Could A Systems Thinking Approach Change my Life?

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

paradigm, feedback loops, thinking, system, balancing, leverage, loops, rat race, employee, reboot, money, positive feedback, mind, growth, reinforcing, obstacles, negative feedback, reach, adopt, interest

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Could a systems thinking approach change my life? In a short answer yes. Stick with me for today's episode where I'll show you how a systems thinking approach can help you leverage the most effective ways to overcome obstacles and reach your dreams much faster.

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The following was recorded in front of a live studio audience FL Studio 21 podcast cafe. This is the United Podcast Network.

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Welcome to rat race reboot. I'm your host Laura Noel. And as a certified coach and former 27 year military leader each week I provide bite sized mindset pivots that will help you reset your mind reawaken. Your Spirit and we gain your control. Good morning, good afternoon, wherever you are in the world. I'm grateful you're here and we're here today talking about systems thinking, a different approach a different way of thinking that I can I think can help you leverage the right opportunities. That's what rat race reboot is all about. It's about understanding your mind how to leverage the right opportunities so you're not in the rat race, and you're moving a lot farther, a lot faster, maximizing your potential. So system what is a system so I think think about a simple stock flow. You know, we have input, the system, and then the output. So if you think about car manufacturing, you've got computer components, that's the input, and then the manufacturing plant is the system and then the output is a car. Your body has several systems. We have our digestive system, our muscular system, our nervous system, and I also like to think about your mind as a system so you have your opportunity or an idea or a goal and that system is the lens through which you see the world is your paradigm or your corporate culture, and then the output is your results. Now, if you take those systems, that's a really simple depiction of a system. And if you continue through that a you know input system output kind of mechanism, you're going to reach status quo continually because there's no obstacles or challenges. And that's what happens for a lot of people is they, they want to be stable, and there's no such thing as stability. If you remember the law of vibration seats, that everything is in constant change and constant motion, we live in an ocean of motion. So there's no such thing as stability. We're either in a state of Growth, or a state of decay. And so when we are just thinking linearly we're we're and we're not really incorporating any ebbs and flows or any obstacles or challenges or changing our system in any way that can keep us stuck in a prison of our own making. So I want to introduce the idea of

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into her book, Donna Meadows was thinking and systems a primer. She talks about 12 Different leverage points in systems and leverage points are just points of power. That oftentimes can seem counterintuitive, but they can help you move forward a lot quicker. Feedback loops are one of those leverage points and feedback loops consist of reinforcing loops and balancing loops and those in and of themselves are a leverage point. And I love the quote here she says, reinforcing loops are reinforcing feedback. It's a vicious circle that can cause healthy growth or runaway destruction. That's pretty powerful. If you think about money in your bank, so you have money in savings and that earns interest. And the more money you put in, the more interest you earn, and the more money you have. So it's a continuous cycle. So the cycle is building on itself. It's a reinforcing loop. And that's a positive look at how a reinforcing loop can help cause growth. But if you take the other side of this money in the bank, you overspend and you need to use your credit cards and then you're charged interest. So then you have less cash because you're paying the bill plus interest and then you get stressed that you use the card more and the interest compounds it accumulates and it spins out of control. So another example at work is the relationship between a supervisor and an employee. So that supervisor might provide positive feedback, positive reinforcement and then that employee does better at at work and then they get the positive feedback and then they continue performing. The other side of that is through to if maybe if that supervisor is providing negative input or negative feedback, and then it affects the employees attitude and when their performance declines and then they get more negative feedback and it's again, a self fulfilling prophecy. So not many feedback loops continue going on and on and on and on in perpetuity and until they explode or implode or there's something that takes effect, a balancing that helps kind of bring things back into balance. So if you think about a thermostat in your home, that regulates the temperature in your home so that's how it works. So if you take the employee situation, there could be a balancing move here. So you have the positive feedback of the supervisor there giving the employee positive feedback, and that fuels his performance or for performance. And so after a while that employee might experience burnout. Maybe they're a people pleaser, maybe, you know, they're just doing all of the things all of the time and they're just becoming exhausted, so their performance starts to decline. And then we have equilibrium.

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So instead of thinking about you know, a causes see so how employee sort of thinking that employee feedback causes employees behavior, instead of thinking linear systems thinking gets you to think a little bit deeper. It gets you to ask the question and I have some things down here. How might be employee performance cause a negative feedback? Or how might a negative feedback, reinforce or mitigate the poor performance and if you take it in the context of money How can a so instead of thinking I have no money in the bank, so therefore, it's causing D debts with cumulate? Think about how Mike D debts cause a not having any money. So there's other groups that could be at play other balancing loops, like compound interest, or stress spending, for example. So how might a having no money reinforce or mitigates be having more debt in the bank and it could be maybe you cut back maybe you work more, maybe you ask for a raise. So those are balancing loops that bring everything back into balance. But what's important here is your system will determine the direction of these feedback loops. So that brings me to another important leverage point and that is the system itself or in the context of the mind or thinking, our paradigm or our corporate culture. And it's interesting because your paradigm and that system, that influences you know, Donella Meadows talks about 12 Different leverage points that you could leverage within an organization to get you moving farther, faster. But paradigm influences about 10 of those. So if you can really hone in on your thinking and your paradigm, you can cut to the chase a lot faster and have some massive impact in your results. So when it comes to the system, your paradigm again, that's going to determine the speed and the rate at which these feedback loops get into motion that as she mentions that healthy growth or runaway disruption. So think about your paradigm.

