Not so Random Thoughts of a Systems Thinker

1. When a general theory applicable to all organisation is presented, it is impossible to make a statement that does not directly or indirectly fall within the scope of the theory.
2. Arguments are worthless if premises are unknown or unshared (to those exchanging the argument).
3. Words are meaningless without convention.
4. Convention accumulates the shared concepts of a community.
5. Truth is purely a consequence of reason.
6. Correctness is relative to the observer.
7. Objective truth is as much a myth as subjective truth.
8. When truth and correctness coincide on the plane of every observer in the system, we have utopia.
9. The theory of organisation of systems is the logic of a world whose elements can act.
10. Economic phenomena like inflation, Kondretieff cycle and business cycles are a consequence of the laws of organisation and not market mechanisms.
11. Incomprehensible sequences of happenings are miracles.
12. Language is a culture’s theory of action.
13. All that is willed is possible when pursued with humility.
14. It takes genius to discover genius.
15. Use of only comparators is the root of trouble.
16. If Australopithecus originated in central Africa, what are we doing elsewhere?
17. The sound of silence can be heard loudest for those who have the ears.

Source: 
Stellingen behorende bij het proefschrift
Toolbox for Tomorrow: Exploring and Designing Sustainable Systems
Anupam Saraph [September 1994]

System Speak!

Systems speak all the time. The problem is we do not speak System Speak.

George Orwell in his Animal Farm describes the The Seven Commandments of the Animal's when they launch a revolution against the farmer Jones and overthrow him:

• Whatever goes on two legs is an enemy.
  
• Whatever goes on four legs, or has wings, is a friend.
  
• No animal shall wear clothes.
  
• No animal shall sleep in a bed.
  
• No animal shall drink alcohol.
  
• No animal shall kill any other animal.
  
• All animals are equal.

The pigs take over the role of the farmer in the story, they revise the seven commandments. Here are some of the commandments with the pigs' "revisions":

• Four legs good, two legs better!
  
• No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets.
  
• No animal shall drink alcohol to excess.
  
• No animal shall kill any other animal without cause.
  
• All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.
  

As a result Orwell describes "No question, now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which."

Not easy to change the way the system speaks, is it? As long as the system is unchanged, it will speak the same.

Think of any system in your life. How do you get it to speak different? How do you get to understand its speak?

Of course it's not easy to bring in enduring change. Certainly it's not a cakewalk to make enduring impact. Not everyone can create enduring transformations.

Leaders capable of bringing enduring change understand Systems Speak. They understand how to change the system, so its speak will be different.

Every time you want to drive change, you want to make impact or you want to transform the world you cannot ignore Systems Speak.