Introduction
Systems have “feedbacks,” or a transfer of information, that we frequently do not recognize when they occur. For example, when you flip a lightswitch the light comes on. That gives us information that the switch, the electricity, and the light bulb are all working.
When we fill a bathtub, we see the water level rise. That feedback information helps us judge when to turn the water off.
When a baseball pitcher throws a pitch and the batter ducks, the pitcher has feedback that tells him the pitch was too close.
Systems Law
Today’s problems come from yesterday’s ‘solutions’
The presence of feedbacks represents one of the distinctive characteristics of systems. Many of the processes in systems create information that, when fed back into the system, change the input to the next iteration. Feedback becomes particularly crucial in human systems — i.e., systems that include humans as an element. For example, the system that includes both car and driver provides feedback to the driver so that he knows when to speed up, swerve, or brake.
The solutions that we apply to today’s problems simply shift the problem to a different time or space. The people who inherit the “new problem” frequently don’t recognize it as the return of an old problem.
This explains why many market interventions seem to address problems for which solutions have already been applied.
Comment
For those who have seen the movie “Groundhog Day” this systems law might have a ring of familiarity. Our problems frequently seem eerily familiar. Sometimes we get the sense that we should have foreseen today’s problem
People frequently ask, “Why do we have this problem?” They then start looking for solutions without examining what they might have done in the past that contributed to today’s problem.
Looking into the future, with every action you take today will create feedback that will surely influence what happens tomorrow.
Conclusion
I do not expect to dwell on these “systems laws” as I go through them. I will bring them up in one way or another in the future.
I only hope you will think about them now and consider them as you view your actions and those of others.