is useful to separate the positive intention, function, belief, etc., that drive a given action from the action itself.

Any behaviour has (or has had) a positive intention at certain levels. It is perceived (or was perceived) as positive and acceptable in the context where it developed, and from the point of view of the person performing the action. It is much easier and more productive to respond to the intention than to the problematic behaviour.

The environment and contexts change. The same action will not always produce the same result. Successful adaptation and survival require a certain degree of flexibility. The level of flexibility is proportional to the variability of the rest of the system. As the system becomes more complex, a greater degree of flexibility is required.

If your actions do not lead to the desired result, change your behaviour.

People respond to their own perception of reality.

Every person has their own individual map of the world. No single map – no single reflection of the world – is more “authentic” or “real” than any other.

The meaning of communication lies in the response it elicits, regardless of the communicator’s intentions.

The wisest and most “friendly” maps are those that offer the broadest and richest range of choices, not those that are most “authentic” or “accurate.”

People already possess (at least potentially) all the resources they need for effective action.

If at least one person can do something effectively, then others can learn to do it as well.

Any behaviour – even the most cruel, insane, or unimaginable – represents a choice from the possibilities and capabilities of the person, as determined by their model of the world.

Change occurs when appropriate resources are released or activated within a specific context, through enriching that person’s map of the world.

Emergence – the property whereby the system manifests characteristics that are inherent only to the whole system and are fundamentally absent in its individual parts, making it impossible to detect these properties by breaking the system down into components.

Boundedness – the system is separated from its environment by boundaries.

Wholeness (Integrality) – the property of the system as a whole, which is fundamentally irreducible to the sum of the properties of its constituent elements.

Structurality – the property whereby the system’s behaviour is determined not so much by the characteristics of individual elements, but by the properties of its structure (connections).

Interdependence with the environment – the property whereby the system forms and manifests its properties in interaction with the environment.

Hierarchy – the property that implies a subordination of elements within the system.

Multiplicity of descriptions – the property whereby, due to its complexity, the understanding of a system requires multiple descriptions of it.

The power to transcend paradigms – The ability to step outside and go beyond the current paradigm.

The mindset (paradigm) out of which the goals, structure, rules, delays, and parameters of the system arise.

The goals of the system.

The power to add, change, evolve, or self-organise the structure of the system.

The rules of the system (incentives, punishments, constraints).

The structure of information flows (who has access to information and who does not).

The gain around driving reinforcing (positive) feedback loops.

The strength of balancing (negative) feedback loops relative to the effects they are trying to correct.

The length of delays relative to the rate of system change.

The structure of material stocks and flows (transportation networks, population age structure).

The size of buffers and other stabilising stocks relative to flows.

Constants, parameters, numbers (subsidies, taxes, standards).

Periodic recurrence and even predictability;

Presence of a pattern (scenario) of unfolding;

Involvement of elements from different levels and subsystems;

Presence of opposing (conflicting) motives among elements;

The solutions found provide only temporary results, eliminating only the symptom;

The solutions used have a negative cumulative effect;

Gradually, the problem escalates into a chronic one or into a more complex one.

Reinforcing (Positive) – Amplifies the initial change in the same direction. Leads to exponential growth or decline (snowball effect).

Balancing (Negative) – Counteracts the change, returning the system to its target point. Provides stability and self‑regulation.

Anticipatory (Feedforward) – the future influences the present:

• Self‑fulfilling prophecy (balancing anticipation) – Expectation of an event pushes the system toward its realisation.

• Self‑defeating prophecy (reinforcing anticipation) – Expectation of an event steers the system away from its realisation.

Proportional links – Both elements change together (reinforcing) or in opposite directions (balancing).

Summing and subtracting links (flow‑level links):

• Summing (reinforcing): the flow always increases the level. 

• Subtracting (balancing): the flow always decreases the level.