When one is familiar with certain standard templates for how systems might work, they tend to reveal themselves much more readily in real life. I've noticed that recently, how systems templates jump out at me.
With "templates" I mean what can be expressed in the so-called "Causal Loop Diagrams", that is, simple stylized diagrams of different types of dynamics in a system. Peter Senge calls them "Systems Archetypes" in the book "The Fifth Discipline".
A very common one is the "Shifting the Burden" template. It goes like this:
*----------------------*
(+) | Symptomatic solution | --------------\
/---> *----------------------* -----\ |
| | |
| Balancing Loop | |
| | |
| *--------------------* (-) | |
\----- | | <-----/ Reinforcing
| Problem situation | |
/----- | | <-----\ Loop
| *--------------------* (-) | |
| | |
| Balancing Loop Delay |
| | |
| | |
\---> *----------------------* -----/ |
(+) | Fundamental solution | <-------------/
*----------------------* (-)
There is a certain Problem Situation. That might apply to one's personal life, to a company, or to the ecology of a planet. Something somehow sticks out as something unwanted that should be dealt with.
There is a Fundamental Solution that would really handle the problem, but it is a somewhat long-term solution that only gets to be effective through a delay, that is, it takes time to work.
There is an easier Symptomatic Solution that alleviates the appearance of the Problem in the short term. Since it is easier and appears to get results faster it might often be preferred over the more thorough Fundamental Solution.
The appearance of the Problem Situation creates a push for a solution, either symptomatic or fundamental. That is the two arrows with a (+) originating from the Problem Situation box. The (+) means an increasing influence, causing MORE of whatever it is that is pointed at.
Either the Symptomatic or the Fundamental Solution will lessen the Problem Situation, at least the appearance of it. That is the arrows with (-) going from the solutions to the Problem Situation. They signify an decreasing or weakening influence.
When the Problem Situation decreases there will be less of a drive to do something about it. It looks like it is being handled, so one doesn't think much about doing anything about it.
The appearance of the problem and the execution of a solution forms a balancing loop. The solution is applied when the problem goes above a certain level of discomfort or alarm, which will then bring the problem appearance down.
However, if it is just a Symptomatic Solution that is being applied, the Fundamental Solution might be ignored. No pressure is building up to undertake the deeper, more far-reaching Fundamental Solution.
The fact that one uses a Symptomatic Solution that appears effective will in itself decrease the chances that a Fundamental Solution is ever done. The long-term solution goes further and further out of reach the more one gets used to short term solutions. That is a reinforcing loop, the more you do it the worse it gets (or the better it gets if run the other way).
If you have a headache and you take an aspirin and the headache goes away, then you might just be happy with that and not worry about why you had a headache in the first place. Next time you get a headache, you just take another, because it worked in the first place. Pretty soon you will get used to it and always keep aspirin around and never look for a more fundamental solution to headaches. Taking aspirin will make it less and less likely that you actually adjust your health so that your body works right in the first place. To actually reverse the process and find and apply the fundamental solutions would probably mean that you would suffer through some headaches while the fundamental solutions are worked out and start taking effect. That might mean a change in lifestyle, as in eating or sleeping habits.
I spend part of my time doing personal counseling sessions with clients, and that is a good chance for noticing principles like that at work in people's lives. Yesterday I had a client who had the problem of being overworked at work, getting more and more to do. She didn't know what to do about it, and thought she just had to work harder and hope it got better. Her situation was roughly like this:
*----------------------*
(+) | Work harder & suffer | --------------\
/---> *----------------------* -----\ |
| | |
| Balancing Loop | |
| | |
| *--------------------* (-) | |
\----- | | <-----/ Reinforcing
| Too much work | |
/----- | | <-----\ Loop
| *--------------------* (-) | |
| | |
| Balancing Loop Delay |
| | |
| | |
\---> *----------------------* -----/ |
(+) | More people hired. | <-------------/
| Teach others to do | (-)
| the jobs needed. |
*----------------------*
When people left the company for one reason or another, she would naturally take over their work and make sure everything got done, without ever complaining. Also, when others didn't quite know what to do she would just do the job for them, thinking that it was better that she worked harder than that the others would have trouble.
Thus it became that she was now doing the work that was before done by three people. Management probably being very happy with her. The other employees were leaving stuff on her desk that they didn't know what to do with, and she would just quietly do it.
She didn't realize that by her behavior she was actually creating the whole cycle. She would do the work, so she wouldn't appear TOO overworked, and people would bring her more work. Management realized that it didn't seem to matter that they fired a couple of people, the work still got done, so no reason to bother hiring somebody new. And really, what she was doing was not just being "nice". She was postponing the actual solution of her problem, which would be that she let her supervisors know that more people were needed, and she started delegating some of her skills to others. It was, paradoxically, "easier" for her to just "suffer quietly and work harder" than to deal with the issue and talk with others about the organization of work.
By realizing to her great surprise how the system worked, she enthusiastically went back to work to act differently and to work on the more fundamental solution.
The "Shifting the Burden" pattern is pervasive on many levels of our society. It is also a key ingredient in ecological matters. We have often avoided confronting the underlying issues because there are quick short-term fixes.
For example, the fact that a garbage truck arrives every week to take away your garbage is a Symptomatic Solution that tends to keep you from getting very worried about what really is going on:
*----------------------*
| The garbage truck |
(+) | takes it away. | --------------\
/---> *----------------------* -----\ |
| | |
| Balancing Loop | |
| | |
| *--------------------* (-) | |
\----- | There is | <-----/ Reinforcing
| Garbage in your | |
/----- | kitchen. | <-----\ Loop
| *--------------------* (-) | |
| | |
| Balancing Loop Delay |
| | |
| | |
\---> *----------------------* -----/ |
(+) | Viable management of | <-------------/
| the resources | (-)
| of society. |
*----------------------*
Imagine if there were no garbage truck coming every week, if nobody were invisibly carting away your refuse and stacking it up in landfills to be a problem for future generations. You would become VERY motivated to create a more permanent solution and you would be very inspired to manage your own resources better. The existing short-term solution (garbage trucks, landfills) keep attention away from the true solutions, because the smelly garbage in your kitchen keeps disappearing.
By participating in a "Shifting the Burden" pattern, and by continuously choosing the simple, short-term, symptomatic solution, you are in effect CAUSING the perpetuation of the pattern as much as any other part of it is.
Only by becoming exposed to the whole set of cycles will you start taking responsibility for the whole system and start working on more fundamental solutions to the issues involved.
- Flemming