In Systems Thinking, a foundational concept is called Circles of Causality. To define it simply, it is a term to describe that every event or happening in a system is a cause and an effect, to every action there is a reaction, to which there is a reaction.
The understanding that every action causes a reaction forms the basis of Systems Thinking. The important thing to distinguish though is that the reactions of an action are not immediately obvious. It can be subtle. Over time these subtle reactions can cause very obvious negative or positive results.
Circles of Causality are typically described as two types of feedback, Reinforcing and Balancing Feedback. These two types of feedback go into a System and can be used to understand its current state.
