Life beyond the machine: the living system


Morpheus to Neo:The truth is that you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else you were born into bondage, kept inside a prison that you cannot smell, taste or touch. A prison for your mind.
From the film, The Matrix [ 6]

Perhaps one of the most fundamental mental models that needs challenging is the one we have constructed since the time of Isaac Newton of the idea of the organisation. What Newton believed, and what we have all unconsciously adopted since, is that the whole world is really like a machine with a series of parts . We now know that this is not true, but machine paradigms invade every aspect of our thinking. In a world where the pace of change was slower and more linear this machine paradigm worked. But in a world where change is multi- faceted and non-linear it is inappropriate. Many thinkers are now suggesting that it is more useful to build organisation models that are reflective of a living-systems view. [ 7]

Living-system organisations try to model themselves on the features and principles that one would find in a natural system, such as a forest, or in a system that each of us knows well ”the human being. Living systems understand that growing, adapting and dying are essential to life. They see change as an expression of youth. They try to ensure that all parts of the system act in harmony and they change their behaviour when defence is required. The modern VISA organisation, founded by Dee Hock, is an excellent example of an organisation designed for and working according to a living-systems model. [ 8]

Machine thinking assumes a world that is orderly, where every effect has a cause, and where every problem has a fix. Most machines are unable to cope with significant chaos: they tend to be transactional in their design, they rely on command and control systems and, at best, they can only be efficient.

Living systems, on the other hand, understand that there is chaos in order, and order in chaos. They use chaos as the basis for creativity. Living systems see themselves as part of bigger systems and look for ways to be flexible and adaptable in order to better survive. They are sensitive to both the whole system and the parts of the system and, unlike machines, their focus is on optimisation rather than just efficiency.

When we listen to the rhythms we need to ask ourselves whether the machine paradigm or the living-systems paradigm is more appropriate as a mental model for a world of multi faceted change. Could linear thinking blind us to the changes that either create opportunity or imperil us?

  • Living systems are designed to cope with uncertainty, whereas machine thinking has taught us to love the illusion of certainty .

  • Living systems are capable of living in a boundary-less world, whereas machines require boundaries, artificial or real, to work.

  • Living systems can live with emergent thinking, whereas machines require definitive thinking.

If you think about it, imagination and innovation are the antithesis of machine thinking. As we go into the twenty-first century, it is our machine thinking that produces the great discords and blinds us to possibilities.

One of the consequences of machine thinking seems to be that the more successful we are, the harder we seem to have to work. If that is the case, then why would one choose to be successful? Shouldn t success make life easier rather than harder?

Success that makes life easier is what we might call a simpler way. Imagining a future through a living-systems paradigm helps us to understand this simpler way. It is a world where we will need to let go of some of the excuses. People involved in vibrant and dynamic living systems shy away from, or are bemused by, those who say they are too old to change, it s too hard, too risky, too dangerous or too uncertain .

  • New rules for navigation beyond the machine

  • The result of effort should be significantly greater than the input.

  • It is easier to get to the future if you have a network of like- minded people helping you get there.

  • Time should be available for learning and reflection.

  • Some level of chaos is a good thing as it will encourage creativity.

  • The world is full of paradox and that s OK.

  • Change and life is about growing, morphing and dying and we must reflect that in our day-to-day thinking and practice.

[ 6] D Hock, Birth of the Chaordic Age ,Berrett Koehler, San Francisco, 2000. 9 H Cleveland, Nobody in Charge: Essays on the future of leadership , Jossey Bass, San Francisco, 2002.

[ 7] Dee Hock as quoted in H Cleveland, Nobody in Charge: Essays on the future of leadership , ibid. , page 17.

[ 8] E De Bono, I Am Right ”You Are Wrong: From rock logic to water logic ,Penguin, London, 1990.




Innovation and Imagination at Work 2004
Innovation and Imagination at Work 2004
ISBN: N/A
EAN: N/A
Year: 2005
Pages: 116

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