Scientific Definition
Below visible events sit patterns, structures, and mental models — each layer more leveraged than the last.
Plain-English Definition
Below visible events sit patterns, structures, and mental models — each layer more leveraged than the last.
Feynman Explanation
Reacting to events is firefighting. Changing mental models is system change.
Core Principle
Below visible events sit patterns, structures, and mental models — each layer more leveraged than the last.
Mechanisms
Pending editorial review.
Below visible events sit patterns, structures, and mental models — each layer more leveraged than the last.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Quarterly reviews almost always operate at the event layer. Strategy lives below.
Inputs (Triggers)
Pending editorial review.
Outputs (Behaviors)
Pending editorial review.
Behavioral Signature
Reacting to events is firefighting. Changing mental models is system change.
Examples
- Used across systems thinking, public health, and climate policy.
- Quarterly reviews almost always operate at the event layer. Strategy lives below.
Pending editorial review.
Famous Experiments
Pending editorial review.
Design Principles
- For any recurring problem, ask: what patterns? what structures? what beliefs? Intervene at the deepest layer you can reach.
Measurement Approaches
Pending editorial review.
Evidence
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
The Perverse Incentive Lens™
How this behavior is exploited — and how to redesign around it.
- For any recurring problem, ask: what patterns? what structures? what beliefs? Intervene at the deepest layer you can reach.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Interactive Mini Network
Click any neighbor to re-center the graph and follow the threads of connection.
Knowledge Graph Neighbors
Auto-linked to the rest of the Human Behavior Taxonomy by family, domain, dimension, and shared keywords.
Combining substances to create a new material stronger than its parts.
A single constraint limits the throughput of an entire system.
A system's throughput is constrained by its single slowest step.
Small visible disorders signal that bigger ones will be tolerated.
Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later.
Adding people to a late project makes it later.
A substance that speeds up a reaction without being consumed.
Nonlinear systems are highly sensitive to initial conditions.
Inputs combine under conditions to produce new outputs — sometimes irreversibly.
Software architecture mirrors org structure.
Working together has a cost that scales with the number of people.
The threshold at which a system becomes self-sustaining.