Creating Viable Systems
The goal of managing spontaneous order is to foster systems capable of facing proliferating variety. This term refers to the expanding diversity of challenges and variables within a system, which can strain its capacity to adapt. In this context, proliferating variety challenges systems to maintain stability and resilience, requiring innovative approaches like cybernetics to manage the complexity effectively. For example, in football, a team must constantly adapt to a growing variety of playing styles and strategies introduced by competitors. This involves crafting rules and tactics that balance individual autonomy with team coordination, meaning having better indivisual players skills but still drilling tactics and strategies to makse sure they can still play together. Viable systems adapt continuously, maintaining flexibility and learning capacity to address future challenges. Emphasizing "learning how to learn" ensures that an organisation can thrive in a state of constant transition.
The Cybernetic Approach
Cybernetics provides a framework for dealing with the inherent lack of knowledge about complex systems. Instead of endlessly seeking more information, it focuses on using existing knowledge effectively, using a 'work with what you have' and 'start where you are right now' attitude. As articulated by Finagle’s laws of information:
The information you have is not what you want.
The information you want is not what you need.
The information you need is not obtainable.
The information you can obtain costs more than you want to pay.
By embracing these principles, organisations can focus on actionable insights and immediate problem-solving, progressing closer to their desired goals.
