Archetype
Description
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In a balancing system, the system is naturally seeking stability - the system has
its own agenda - a self-correction to maintain some goal or target. If the
system's goal is one you like, you will be happy. If it is not, you will find all your
efforts to change matters frustrated - until you can either change the goal or
weaken its influence.
As A increases it causes B to increase. However an increase in B causes A to
decrease. If you use your hands to represent A and B, watch the see-saw in
motion, hence the name balancing loop. Behind every balancing loop is a
goal-seeking system. The system has an intended goal and you also notice the
current actual situation. If both are the same, then we do not have a gap. If
any one of them is different, then we experience a gap. When the system
experiences a gap, it now begins to drive actions that moves the 'current actual'
to begin to look like the intended goal. Notice that the directions of the arrows in
the 2nd figure look exactly the same as the first!
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Behaviour over
time
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The system rises quickly so as to
achieve the intended goal and when it
reaches the goal, it adjusts its' action
(often the system stops taking any
further action) so as to stabilize the
system at the intended goal.
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Commonly
used words or
early warning
symptoms
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"Feel for every step I take there is a counter-balancing effect."
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Example(s)
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This is a goal-seeking system, just like how an airconditioner with a thermostat
works. At anytime the room temperature (actual) varies from the thermostat
setting (goal), the gap between the two increases kicking (increases) the
airconditioner into action a series of steps to reduce the difference (the gap) in
the temperature to zero, bringing the temperature of the room to exactly the
same temperature as the setting of the thermostat. Most mechanistic systems
(iron, heating coil, etc.) works on this principle.
We can also see these loops in our mission statements. E.g. the mission of the
police force is to uphold the law, so as to keep peace in the country (do you
hear a balancing loop; the goal is to "keep peace in the country); the mission of
the military is to protect the sovereignty (goal) of the country; the judiciary
exists so as to 'uphold rightful citizenry' (goal).
Most regulatory systems (governed by rules and regulations, i.e. typically
government organizations) are balancing loops.
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Tips to note
when using
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What makes balancing processes so difficult in management is that the goals are
often implicit and no recognizes that the balancing process exists at all. The
state-controlled economy fails because it severs the multiple self-correcting
processes that operate in a free-market system. That is why corporate
managers fail. Though simple in concept, balancing processes can generate
surprising and problematic behaviour if they go undetected. Often balancing
loops are harder to see than reinforcing loops because it looks like nothing is
happening. It maintains the status quo even when all participants want change.
Whenever there is "resistance to change", you can count on there being one or
more "hidden" balancing processes. Resistance almost always arises from
threats to traditional norms and ways of doing things. Often these norms are
woven into the fabric of established power relationships. Artful leaders rather
than push harder to overcome resistance to change, discern the source of the
resistance and focus directly on the implicit norms and powerful relationships
within which the norms are embedded.
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What is the
thinking?
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“It feels it is growing with a view to seek out a goal and then it stabilises”
"It feels like needing "all the running you can do to keep in the same place"
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Managing the
intervention
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TO DESIGN SYSTEMS SEEKING STABILITY
Whereas snowballing effect of reinforcing loops destabilises system (that is, puts
them out of equilibrium), balancing loops are generally stabilizing or goal-seeking.
They resist change in one direction by producing change in the opposite
direction (compensating feedback), which negates the previous effects.
Intervention to overcome inertia:
To become aware the role (especially intrinsic) goals can have an impact on the
direction corrective actions may go. Until this goal is recognized, the change
effort is doomed to failure.
If balancing loops are not desirable, then learn to uncover and suspend the
intrinsic goals (our mental models) as a way to loosen its grip on one’s action.
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