dancing with systems

A lovely metaphor and brief essay by the systems thinker Donella Meadows. Meadows argues that we cannot control complex systems, nor can we ask them politely to stop or slow down in order to be taken apart and studied. To engage with them, we can only take part in them. To that end, she offers a set of guidelines or principles for “dancing with systems” so we can engage with them in the most useful, least harmful ways:

1. Get the beat.
2. Listen to the wisdom of the system.
3. Expose your mental models to the open air.
4. Stay humble. Stay a learner.
5. Honor and protect information.
6. Locate responsibility in the system.
7. Make feedback policies for feedback systems.
8. Pay attention to what is important, not just what is quantifiable.
9. Go for the good of the whole.
10. Expand time horizons.
11. Expand thought horizons.
12. Expand the boundary of caring.
13. Celebrate complexity.
14. Hold fast to the goal of goodness.

I think these bits of wisdom are useful far beyond the realm of complex systems dynamics. Or perhaps it’s that all aspects of human life fall within that realm.