Rewoven

Gathered here

Welcome to the latest edition of Rewoven.

In this edition of Rewoven I’m looking at how we close feedback loops - yep I want to get into old school systems thinking. Our world is complex, it doesn’t lay flat and linear around us, it is messy, overlapping, intersecting and layered. I find the best way to think about the complexity is through systems. Systems thinking is a way of looking at our world that does not see it as flat or isolated, but rather as interconnected patterns that are shaped by our behaviours, relationships, and underlying structures.

At the heart of systems thinking lies the idea of a feedback loop. Feedback loops are the reinforcing and balancing cycles that influence how systems change and develop over time. Once we are able to recognise these loops we can shift how we design interventions. By staying agile we can swop reactive fixes for transformative change. If you are undergoing a strategic planning or organisational change process you gotta factor in feedback loops.

I tend to integrate systems thinking into my advisory work because it allows me, and the organisations I work with, to be more adaptable and sustainable, allowing you to work with the systems you want to transform.

Whether you’re leading change, navigating complexity, or simply trying to make your work more human and effective, I hope the system thinking tools included in this edition will inspire you.

Let’s stay in the weave.

The core thread

Systems Thinking, Systems Change

Trust me when I say it is easy to feel overwhelmed at the world right now. It feels like everywhere you look the world seems to be unraveling, all repeating the same cycles over and over again. So how do we get ourselves out of it? Where do we go from here?

A systems thinking approach reminds us that our social and ecological crises are not accidental, they are human made, and the result of ongoing systems like colonialism, capitalism, patriarchy that have been designed to concentrate power in the hands of some and dispossess power from the from the hands of many.

Feedback loops are the mechanisms that can either stabilise or amplify change and there are two main types:

• Reinforcing loops (positive feedback) amplify a process, amplify change.

• Balancing loops (negative feedback) work to bring a system back to equilibrium, meaning they counteract change.

Read more → Systems Change, Systems Thinking

Threads of change

The Water of Systems Change
A resource and webinar co-authored by Peter Senge, the father of systems thinking, in the article he revisits system change adding somewhat of a justice perspective that is missing from his earlier work.

Feminist Systems Thinking
Anne Stephans reviews the FST principles and the emergence of the ‘GEMs’ framework: the Gender equality, Environments and Marginalised voices framework and how the GEMs framework can be applied on a global scale with the UN’s Agenda 2030.

Restoring stabilizing feedback loops for sustainability
There is a growing disconnection between people and nature and that has eroded our ability to perceive and evaluate nature’s warning signals and respond to them in an appropriate manner. This article proposes way in which we can identify factors relating to stabilising feedback loops which arise as a critical systems-level intervention for sustainability.

Your turn to weave

Systems Mapping Toolkit

The System Mapping Academy has developed a great System Mapping Toolkit that is free to use on Miro.

Test it out here.

Tend the loom

Feeling stuck or spinning in circles?

Let’s untangle it together.
Book a free 30-minute session to explore one challenge you’re facing—and how a facilitated approach could shift the path forward.

Until next time,
Adanma