Systems Mapping - Getting Started

Learn how causal loop diagrams differ from general maps by modeling how changes in product quality affect customer satisfaction and demand through causal relationships and variables.

Build foundational skills in causal diagrams by distinguishing variables from map elements, interpreting directional arrows, and using simple examples like rain and snails to illustrate causal relationships and feedback loops.

Identify two types of causal relations—positive and negative—that show whether variables move in the same or opposite directions, forming the building blocks for causal loop diagrams.

Build a causal loop diagram by linking a key variable, such as student achievement, with factors like native ability, family stress, and school resources, noting positive and negative relations.

Explore real world causal maps, from Mumbai waste management to student smoking, showing how variables like waste, land, air pollution, health, and income interrelate to form complex systems.

Build systems maps bit by bit, starting with the central element, then add causal links and pluses and minuses while checking dynamics. Tell a coherent story that makes sense.

Explore feedback loops in the systems map, showing positive, self-reinforcing amplification and negative, balancing effects that stabilize ecosystems, society, and human relations through examples like predator-prey and crime and punishment.

Explore how negative feedback loops balance systems, showing how product quality, customer satisfaction, and demand interact across multiple pathways to return to equilibrium.

Explore how positive feedback loops amplify trends, from population growth and bacteria to a virtuous cycle in tourism infrastructure, revenue, and prices.

Explore behavior over time in systems mapping by examining positive and negative feedback loops, virtuous and vicious cycles, and how exponential growth or oscillations lead to equilibrium or crash.

Explore how system archetypes reveal positive feedback loops that drive observable outcomes, from arms races to poverty traps, through causal maps, systems thinking, and dynamic interrelationships.

Explore the shifting burden archetype in systems mapping, contrasting quick fixes with fundamental responses. See how time delays and side effects emerge in obesity, finance, waste, and relationships.

Illustrate how allocating resources to the successful creates a positive feedback loop that makes the rich get richer, while the unsuccessful lose ground and resources.