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You have a healthy system, a healthy paradigm, a healthy self image, and let's take it into the context of everyday life. Let's take for example somebody that who wants to get in shape or who wants to lose weight and they have a healthy system. They have a healthy paradigm and self image and they have all the tools they have the workout plan they have the the fitness instructor, they have the nutrition plan, everything all of that dialed in and they see themselves as capable, as worthy as beautiful. Maybe they even see themselves as an athlete. So the more fit they get the greater their confidence, the more they continue to adopt healthy habits until a balancing loop comes into play. Maybe they reach their goal, or they set another goal. So let's take the same scenario with a person who doesn't have a healthy paradigm or a healthy mind. system. And so they have the same resources. They have the same fitness instructor, the same nutrition plan, the same workout. They have all the tools at their disposal. The only thing that's different is their system, their mind system, it's not as healthy. So maybe they see themselves as not being worthy, or lacking or like this is going to be too difficult for them. So a balancing loop comes into play. Remember that thermostat that I talked about earlier? That's a balancing loop in your home. So just like the thermostat controls the temperature of your home your paradigm and that system controls the temperature of your light. So what will happen is that person will lose weight because they change their behavior. But over time, that balancing group operating within the paradigm itself, it's undetectable, will pull them back to their setpoint to the wait, they lost. No fine. Okay, and that's a sad state of affairs to be in. So shifting your paradigm, your paradigm is paramount here. It's your path of least resistance to reaching your goal or your corporate vision. is not necessarily in changing the process itself isn't changing the underlying cause of results, which is the paradigm so as Buckminster Fuller says, You got to build a new model that makes the old one obsolete. So linear thinking, my plan cause weight gain or for me to fall off the track a cause v. And sort of do not think about some of the feedback loops that might be at play. Those feedback loops will offer us clues as to what paradigms are prevalent in your thinking so where does the plan breakdown for example, Did I hit snooze instead of working out? Well, why? I wasn't motivated. Well, why? Because I failed with this before. Well, why? Because I feel unhealthy. So if you start asking yourself, why I love to exercise the five why's you can start drilling down to uncover some on conscious thought patterns that might be holding you back. The key here is you've got to understand what is systems thinking that to understand feedback loops. First and foremost. That those are operating system, they're governed by the operating system of your mind, you got to understand that they're there to begin with, instead of thinking linearly. You've got to understand that there are other things at play and be willing to ask yourself the difficult questions and drill down. You've got to understand also that the root cause of your results is your paradigm that comes from the corporate culture. That's the underlying cause of a lot of these feedback loops and a lot of these leverage points whether they're effective or ineffective. And then you've got to make a decision, change the paradigm and get help in doing that. Because we all have blind spots. There are a lot of things There's more than meets the eye more than meets the eye. When it comes to systems thinking and when it comes to the decisions we make, you know, these feedback loops, they alter the decisions we make our paradigms alter the decisions we make, and our paradigms, alter the feedback loops and balance the loops that we allow ourselves to even get pulled into. It's a really interesting thing. So if you want to learn more about that, I encourage you to get some support. If you want to have a conversation with me in terms of where some of your blind spots see where some of these feedback loops operating where can you leverage some of these points within your system to maximize your potential and your growth? Then get on a call with me we'll put my calendar in the show links. You can also subscribe to rat race, reboot calm and get connected that way or even find me on LinkedIn

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message me. Let's get into a conversation and get you moving forward faster. All right. So as we end every episode of rat race reboot, I want to get you connected with your vision for your future. If you got thinking about some of your paradigms that might be holding you back. Get thinking about what would you rather do? What would you rather see happen in your organization? Don't get caught up in the hell right now. Let's get into a dreaming stage. Now. I always end the session with taking inspired action, getting in harmony with your goal or your vision for what you want to create in the future. So let's do that right now. So take a deep breath in through your nose. Hold it and then exhale fully and completely. Letting go any thoughts that aren't serving you anymore? Express of the day.

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Take another deep inhale and exhale. Take one more deep inhale and exhale fully and think about what you might like to create in your life

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or in your organization. And if you see some habitual behaviors that you're adopting, or you've adopted, ask yourself is this behavior is this thing that I'm about to do? Serving my highest goal and if you find that that activity that you're about to do is a habit, you don't really know why you're doing it, you'll recognize that it's become a part of your paradigm. But the good news is, is you get to change your paradigm and get it back in alignment with what you truly desire and what you know is possible.

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So what do you want but not to my time How does it feel being a part of the senior working

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how do you want it could impact your habits and how does it feel working in the exact type of environment that energizes you?

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And what are some more empowered ways that you could be thinking okay. What are some more productive paradigms? You could adopt right now? If there were some obstacles

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as ideas float to the top of your mind Welcome back, everybody. I hope that was helpful for you. And this is one of the things that we do after every episode of rat race reboot where we get connected with a vision of what we truly want to create. And when we're in that space in that headspace, and we can feel what it feels like through our five senses. And we have ideas or flashes of inspiration. Those ideas and inspirations are in harmony with what you want to create some pacing down in action on them. And if you have questions or need support, definitely reach out to us at rat race, reboot comm book a call on my calendar or reach out to me. I'm excited that you were here joining us today and I look forward to seeing you next week. Remember, everything's created twice. First. In your mind. And then in physical form. I'll see you next week.

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The views and opinions expressed by the hosts guests or callers of this program do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the studio 21 podcast Cafe the United Podcast Network its partners or affiliates.