Designing Data Systems That Help Us Adapt

At One North, our work often sits at the intersection of people, platforms, and performance. We help teams not only launch better tools, but also create the kinds of insight structures that enable autonomy, clarify accountability, and support long-term adaptability. 

The core ideas that help us do that aren’t entirely new. In fact, many come from cybernetics, a 20th-century discipline that studied control and communication in systems. While cybernetics is usually associated with machines, it has powerful relevance for people and organizations.

 

What Cybernetics Can Teach Us About Teams 

One cybernetician, Stafford Beer, believed organizations are living systems. His “Viable System Model” breaks down companies into five interlocking functions: 

System 1: Operations – where production happens

System 2: Coordination – ensures processes don’t interfere with each other 

System 3: Control – provides oversight and efficiency 

System 4: Intelligence – looks outward to spot change and opportunity 

System 5: Policy – defines identity and direction 

Most organizations are good at the first three, which are predicated on internal data. They can run processes and make things efficient. But where many fall short is in intelligence and policy, the areas where external data and internal data need to be coordinated and sent throughout the organization.

 

Recursion and Feedback: The Real Power Moves

Beer’s model wasn’t meant to stay at the leadership level. Its genius lies in recursion. Every team, no matter how small, should have its own version of those five systems. That means the same principles that guide an executive team should also guide a project team or a department. Recursion enables autonomy. It allows people to make smart decisions without constantly seeking permission. 

But autonomy without feedback is chaos. That’s where cybernetics shines. The best systems are not just independent — they are connected through tight, timely feedback loops.

 

Build Systems That Speak the Right Language

If data is going to influence behavior, it has to be both timely and relevant. It’s not enough to share KPIs. You have to deliver insight in a form that aligns with what teams actually care about and how they define success. 

For example, if you’re giving sales teams long-term financial metrics without showing how their day-to-day behavior affects them, you’re creating noise, not clarity. Feedback has to be shaped in the language of the system it’s trying to influence.

 

Timing Matters More Than You Think

The other key variable is when feedback arrives. A perfectly relevant data point loses its impact if it shows up a week too late. 

In Stafford Beer’s work with the Chilean government in the 1970s, factories sent daily updates about production and staffing. Leaders didn’t just review historic reports — they gave frontline teams specific, short-term targets with quick, adaptive feedback. That’s how they navigated major national disruptions with surprising agility. 

Modern data platforms give us the tools to do this, but are not calibrated to the correct role. For employees in charge of execution – immediate data showing the response to their actions is crucial. But for higher level management, providing daily data points may become noise instead of a signal.

 

Close the Loop Between Strategy and Impact

One of the biggest disconnects in large organizations is between strategy and reality. Ideas move down the org chart, but the results don’t always flow back up. Leaders need better ways to hear what’s actually happening — whether that’s skip-level listening, direct customer interaction, or embedded analytics. When teams can connect business strategy to on-the-ground behavior through shared feedback systems, everything changes. Digital transformation becomes more than a project — it becomes a habit. 

 

What This Means for the Future

As AI, automation, and personalization continue to reshape how we work, feedback design becomes even more critical. It’s not just about dashboards or KPIs. It’s about creating a culture of clarity. One where people can see the effects of their choices and improve them in real time. 

Cybernetics may sound abstract, but its lesson is simple: if you want people and systems to adapt, you have to close the loop. 

 

Watch my session from the 2025 One North Assembly for a deeper dive into designing effective data systems and feedback loops—View the full recording here.

Photo Credit: Ilgmyzin | Unsplash