Fail Here or Fail There

The First Law of Systems-Survival, according to John Gall, is this:

A SYSTEM THAT IGNORES FEEDBACK HAS ALREADY BEGUN THE PROCESS OF TERMINAL INSTABILITY

Laws are all-caps in Systemantics. Not just laws, but also theorems, axioms, and corollaries. There are many of them so here's another (location 2393-2394):

JUST CALLING IT “FEEDBACK” DOESN’T MEAN THAT IT HAS ACTUALLY FED BACK

There was a point when I realised, as the capitalised aphorisms rolled by, that I was sinking into the warm and sweetly-scented comforting foamy bathwater of confirmatory bias. Seen, seen, seen! Tick, tick, tick!

I took the opportunity to let myself know that I'd been caught in the act, and that I needed to get out of the tub and start to challenge the content.

Intervening at that moment was congruent: I was in a context where I would accept it and prepared to change because of it. Of course, I enjoyed the deep irony of nodding along with Gall when he talked about that too (2456-2458):

Feedback is likely to cause trouble if it is either too slow or too prompt. It must be adjusted to the response rhythms of the system as well as to the tempo of the actual events — a double restriction.

So what might I challenge?

The lack of data to back up claims.
The overwhelming landslide of those upper-case one-liners.
The desert-dry commentary that weaves dangerously along the line between sniper sharp-shooting and sniping foot-shooting.

Looking around, I see that other readers have made similar observations. Cristiano Rastelli's review notes that everyone else he has spoken to about the book thought it was bullshit and simply stopped reading.

But I liked it despite its flaws. As a collection of practical, cynical, and even pathological heuristics it's a useful reminder of the power systems to do their own thing, to be realistic about the extent to which we can influence them, and to note again that all complex systems run broken:

IF IT DOESN’T FAIL HERE, IT WILL FAIL THERE (1562-1563)

I've pulled out a few quotes on topics that speak to my experience, including:

iterate systems into existence
seek the minimum necessary process
restrict only what must be restricted
align with natural tendencies if you can
make small changes where possible
pause to observe the effects of changes, emergent and intended, local and remote
remain humble about what you understand and the extent to which you understand it

--00--

Systemantics ... is almost a form of Guerilla Theater. It is the collection of pragmatic insights snatched from painful contact with the burning issues and ongoing problems of the day. (463-464)

NEW SYSTEMS MEAN NEW PROBLEMS (504-505)

COMPLEX SYSTEMS EXHIBIT UNEXPECTED BEHAVIOR (631-632)

Most people would like to think of themselves as anticipating all contingencies. (652-653)

A LARGE SYSTEM, PRODUCED BY EXPANDING THE DIMENSIONS OF A SMALLER SYSTEM, DOES NOT BEHAVE LIKE THE SMALLER SYSTEM (686-688)

SYSTEMS TEND TO OPPOSE THEIR OWN PROPER FUNCTIONS (703-704)

THE GHOST OF THE OLD SYSTEM CONTINUES TO HAUNT THE NEW (847-848)

In general, the larger and more complex the System, the less the resemblance between a particular function and the name it bears. (886-887)

THE SYSTEM ITSELF DOES NOT DO WHAT IT SAYS IT IS DOING (902-903)

A SYSTEM IS NO BETTER THAN ITS SENSORY ORGANS (1011-1012)

THE BIGGER THE SYSTEM, THE NARROWER AND MORE SPECIALIZED THE INTERFACE WITH INDIVIDUALS (1033-1035)

THE END RESULT OF EXTREME COMPETITION IS BIZARRENESS (1199-1200)

BIG SYSTEMS EITHER WORK ON THEIR OWN OR THEY DON’T. IF THEY DON’T, YOU CAN’T MAKE THEM (1257-1258)

Even today, the futility of Pushing On The System is widely unappreciated. (1273-1274)

THE MODE OF FAILURE OF A COMPLEX SYSTEM CANNOT ORDINARILY BE DETERMINED FROM ITS STRUCTURE (1472-1473)

The problem of evaluating “success” or “failure” as applied to large Systems is compounded by the difficulty of finding proper criteria for such evaluation. (1366-1367)

The idea that Bugs will disappear as components become increasingly reliable is, of course, merely wishful thinking. (1557-1557)

ONE DOES NOT KNOW ALL THE EXPECTED EFFECTS OF KNOWN BUGS (1587-1589)

NEW STRUCTURE IMPLIES NEW FUNCTIONS (1645-1646)

The designers had built a machine with that capability, but they knew not what they had wrought. . . until Experience demonstrated it to them. (1642-1644)

AS SYSTEMS GROW IN SIZE AND COMPLEXITY, THEY TEND TO LOSE BASIC FUNCTIONS (1663-1664)

THE MEANING OF A COMMUNICATION IS THE BEHAVIOR THAT RESULTS (1879-1880)

We must not assume that a message sent will automatically go to a central Thinking Brain, there to be intelligently processed, routed to the appropriate sub-centers, and responded to. (1992-1994)

The student proficient in the Creative Tack asks such questions as: What can I do right now and succeed at it? For which problem do my current resources promise an elegant solution? (2170-2172)

DO IT WITHOUT A NEW SYSTEM IF YOU CAN (2186-2186)

AVOID UNNECESSARY SYSTEMS (SYSTEMS SHOULD NOT BE MULTIPLIED UNNECESSARILY) (2187-2189)

LOOSE SYSTEMS LAST LONGER AND FUNCTION BETTER (2264-2265)

A System represents someone’s solution to a Problem. The System itself does not solve Problems. Yet, whenever a particular problem is puzzling enough to be considered a Capital-P Problem, people rush in to design Systems which, they hope, will solve that Problem. (2521-2525)

How many features of the present System, and at what level, are to be corrected at once? If more than three, the plan is grandiose and will fail. (2584-2586)

IF IT’S WORTH DOING AT ALL, IT’S WORTH DOING POORLY (2603-2604)

IN ORDER TO BE EFFECTIVE, AN INTERVENTION MUST INTRODUCE A CHANGE AT THE CORRECT LOGICAL LEVEL (2689-2690)

It seems clear enough that changing actors does not improve the dialogue of a play, nor can it influence the outcome. Punishing the actors is equally ineffective. Control of such matters lies at the level of the script, not at the level of the actors. In general, and as a minimal requirement: (2686-2689)

Exploratory behavior constitutes a series of probes, each of which elicits a piece of behavior from the System. The accumulation of those pieces of behavior allows the rat (or person) eventually to obtain a perspective as to the range of behaviors the System is capable of exhibiting in response to typical probing behaviors. (2714-2716)

ALWAYS ACT SO AS TO INCREASE YOUR OPTIONS (2724-2724)

THE SYSTEM IS ALTERED BY THE PROBE USED TO TEST IT [...] THE PROBE IS ALTERED ALSO (2774-2775)

All reference locations are from the Kindle edition.
Image: Wikipedia

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