RUNNING ROUND IN CIRCLES
Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Always a great debate. Never an obvious answer. That’s because there isn’t one. Chickens come from eggs and eggs come from chickens. So that particular question goes round and round. Lots of things do.
That’s why we have the study of Systems Theory. It’s a bunch of smart thinking about how things can impact other things and come together to make stuff better. Systems theory explores the idea that the sum is often greater than its parts. It's fascinating.
THE CIRCLE OF FEEDBACK
One of the key concepts in Systems Theory is the idea of feedback loops. This is where the outputs of a system impact its inputs. The system gives itself feedback and adjusts things accordingly. It's the fundamental to how we learn. You put your hand on something hot. Feedback tells you it hurts. You don’t do it again. A win for feedback.
THE CIRCLE OF SUCK
The most famous example of a feedback loop is the Vicious Circle. That’s where feedback reinforces a problem and makes it worse. It’s in the news right now. 'I can’t afford to buy a house. So I spend money renting someone else's. So I can't save for my own.' Vicious.
Vicious circles are everywhere. Especially relating to human emotion. ‘I feel sad so I don’t go to that party and so I feel more sad’. Or ‘no one wants to date me. So I think I’m undateable. So no one wants to date me.’ And it happens at work too. ‘I’m scared about this project. So I can’t think clearly enough to nail it. So it didn’t go great. So I’m more scared of the next one.’ Vicious, vicious, vicious.
The challenge of these emotional vicious circles is that nobody can change them, but you. The first step is to spot one (not always easy), the second is to change the way you think and react (always hard). But there’s a reason why The Secret is all about positive thinking. Positivity is kryptonite for vicious circles.
THE CIRCLE OF SUPERSTAR
The opposite of a vicious circle is a Virtuous Circle. 'I’m doing great so I feel great so I do even better.' It’s a nice place to be. And it plays out in lots of different ways. That person who does a great job on the cool projects is more likely to be chosen for the next one.
This ‘success to the successful’ phenomenon also turns top tunes into chart toppers. ‘That’s a great song, I’ll stream it. So it goes up the list. Then people choose tunes from the top of the list and it goes up even higher. And so on and boom, number one.’
The secret of catching a virtuous circle is learning from the learnings while looking for the wins. That’s why people are trained to view feedback as a ‘shit-sandwich’ (Commend, Recommend, Commend). But it’s also about how you choose to hear it. If you look for the shit in your shit sandwich, you’ll find it. If you look for the good stuff, you’ll find that too. Another easy win for positivity – and that matters, because how you take feedback is up to you.
THE SECRET OF CIRCLES
If the secret of success was as simple as positive thinking, everyone would thrive. And it’s really not that simple. Dig deeper into systems theory and there’s all kinds of complications, crossovers, confounding variables and random stuff. There isn’t a rulebook for life.
But there is a secret in the circles. They can be vicious and they can be virtuous and the biggest difference between the two is how you choose to play them.
That’s what I reckon, what do you think?
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