In complex systems, nothing happens in isolation. When something shifts, it often loops back to influence what happens next. These loops are called feedbacks. Some feedbacks reinforce or accelerate change. Enthusiasm for a new practice attracts more people, which improves the practice, which attracts more users. Other feedbacks balance or dampen change. A thorough review slows a rushed decision so more evidence can be gathered, reducing the risk of unintended consequences.
Resilience thinking pays close attention to these loops. Where are reinforcing loops driving acceleration? Where are balancing loops providing stability? Both types are useful, and both can cause problems. Reinforcing loops can amplify harm as easily as benefit. Balancing loops can resist necessary change, keeping systems locked in patterns that no longer work.
Feedback can also be hidden or delayed. A policy shift might look effective at first, then generate unintended consequences months or years later as the system adjusts around it. What seemed like a solution creates new problems elsewhere.
Practical steps include mapping out possible feedback loops and creating opportunities for weak signals to surface through short learning cycles and early indicators. Track side effects alongside intended benefits. Where needed, insert a pause for review or invite a second perspective on risk. Steering by feedback is less about pushing harder and more about recognising and adjusting the loops that shape the system.
Something to chew on:
What feedback loops are shaping your work right now? Which ones could you strengthen or soften?
Resilience Bites offers weekly insights from the Australian Resilience Centre, drawn from decades of work alongside communities across Australia and internationally. Each Bite explores an aspect of resilience and closes with a reflective question to chew on.
Across the series we'll explore themes that shape resilience in practice, including place, patterns, networks, leadership, learning, feedbacks, thresholds and the deeper work of change.
This series is for people working in communities, landscapes, systems and change. It will help you learn key resilience concepts, apply them in practice and build our collective capacity to create resilient futures.
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