Systems thinking · 2/6
Draw relationships: arrows are hypotheses
Label direction, polarity and delays in causal hypotheses.
About 15–20 minutes. The following cases are fictional.
Record your first judgment
You draw “pressure → completions” without specifying whether quality is ignored.
Understand the judgment process
An arrow states the expected downstream response to upstream change, holding other conditions comparable. Same-direction is not good; opposite-direction is not bad.
A diagram is not causal evidence. Record a mechanism, observations and exceptions for each arrow. Drawing a line does not establish its claim.
Checks you can perform
- Use variable names that can increase or decrease.
- Inspect one influence at a time.
- State polarity and conditions.
- Record evidence and open hypotheses.
Guided practice
Do backlog → pressure → processing speed, both positive links, form a loop?
Explore the explanation
No. A path must return to its start. Speed might reduce backlog, but quality and rework must be examined.
Apply it in a new context
Label review frequency → forgetting, including a qualification.
Compare after attempting
An opposite-direction link is plausible for effective practice under comparable conditions. Spacing, difficulty and timing matter.
Preserve an intervention record
The editor expresses structure; it does not certify arrows or infer actual causation.
Check whether you supplied inspectable evidence, a feasible next step and intervention conditions. Revealing an answer is not mastery.
Source and scope
Daniel H. Kim — Causal Loop Construction: The Basics
The source provides conceptual or methodological background. Cases, steps and exercises are authored here; they are not the original experiment or evidence of this course’s effectiveness.
Completion is a personal record, not proof of mastery or certification.