You Can't BUT Beat The System

Everything in the world has its Alpha and Omega. The world is built up from systems – small and big ones. And all of them come into being, move, blossom out and cease to exist.

The same thing concerns any objects having their own lifecycle and representing certain systems.

 Probably, you sometimes recognize that different companies, social institutions, even countries, first or last, but exhaust their potential and power of extensive growth and – whether split up or get raised to the new quality level of their development.

We are free to observe a plenty of analogies in nature. For example, the same organism – be it a little caterpillar – finishes its lifecycle within the given parameters of the system. The structure, conditions and scheme of interaction with environment are exhausted. But as the organism, the system doesn’t die: what dies is the system’s organization. And the next qualitative jerk in caterpillar’s growth is to become a butterfly. As we can see, the organism and object’s individuality, namely, its core, haven’t changed, but qualitative jerk in system’s development is obvious: the structure, organization, system’s dynamic qualities and the scheme of interaction with environment have changed out of all recognition.

Of course, it’s unlikely that the caterpillar plans and makes graphs and budget for such kind of changes in advance, but there is nothing to prevent a human from doing it, because, unlike the caterpillar, the man probably better understands that every system has its own end. Nevertheless, by changing the order of system’s elements interaction and their structure, it’s possible to preserve it and, what is more, to give birth to it again just like to a butterfly. Here the disintegration phase will turn just into the previous level of development. And the system will move to new qualitative level – being altered, but having kept its core.

So, what is the system?

The system is the essence, which can maintain its life and operation as one comprehensive whole as a result of its parts’ interaction.

The good example is a bicycle: the pile of complete set of its separate details won’t let you cycle. You are able to use it according to its purpose only if this set of elements will work as a single system. It means that the system is not just a sum of its separate elements. Because when system being formatted (i.e. integral interacting scheme of separate elements), special system’s quality – called “emergent” quality – appears, which “emerge” immediately after system’s elements interaction starts, notably, when the systems moves from static to dynamic condition.

Thereby, system’s elements interact with each other.

It means there is a connection among them. And we’ll pay attention to two important types of connection, which can answer to a question – how to make possible qualitative regeneration of the business, and, namely – what to keep in mind when making a butterfly from a caterpillar.

The first important systems’ feature is increasing feedback. Have you ever noticed by getting the first profit that it becomes much easier for you to organize the second production cycle of your service or products? Probably, you have. And, really, if to simplify the cycle of your business’s operation to simple “production-sale” scheme, so after the first cycle you can put the part of net income into the same next cycle. And, in its turn, it increases the number of products being made, and you sell much more products in result. So, according to yield net income grows again. And you invest the part of this profit in “production” phase again… With every new cycle the growth comes. This is increasing feedback, as it is. And according to arithmetical series, somewhere on the 10^th step the growth can be enormous.

Let me to show you the mechanism of increasing feedback’s action per se, in order to demonstrate its underestimated power in practice.

According to one legend, chess were devised in the Middle East thousand years ago for rulers’ entertainment. The inventor asked an award: to put one grain of rice on the first check, two ones – on the second, four grains – on the third, and so twice as much on the next following checks. There are 64 checks on the chess board. The ruler known, that he had hundreds granaries of rice, and agreed. What do you think - if his decision was reasonable? (the answer is below)

Have you counted it? It’s amazing, isn’t it?

But, nothing is simple in real life, because the increasing feedback isn’t the only one property of systems.

We have to take into account one more important property: any system aspires to stability. Namely, first or last a system starts resisting to any influence, which is trying to make changes (and the motivation to increase final profits can hardly be named in other way) in order to comeback in previous balanced condition. As for our example of products’ realization, there can be whatever factors: the need to increase the company’s staff; or competitors will notice you and, probably, won’t assist you; and you should keep in mind that the market is also not as smooth as it seems.

All those are features of the resisting mechanism called balancing feedback.

It turns out that system’s elements interaction, on the one hand, gives an opportunity to reach significant system changes at the expense of comparatively not so strong influence on key elements, but, on the other hand, the same interaction starts resisting to you, because the influence on separate system elements is always transferred to its other elements. By this, the system fights for its survival and strives to reach stability.

The system turns on the balancing feedback after certain period of time passes. It’s so, because every system has its own perception threshold. After you pass it – the system will react and do all what’s in its forces to return into stable condition.

