There is an idea in macroeconomics that if systems are not in equilibrium, maintaining the status quo, they are either getting progressively worse or progressively better. The direction is determined by a self-propagating cycle that expands outward.
These cycles have their own feedback loop. Each consequence supports and reinforces the next which eventually leads back to the original.
The principle holds up in business as well. Virtuous cycles include customer centricity, employee investment, learning organisations, and social investment.
Vicious cycles, like poverty, are hard to break at a macro level. They are not so hard to start doing at a micro level. When you were young you might have walked around the rim of the pool to create a current over time as the water gained momentum. It’s much easier to create a counterflow if you walked in the opposite direction starting in the center.
Virtuous cycles start with you.
