Adaptive Cycle
Adaptive Cycle is a systems concept used to examine relationships, change over time, constraints, feedback, uncertainty, and the conseq
Connected language
Glossary
Clear definitions for the concepts used across systems thinking.
A
Agentic AI
Agentic AI uses models with goals, memory, tools, feedback, and control logic to perform multi-step actions in an environment.
AI Governance
AI Governance is a systems concept used to examine relationships, change over time, constraints, feedback, uncertainty, and the consequ
Algorithmic Monoculture
Algorithmic Monoculture is a systems concept used to examine relationships, change over time, constraints, feedback, uncertainty, and t
Anticipatory Governance
Anticipatory Governance is a systems concept used to examine relationships, change over time, constraints, feedback, uncertainty, and t
Automation Bias
Automation bias is the tendency to favor automated recommendations and reduce independent checking or contradictory evidence seeking.
B
Behavior-Over-Time Graph
A behavior-over-time graph plots an important variable across a relevant time horizon to reveal patterns requiring explanation.
C
Capacity Trap
Capacity Trap is a reinforcing pattern in which performance pressure consumes the time and resources needed to maintain or expand capability, causing further deterioration.
Carbon Lock-In
Carbon Lock-In describes how infrastructure, institutions, skills, investment, and expectations reinforce continued dependence on high-carbon systems.
Causal Loop Diagram
A causal loop diagram maps hypothesized causal relationships and feedback loops that may generate system behavior.
Circular Economy
Circular Economy is an approach that seeks to reduce virgin resource extraction and waste through durability, reuse, repair, remanufacturing, and material recovery.
Common-Pool Resource
A common-pool resource is difficult to exclude users from but is diminished by individual use.
Complex Adaptive System
A complex adaptive system contains interacting agents whose adaptation produces changing, emergent collective behavior.
D
Digital Twin
A digital twin is a digital representation linked by data to a physical or operational entity for monitoring, analysis, or control.
F
Feedback Loop
A feedback loop is a closed chain of causal influence in which a change eventually affects its own future state.
Food System Resilience
Food System Resilience is the capacity of food production, distribution, access, and governance to maintain essential functions, adapt, and recover during disruption.
G
Goodhart’s Law
Goodhart’s law describes how a measure can lose validity when it becomes a target that people are rewarded for optimizing.
Group Model Building
Group Model Building is a systems concept used to examine relationships, change over time, constraints, feedback, uncertainty, and the
H
Human-AI Feedback Loop
Human-AI Feedback Loop is a systems concept used to examine relationships, change over time, constraints, feedback, uncertainty, and th
I
Iceberg Model
The iceberg model organizes inquiry across events, patterns, system structures, and mental models.
Induced Demand
Induced Demand is additional use generated when added capacity, lower cost, or improved convenience makes a service more attractive.
J
Just Transition
Just Transition is a systems concept used to examine relationships, change over time, constraints, feedback, uncertainty, and the conse
L
Learning Organization
Learning Organization is an organization that builds the capability to question assumptions, learn from outcomes, share knowledge, and revise coordinated action.
Leverage Point
A leverage point is a place in a system where an intervention can meaningfully change patterns of behavior.
Local Optimization
Local Optimization occurs when one component improves its own metric or performance while reducing or failing to improve the performance of the wider system.
M
Model Collapse
Model collapse is degradation that can occur when generated data recursively enters training and narrows or distorts learned distributions.
Model Validation
Model Validation is a systems concept used to examine relationships, change over time, constraints, feedback, uncertainty, and the cons
Multi-Agent System
A multi-agent system contains multiple interacting agents whose coordination and competition produce collective behavior.
N
Network Effect
Network Effect is a systems concept used to examine relationships, change over time, constraints, feedback, uncertainty, and the conseq
O
Organizational Silo
An organizational silo is a boundary that restricts information, coordination, resources, or shared accountability across units.
P
Path Dependence
Path Dependence is a systems concept used to examine relationships, change over time, constraints, feedback, uncertainty, and the conse
Patient Flow
Patient flow describes movement through stages of care and the interacting demand, capacity, information, and discharge processes shaping it.
Policy Resistance
Policy Resistance occurs when people and organizations adapt to an intervention in ways that reduce, delay, or reverse its intended effect.
Polycentric Governance
Polycentric Governance is a systems concept used to examine relationships, change over time, constraints, feedback, uncertainty, and th
Problem Displacement
Problem Displacement is a systems concept used to examine relationships, change over time, constraints, feedback, uncertainty, and the
Psychological Safety
Psychological Safety is a shared belief that interpersonal risk—such as asking questions, reporting errors, or challenging assumptions—can be taken without humiliation or retaliation.
R
Rebound Effect
The rebound effect occurs when responses to improved efficiency offset some of the expected reduction in resource use.
Reference Mode
Reference Mode is a systems concept used to examine relationships, change over time, constraints, feedback, uncertainty, and the conseq
Rich Picture
Rich Picture is a systems concept used to examine relationships, change over time, constraints, feedback, uncertainty, and the conseque
Root Cause Analysis
Root cause analysis traces a failure toward contributory causes and corrective actions intended to reduce recurrence.
S
Scenario Planning
Scenario Planning is a systems concept used to examine relationships, change over time, constraints, feedback, uncertainty, and the con
Self-Organization
Self-organization is the emergence of coordinated patterns through local interaction without a central controller specifying the final form.
Sensitivity Analysis
Sensitivity Analysis is a systems concept used to examine relationships, change over time, constraints, feedback, uncertainty, and the
Social-Ecological System
Social-Ecological System is a systems concept used to examine relationships, change over time, constraints, feedback, uncertainty, and
Sociotechnical System
A sociotechnical system comprises interacting technologies, people, organizations, rules, incentives, and practices.
Stakeholder Mapping
Stakeholder Mapping is a systems concept used to examine relationships, change over time, constraints, feedback, uncertainty, and the c
Stock and Flow
A stock is an accumulation at a point in time; flows are rates that increase or decrease that accumulation.
System Boundary
A system boundary is an explicit analytical choice about what is included, excluded, or treated as external.
System Delay
A system delay separates a causal change from information, action, or visible outcome and can produce overshoot or oscillation.
System Dynamics
System dynamics is a modeling methodology for studying how stocks, flows, feedback, and delays generate behavior over time.
System Resilience
System resilience is the capacity to absorb disruption, adapt, and continue or restore essential functions.
Systems Archetype
A systems archetype is a recurring feedback structure used as a hypothesis for explaining common patterns of system behavior.
Systems Literacy
Systems literacy is the ability to recognize relationships, feedback, accumulation, delays, boundaries, and multiple perspectives.
T
Tipping Point
Tipping Point is a systems concept used to examine relationships, change over time, constraints, feedback, uncertainty, and the consequ
U
Unintended Consequence
Unintended Consequence is a systems concept used to examine relationships, change over time, constraints, feedback, uncertainty, and th
W
Water-Energy-Food Nexus
Water-Energy-Food Nexus describes the interdependence of water, energy, and food systems, where decisions in one domain alter demand, risk, and options in the others.
Wicked Problem
A wicked problem has contested definitions, interacting causes, conflicting values, and no final test of a complete solution.