To clear up, let’s take a look at example of driving a car.

Just think how much forces you need to make to turn a wheel on some degrees without system’s help and using only your physical strength. And comparing with this, what little forces are required, thanks to increasing feedback effect, to do the same thing by using the system of hydraulic amplifier. The system works on you. And you reach stunning results at the expense of system’s elements interactions.

But even by insignificant, very little turn of a wheel (so-called “backlash”) the system won’t react on this action of yours, because you haven’t passed the system’s perception threshold.

And then, if only the increasing feedback exist, then by accelerating the speed of wheel’s turn, it would be much easier for you to do it. Namely, the faster you turn, the much easier it would become for you to do it. But it doesn’t occur. Just the opposite. It will be much easier to turn the wheal, if you turn it with constant speed (i.e. by making constant efforts). It happens because once you start to make more efforts, and the system starts reacting by means of the balancing feedback.  The system starts resisting to changes and tries to return to previous condition.

If you’re very strong physically, you can try to overcome this power. As a result, the wheel breaks down, i.e. the system collapses.

Here one more important system’s property appears: it is impossible to make point changes in the system, because all its elements are interconnected. The influence on its separate element will influence its other elements also, and, moreover – it will have an effect on integral operation of the system.

And, you will put the system out of balance by concentrating your force only on the wheel and not keeping in mind its connections and interactions with other elements.

So, in our situation, probably, it would be more efficient for qualitative change of system to start changing its hydraulic amplifier. But, here again – we have to remember about impossibility of point changes, because system conditions will hardly stay the same with more powerful amplifier: you’d probably have to change wheels including the steering wheel, and, maybe, even your seat, and the car body in general. It is because after being reached the local target – the improving wheel’s roadability, you may disregard the target of higher level – the safe drive.

Eventually you’ll have to think seriously about how to make a butterfly from your “car- caterpillar”.

As far as business is a system, the situation is the same here. Any enterprise is a difficult system. And it is so difficult because there are people representing its interacting elements.
Many people try to modify their enterprise, but, we think rarely about its system nature. To increase the service qualitatively or to make business more flexible it’s not enough only to demand it from workers. It is something like to persuade a wheel to turn to the right direction.
At first, it’s just required to accept as an axiom that the point changes are impossible in the system.
Your action towards one separate element will influence other parts of the integral system: for example, if you won’t consider the absence or negligence of one concrete worker, it is much likely that after some months such result may turn out that not only this concrete  worker will fail to complete the tasks, but by the whole department may.
Or vice versa. Instead of firing or lecturing the whole department for low-quality work or tasks overdue, it’s more efficient try to identify “the weakest link” that hampers the work of the whole department, and to resolve the problem locally, on this link level.
For example, it can be cleared up, that newly hired designer is a former lawyer, who knows company’s juridical groundwork much better than staff lawyer. At the same time, he performs his duties awfully as a designer. The terms are hampered or the quality is being damaged as a result. Finally, the work of whole department is delayed – work of make-upers, typesetters, and proofreaders, and etc. in this situation one possible variant to be settled is to transfer this worker to law department and hire a qualified designer. It will immediately resolve many problems: one worker will become more profitable for the company, contradictions and difficulties with the senior lawyer will cease to be, probably, and design quality will increase, and, finally, the whole department will start working properly.

So, the important things I suggest you to keep in mind are:

1. Point changes are impossible in your business; otherwise, you have to wait side effects of your actions. And what is much better – try to make forecasts.

2. Right choice of elements to be influenced plays a key role when you are going to change the system. In this case increasing feedback with only little influence will help to change the system considerably.

3. Any system aspires to stability. Sooner or later, the mechanism of balancing feedback starts functioning, and it’s very important to take it into account in the early beginning.

At long last, what becomes clear is that the better you know the system, characteristics of its elements interconnections, the more precisely you can forecast – how exactly your actions will influence the results in the nearest future. Try to have a look on your workplace as on the integral system. Pay attention not only on separate people, but on their interrelations. Identify the most important links in the elements’ interactions regarding the systems around you. And be ready to stay like an immovable cocoon for a while before turning from the caterpillar into the butterfly and shoot upwards to the sky.

(to be continued...)

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The answer: Quite unreasonable. On the 21th check there would be million of rice grains, and on the 64^th they would be such many, that in the whole world there is no so much rice.