These dynamics work together to improve how organizations understand situations, make decisions, and adapt over time. System dynamics helps reveal the structural causes affecting outcomes. Perceptual dynamics helps explain how people interpret situations, align, resist, or collaborate. Learning dynamics helps organizations build capability continuously through feedback, interaction, and real-world application. Combined with dynamics-driven practices and an awareness of uncertainty, this creates a system that can both identify more effective actions and adapt as conditions change. Instead of relying on rigid methods or trial-and-error alone, organizations develop the capability to continuously improve how they work, learn, and create value.
System Dynamics
System dynamics focus on how work, structures, dependencies, delays, feedback loops, and incentives interact to affect outcomes over time. Many organizational problems are not caused by individual people, but by the way the system itself operates. Small changes in workload, coordination, policies, or flow can create large downstream effects that are often difficult to see without a systemic perspective. By understanding system dynamics, organizations can identify the underlying causes of bottlenecks, rework, delays, and instability rather than repeatedly reacting to symptoms.
Perceptual Dynamics
Perceptual dynamics focuses on how people interpret situations, make meaning, communicate, and respond to what is happening around them. Two people can experience the same event very differently depending on their assumptions, language, goals, and prior experiences. What is often labeled as resistance, conflict, or poor collaboration is frequently the result of differences in interpretation rather than unwillingness to improve. By understanding perceptual dynamics, organizations can improve alignment, reduce misunderstanding, communicate more effectively, and create conditions where people are more receptive to learning and change.
Learning Dynamics
Learning dynamics focuses on how capability develops over time through experience, interaction, feedback, reflection, and practice. Learning is not simply the transfer of information. People learn differently depending on context, timing, emotional state, workload, and whether they can immediately apply what they are learning. Traditional training often separates learning from real work, making it difficult for new capabilities to stick. By understanding learning dynamics, organizations can create environments where capability develops continuously through practical application, guided support, shorter feedback loops, and real-world problem solving.
add foundations to this page.
Coaching and Learning
Mini Lessons
Note: some links go to a google book. If it doesn’t take you to the start of the chapter you search for it.
While it’s not effective to tell people to do, merely asking questions to get them to figure things out themselves isn’t as effective as it could be either. The intention of coaching is not to convince someone of what is right. It is to guide them in convincing themselves of what is more effective for them. Doing this quickly is important because otherwise people may flounder.
This session introuces a breakthrough method in coaching concepts in addition to coaching improvements. Al Shalloway introduces his coaching method developed in the 90s based which now extends the Toyota Coaching Kata.
The distinction between training, consulting, and mentoring is artificial. We must always be looking to improve. In some sense, starting a new initiative is just the next step. What’s important is always to be looking to improve via better decision-making, collaboration, and learning.
It is no longer sufficient to provide 2 to 3-day workshops and then leave people to fend for themselves. That’s one of the many reasons so many companies are having difficulty with Agile adoptions.
Amplio integrates a breakthrough method in coaching concepts in addition to coaching improvements. Al Shalloway introduces his coaching method based on the Toyota Coaching Kata while integrating what he calls Automatic Interpretive Reframing. A.I.R. is how people listen, react, learn, and resist (see below).
See a seminar on it here.
See the learning journey that’s part of the Amplio Learning Center here.
Automatic Interpretive Reframing
Automatic Interpretive Reframing is the near-instant cognitive process in which a listener unconsciously reinterprets a speaker’s words through their own mental models, assumptions, and language patterns—often distorting the intended meaning. Instead of grasping what the speaker is actually trying to communicate, the listener frames it in terms of what makes sense to them. This reframing isn’t deliberate; it’s an automatic act of fitting unfamiliar or ambiguous input into familiar categories. It’s a major source of miscommunication, particularly when people hold different roles, worldviews, or expertise.
How the words said are interpreted are highly influenced by the listener’s past experiences – especially emotional and traumatic ones. These interpretations are often not logical.
One implication of A.I.R. is that people are listening to their internal dialog about what you said. And not actually about what you said.
Recognizing and countering automatic interpretive reframing is crucial for clear dialogue, effective coaching, and systems thinking. Doing so enables you to see how what you are saying may be being mis-interpreted as well as allowing you to see you may be mis-interpreting what you are hearing.
A full article on Automatic Interpretive Reframing is here.
Continuous Learning
In the same way product development on a continuous cycle is critical, so is learning.
This is one reason Amplio integrates how to learn and coach in it. It’s not an afterthought, it’s part of the Amplio System.
Amplio’s core method of learning is using Deming’s Plan-Do-Study Act cycle coupled with John Boyd’s OODA Loop.
These two together provide a method of improving our practices while deepening our understanding.
Here are two related posts:
Attend to people’s “ego description.”
A part of AIR is a person’s ego description – the actions and beliefs they have that soothe their ego.
That is, makes them feel good about themselves.
Anything that makes them uncomfortable may have their ego feel like it’s an attack.
