5x1: Which loop is actually running your business? | Wednesday, April 29th, 2026

by Monti Pace

The​ 5x1 newsletter​ is a concise and insightful resource around a simple concept: systems achieve goals.

sys·tem [ˈsistəm]
a set of things working together as parts of a mechanism or an interconnecting network.
a set of principles or procedures according to which something is done; an organized framework or method.

1 x Principle of Systemization

Every system has multiple feedback loops running at the same time, and they're rarely all pulling in the same direction. Some reinforce growth. Some balance and stabilize. Some quietly pull the system back toward a state you thought you'd left behind. And here's the thing systems thinkers have known for decades: when several loops compete, the dominant one determines the system's behavior. Not the one you designed most carefully. Not the one you wrote down in your strategy. The one with the most strength in the moment.

This is why so many systems don't behave the way we expect them to. You designed a loop that was supposed to drive growth — but a competing loop driving exhaustion is dominant, and so the system's actual behavior is "burnout." You designed a loop that was supposed to build habit consistency — but a competing loop driving avoidance is dominant, and so the system's actual behavior is "starting over every Monday."

The diagnostic question isn't "what loops are present in this system?" Most systems have lots. The question is: which loop is currently dominant — and is it the one I would have chosen?

This matters because the leverage isn't always in adding a new loop. Often it's in weakening the dominant one — or strengthening a quieter loop that's been there all along, just waiting for some structural support. A loop you've been hoping would take over isn't going to win on its own. Dominance has to be designed.

1 x Systemization Quote

"Our life always expresses the result of our dominant thoughts." - Søren Kierkegaard

1 x Reflection Question

Pick a part of your life or business that keeps producing a result you didn't intend. What loop is currently dominant there — and what would it take for a different loop to outweigh it?

1 x Personal System Idea

Design One Competing Loop This Week. Pick one personal pattern where the dominant loop is winning and you’re tired of it — sleep, exercise, screen time, eating, money, anything cyclical. Don’t try to defeat the dominant loop. Build a quieter one alongside it, and design that one to win.

A behavior loop has four structural pieces: a cue (what triggers it), the action itself, a payoff (what reinforces it), and the friction (what makes it harder to do than the alternative). The dominant loop already has all four working in its favor. Your desired loop usually has the action figured out and nothing else.

Pick the loop you want to grow and design each piece deliberately:

• Cue: What environmental trigger will start the loop without requiring a decision? (Workout clothes laid out the night before. Phone charger in the kitchen, not the bedroom. A specific time on the calendar.)
• Payoff: What makes the loop feel rewarding immediately, not eventually? (A podcast you only listen to during the walk. Tracking the streak somewhere visible. Texting a friend after.)
• Friction reduction: What’s one thing you can remove that currently makes this loop harder than its competitor? (Pre-chopped vegetables. Auto-transfer to savings. Gym bag already in the car.)
• Friction added to the competing loop: What’s one small thing you can add to make the dominant loop slightly less effortless? (Logging out of the app. Moving the snacks off the counter. Putting the remote in another room.)

You’re not trying to overpower the dominant loop with willpower. You’re giving the desired loop the same structural advantages the dominant one already has. Whichever loop has more support wins — and now you’re the one deciding which one that is.

1 x Business System Idea

Map the Real Loops Driving Your Business Behavior. Pick a business outcome that frustrates you — slow cash flow, irregular client pipeline, scope creep, team turnover, your own inability to focus on strategic work. Then map the loops actually producing that outcome, not the loops you wish were producing a different one.

For example, if your business is stuck in a feast-or-famine revenue cycle, the dominant loop is probably something like: Land big project → focus all attention on delivery → no time for sales or marketing → pipeline empties → finish project → scramble to land next project → repeat.

The reinforcing engine of that loop is the relief of landing each project — which feels like winning, but is actually the dominant loop entrenching itself further.

What you want is a quieter, slower loop running underneath: Spend a small amount of time each week on pipeline → leads accumulate → conversations stay warm → next project starts before current one ends.

Both loops can technically exist at the same time. The question is which one is dominant. The way to make the second one dominant is rarely to "try harder at marketing." It's to weaken the structural advantages of the first loop — by carving protected time, raising prices to reduce delivery hours, or building automated lead-nurture systems that don't require your attention during delivery sprints.

Which loop is actually running your business? The shift you're looking for isn't motivational. It's a redistribution of structural strength between competing loops. Whichever one has more support wins.