Image Ideas

fractal images

spirals (one big one, or linear string of them)

shells

chain

labyrinth

rock strata

brick-laying in progress

spiral staircases

staircase at Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago

slinky

tree rings

Kevin Kelley's trail of planetary movement (ask Tom)

sand dune patterns (big or small)

flower petals (in Fibonacci series)

cactus

artichoke from the top

sunflower core

any geometric pattern, like in a rug

series of waves coming in

people sitting in concentric circles in a room

metronome

sign saying: weekly meeting, or round 3

calendar, first Thursday, annual, or daily schedule

Heart

Try it a second time, even a third. Outcomes of one round of activity or conversation inform the next, deepening, expanding, and generating new understandings and possibilities. For more powerful effect, repeat a process multiple times in the moment, or revisit at a later time.

Description

Iteration is a problem-solving or developmental method in which a succession of approximations, each building on the one preceding, is used to achieve a higher degree of accuracy or relevance.

At each apparent return to the place you started, bring with it previous knowledge and experience.

Revisiting a topic or challenge after time away, or time gathering more information (tangential superseding or subsidiary knowledge) that informs the current experience.

Similar to coming full circle, but with new awareness, new level subtlety or integration
Each successive completion of a cycle brings new understanding. As one develops advances skills through repetition, new distinctions are available, and improvement is made.

Examples

At the beginning of a multi-day group event you may feel alone among strangers, by the middle you see familiar faces and have made some connection, by the end you may feel integrated with the whole group. Each day is an iteration where you start again, but at a new level each time.

When approaching a problem, you may be baffled at the beginning, but after gathering more information, working with a proposed solution, then reflecting on the results, your hypotheses become more informed and you are closer to a solution with each cycle.

Related patterns

Iteration points primarily to:

Reflection-Action Cycle

Trajectory

Divergence and Convergence Rhythm

How Related

This rhythm is fractal, happening at all scales simultaneously. Recognizing the iterative, cyclic nature of it helps us recognize that any divergent situation will generate convergent energies, and any convergence will invoke new and opposing energies that diverge, and that we can work creatively with that. -- Tom

Emergence is generated largely by putting the results of an inquiry or a conversation through another round of inquiry or conversation, with new results showing up in each iterative round. -- Tom

Technically, feedback is an iterative process rather than a one-time, one-way process. The results of one action feed back to its source, generating a new action. Ongoing feedback loops like this fundamental to intelligence and learning. -- tom

This is why we iterate. --Tree

Inquiry is not a matter of Q&A. It involves questions that are "lived into", asked repeatedly to stimulate ever-deepening and broadening exploration. There is no final answer, only iteratively wiser realizations. -- Tom

This is the fundamental activity of learning. If you want continual learning and evolution, make sure to make this cycle an iterating part of your group's culture. -- Tom. Iteration means going through this cycle. --Tree

Any trajectory includes many iterative dynamics. Making the trajectory itself iterative, so the whole process shows up again and again, is part of making a learning organization or a learning community, moving from mere events to collective capacity-building. -- Tom