Causality Cheat Sheet
The Language of Leverage, Decoded
Here's a short list of terms, simplified and grouped into pragmatic categories, to equip you as you master the secrets of causality. To jump straight to a category, use the category links below.
Foundational Principles
The basic structures that make systems behave the way they do.
19 terms- Causality
- The hidden architecture that drives every outcome—whether we see it or not.
- Structural Causality
- How system design (what builds up and what moves) shapes outcomes.
- Informational Causality
- How attention, incentives, and signals steer what people do.
- Stocks
- What builds up in a system, like trust, money, or knowledge.
- Flows
- What feeds or drains stocks, like funding, support, or information.
- Feedback Loops
- Cycles that either reinforce change or keep things stable.
- Cause
- A cause is something that makes change happen; either a flow that adds to or removes from a stock, or a stock that influences a flow.
- Effect
- An effect is what changes because of a cause; a stock that rises or falls due to a flow, or a flow shifted by a stock.
- Association vs. Causality
- Correlation shows patterns; causality reveals what drives them.
- Leverage
- Small, well-placed actions that shift the whole system.
- System Timelines
- The timing of stress, recovery, and response that defines system health.
- Resilience
- The ability to keep functioning even if a stock depletes or grows unnaturally.
- Sustainability
- Performing without the need to deplete or grow stocks.
- Livability
- How well a system helps all life to thrive and flourish.
- Actors
- The people or groups whose choices move the system.
- Impact
- The durable change in outcomes caused by structural or informational shifts.
- Response Time
- Delay between an intervention and when its effects show up.
- Respite Time
- The window a system gives itself to recover before the next stressor.
- Recovery Time
- How long it takes performance to return after a shock.
Actionable Insights
How leaders can apply causality in practice.
11 terms- System Foresight
- Seeing what’s coming and shaping it before it arrives.
- System Intelligence
- The ability to reason about what drives outcomes—and act wisely.
- Future Design
- Designing systems so good outcomes happen by default.
- Theories of Change
- A clear map of how your actions are expected to cause change.
- Governance of Informational Causality
- Leaders aligning attention with what truly matters.
- CEO’s Directional Response
- Responding to signals with depth, not just speed.
- Boardroom Reflection
- Asking: what are we noticing, and what are we blind to?
- CIO as Experience Designer
- Leading technology through trust, inclusion, and human experience.
- Narratives / Story
- Reframing the story we tell about who and what matters.
- Self-shaping
- How actors work with their attention shapers to gain awareness.
- Community-shaping
- How actors shape causality working on their attention shapers.
Failure Modes
Where leaders and systems often go wrong.
8 terms- Blind Spot Stocks
- Overlooked resources like dignity or care that quietly shape outcomes.
- Signal Bias
- Paying attention to what’s loud or familiar instead of what’s vital.
- Misaligned Metrics
- Measures that look good but make the system worse.
- Leadership Self-Protection
- Choosing safety over truth, risking long-term health.
- Supremacy
- Putting narrow power or wealth above collective well-being.
- Responding in the Wrong Direction
- “Solutions” that backfire because causality was ignored.
- Counterintuitive Outcomes
- Good intentions leading to bad results because the system was misunderstood.
- Cognitive Block
- Mental habits that hide what’s really driving change.
Guiding Principles
Short, sticky laws leaders can remember and repeat.
4 terms- Attention Creates Abundance
- What we notice grows. What we ignore fades.
- What We Attend To, We Become
- Our attention is our rarest and purest form of generosity and shapes what we see and who we become.
- Causality is a Choice
- We can choose our attention and by doing so, shape causality.
- Structure Drives Behavior
- Change the structure, and you change the outcome.
Attention Shapers
The inner filters that shape what we see, and what we miss.
11 terms- Perceived Truth
- What feels real to us in the moment, shaped by beliefs and bias.
- Prejudice
- Judging people as “less than” before even meeting them.
- Bias
- A tilt in perception, often unconscious, that skews judgment.
- Assumptions
- Beliefs we never think to question because they feel obvious.
- Beliefs
- Convictions we hold about reality that guide our choices.
- Orientations
- Our emotional leanings toward life—open hand or clenched fist.
- Values
- The principles we protect, even at personal cost.
- Mindset
- The lens built from our beliefs, values, and assumptions.
- Paradigm
- The model of how the world works that sets what feels possible.
- Worldview
- The deepest cultural lens for interpreting purpose and reality.
- Reality (Bedrock)
- The underlying conditions of existence that remain whether we see them or not.