While job descriptions are conscious, ego descriptions are sub-conscious and automatic.
People have no control over it directly, although they can work to lessen the effect of their ego over time.
It is part of people’s automatic, interpretive reframing – the unconscious process by which people filter, interpret, and react to what they hear or observe based on prior experiences, beliefs, and emotional states.
An example “ego description” could be:
- They have to know what’s going on.
- They have to be right.
- They are responsible for their people – they reflect on the manager.
- Must be decisive
- What they are aware of changes.
- Must solve problems.
Understanding that people are at the effect of their automatic interpretive reframing is critical for effective coaching.
Which is why I embed it in how to coach in all of Amplio’s learning journeys.
Paradigms are important
A paradigm is a comprehensive model or framework that shapes how people perceive, think about, and act within a given domain. It defines what is considered valid knowledge, what questions are worth asking, what methods are legitimate for answering them, and how results are interpreted. In essence, a paradigm provides the underlying assumptions, values, and conceptual structures through which a community makes sense of reality—it is the “lens” that organizes understanding and guides behavior. When paradigms shift, the world itself seems to change, not because facts differ, but because their meaning and relationships are reinterpreted within a new frame.
A great inroduction to paradigms is this decades old recording, now on YouTube, by Joel Barkers The Business of Paradigms.
Paradigms are important. Not all Agile approaches come from the same paradigm. See the post Not all Agile is equal where I discuss the difference the paradigm of empirical process control is from a full scientific model.
Different Topics Useful for Coaches, Consultants, and Trainers to Know
E.S.P. Energy Saving Practices
Use ESP to save energy.
No, not Extra Sensory Perception (although if you have it, use it).
I’m talking about Energy Saving Practices.
An ESP is a practice that you use all of the time in certain situations.
The reason is that they cost almost nothing yet often have a high return.
These are exceptions to the rule of “no universal practices.” The reason is that although they don’t always provide a return, their cost is insignficant and their return is often dramatic.
If you’ve visited a doctor you’ve seen these in practices.
Ever notice how a doctor washes their hands between patients?
Is this necessary? 99.9% of the time it adds no value. But when it does, the savings in work, waste, and cost can be dramatic.
But, as a habit, it fits in with his/her work and takes virtually no extra work.
The key is – don’t think about it, just do it. Make it a habit so there is no wasted mental effort about whether to do it. Just do it.
This post will just mention four ESPs. I’ll be following up with others later. And likely write more about each of these as well.
#1 Energy Saving Practice
If you’re a developer, and someone asks you to do something. ALWAYS ask “how will I know I’ve done that?” Notice there’s no extra work for either of you. If they don’t know this now, they’ll figure it out later when you demo it. Just have them do that now.
#2 Energy Saving Practice
After completing something look for something to finish before starting something new. This is the easiest way to manage work in process. This will lower multi-tasking and overwhelm while also increasing collaboration and a sense of team.
#3 Energy Saving Practice
When doing a group brainstorming session or trying to solve a new problem, turn on a timer for 15 minutes (vary as needed). When it dings, take a minute to reflect if you’ve gone down a rat hole. Learn to set the timer to the right length. Most people tend to go too deep. Alternative practice – have someone set a timer on their phone and when it goes off observe the group and possibly interrupt.
#4 Energy Saving Practice
For developers. Have a function that is likely to change?
Put it in its own well-defined class/function (depending upon the language).
Recognize that the problem when things change is not making the changes. It’s fine where you need to make the change. No need to put in an abstract class (although it’s fine if you like doing that). If you need to create an abstract class later it’ll be easier to do that if you do this now.
Coaching Tip: Attend to Automatic Interpretive Reframing when you say things. Make the AIR positive.
How you say things is incredibly important. Automatic Interpretive Reframing will often have people hear something you did not mean. Consider the following:
“We need to slow down” will gain an AIR of “no, we need to get more done.” Consider the reaction to “we need to focus on finishing thing so we get value delivered.” Same message, but now the AIR is positive.
“We need to do less to get more done” will gain an AIR of “no, we need to get more done.” Consider the reaction to “we need to work on those things of greatest value and not have things of lesser value slow us done. Same message, but now the AIR is positive.
“We need to put slack in the system” will gain an AIR of “we need to keep people utilized.” Consider the reaction to “we need to work in a way that enables us to be responsive.”
“We need to run an experiment to see if it’ll be an improvement” will gain an AIR of “don’t you know what’s going on?” Consider the reaction to “the physics of flow tells us this should be an improvement. We’ll make the change in a manner that we can undo it if after we quickly get feedback on it we discover some relationship we didn’t know.”
“We need to eliminate waste” will gain an AIR of “of course, this is nothing new.” This also brings up the conversation of what waste is – which is very often misinterpreted. Consider saying “we must eliminate rework.” This is essentially the same thing but is more likely to lead to clarity since “rework” is easier to see what it is. And doing rework is somewhat considered something that has to happen.
