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E-Matrix
Lexicon
Natural Living Processes
Copyright Material Ó –
E-Matrix Sept 2000 – Last updated Feb 2007. All rights reserved. E-Matrix is short for ‘Emergent Matrix’
which connotes ‘Life’. Last updated Feb 2007. The wisdom on the Laceweb website has been drawn
from the grassroots people of the East Asia Oceania Australasia Region. Consistent
with their way, this wisdom is freely available on the Laceweb Internet site.
Now a simple secure process has been set up, so people reading and
downloading this wisdom may contribute financially if they so desire. You may
send a tiny amount or as much as you desire. Information
about donating to Laceweb Way This Lexicon embraces Natural Business
Concepts and Artistry – ‘natural’ in that they have been drawn from Natural
Living Processes and systems. The eco-history of this Lexicon can be
traced to gatherings in Sydney of business innovators in the late 1960's and
early 1970's exploring businesses as living systems. These gatherings were
enabled by Dr. Neville Yeomans - a barrister, psychiatrist, sociologist,
psychologist, and zoologist. The Lexicon has emerged from PhD research into
these gatherings, network discourse and Yeomans' wider life work. The Lexicon also draws upon and adapts to
the business environment recent understandings in the natural sciences -
quantum physics, ecosystems, chaos, natural networks, complexity theory,
fuzzy logic and the like. It is a guide to possibilities. It holds forth
possibilities for extending thinking and action about businesses as complex
systems. This lexicon also applies to government and non government
organizations at all levels. It may be noticed that many of these
concepts imply a whole new way of thinking about using people and their capacities
and linking them to organizational systems as living systems - beyond
assigning people just to, for example, departments, teams, groups, or
assigning them to others as personal assistants or mentors, or just to be the
executive or management. In glossing this glossary it is possible
to get a feel for the frontiers of living systems thinking and action. This Lexicon is dynamic and being
continually reviewed and expanded. Terms listed in this Lexicon:
Business Ergotrophic and
Trophotropic Systems Business Surviving and
Thriving Causation of Business
Sickness Cybernetics - First and
Second Order Emergence and Sustaining
Innovation Emergence of Resonant
Strange Attractors in Business Geosocial Mindbody
Processes - Keyline and Cultural Keyline INMA - Inter-system
Normative Model Area Natural Systems -
Organisational and Operational Principles of Healthy Business-People Systems
Process and Outcome
approaches Social Re-constituting of
Business Realities Structural Coupling and
Eco-history Organizations tend to have 'usual'
challenges (performance challenge). Changing circumstances and contexts can
create 'unusual' challenges - different sequences. These may range from those
well within the competency domain of the organization to those that are well
beyond the competency range. Living systems disturbed by unusual challenge
adapt or die. Adaptation may be by incremental change or discontinuous
change. Organizations that seek to thrive
continually scan for and create Adaptive Challenge. Responses to Adaptive
Challenge are defined and refined in conversation. Traditional modes of power and empowering
tend to be based on a zero-sum equation - if you have more, I have less.
Power becomes constituted as a scarce resource that people compete to attain.
Traditional hierarchical organization structures have constituted the
zero-sum power equation because of a preoccupation with control through
delegated decision-making power. Power unconnected with Hierarchical structures'
zero-sum power has always being a bane of the powers that be. Examples are
the power of knowledge and wisdom possessed by a person without
decision-making power. Another is the person of influence by dint of social
charisma, length in the organization, or because of possessing important and
or sensitive information or connections – for example, the influential and
militant savvy shop steward. A traditional solution to the other-powered
troublemaker is to promote him into the formal power structure where he/she
can be neutralised by system leverage - 'Now you are one of us!' Within traditional zero-sum power
structured systems, like a modern day Shakespearean drama, we may find
ourselves drawn into a tangled web of artificial boundaries, territories,
enclaves and fickle alliances. In this context, power becomes the ability to
exert one's will over others. The upward mobile thrive on this non-thrive
process (refer Business Surviving and Thriving).
Others typically become ambivalent or indifferent. Some can transcend and see
the processes, and like the anthropologist in a strange land, notice most
things while never becoming one of the natives. While zero-sum power is attractive, it's
also a tremendous distraction, tending to derail everyone involved in it by
limiting their opportunity for expression to the principle dimension of
extending and securing territorial domination. Other capabilities and
capacities are neglected. Top people never miss enormous organisational
potential that they stifle without noticing! There was a model of the natural world,
about the time of the Industrial Revolution, which saw 'Nature, red in tooth
and claw' and described life in terms of a battle for survival. Business is
described as a 'jungle' and it entails the 'survival of the fittest'. Current
understanding in biology shows that while competition is indeed part of the
natural world, it is not a strategy which living systems adopt for
sustainable living and development. Rather, living systems will engage in
competition and conflict in times of crisis and emergency, moving through it
to new levels of synergistic, symbiotic and co-operative (living together)
relationships in the ecosystem. While evolutionists speak of the 'survival of
the fittest', natural systems tend to operate, in fact, on the principle of
the 'survival of the fitting'. Organizations could usefully learn from this! Competition and conflict are legitimate
survival strategies, good in the short-term crisis time frame, but becoming
detrimental in the long term. In seeking to thrive in their environment,
living systems develop strategies of increasing inter-relationship and living
together in sustainable ways. Living systems seek to do more than survive,
they seek to thrive: this is the drive to thrive and it's wired up to complex
neuroimmunoendocrinological pathways releasing bliss molecules like
endorphins (natural opiates) into the bloodstream as the system experiences a
deeper level of resonance with its network/ ecosystem. Refer Business Surviving and Thriving. The shared experience of
verve in vibrant organizations is the experiential correlate of the
endorphins (refer Stimmung). In contrast, when the system is fighting
to survive, the ergotropic system (which see) kicks in
and the system loses resonance and coherency with its network/ ecosystem and
goes it alone. The price the system pays for spending too long in this
unsustainable state is to lose sensitivity to internal and external cues for
growth (see Trophotropic) system). This is the battle
fatigue which every combatant experiences; the thousand-yard stare of the
combatant who is dislocated in time and space and cannot make it back to
life, spontaneity and joy. Living systems are naturally powerful.
This is the genuine and authentic allure and seductiveness of nature and
natural systems. Living things thrive and grow in ecosystems,
which nurture, support and enable them. They use freely available energy in
order to carry out the living autopoietic function and in
order to generate the conditions for more life. In reality, a living system is not a
separate entity; rather a node in a distributed network or web of life and
its thrival is a function of how it enables the thrival of its network (refer
holon). For hundreds of years, organizations have
typically had structures and processes, which have squashed authentic power.
Authentic power (re)constitutes power as a freely available property of a
living system's internal and external networks. In this context, personal
power becomes a function of enabling others to develop and exercise their
power in a positive feedback and self-amplifying cycle. Organizations that
seek to tap into their living systems authentic power may find that it is
there, and has always been there in abundance. Organizations seeking to explore
indentifying and evolving more authentic power within their systems may well
seek out people within their systems (if any) who have moved to transcendent
anthropological relating within the system (as discussed above). These people
tend to be the natural enablers. As they go quietly about their good work,
they may not stand out at first. Their good work is often subtle (refer micro-interventions and nano-interventions). An example from Natural Lexicon Processes,
let us say that our project is to bake a cake. We have assembled the best
team in the kitchen. We have spared no expense on the ingredients. We use the
best recipe, assembling the mixture most carefully. In other words, we have
attended to the personnel, the resources and the procedures. Now comes the
time to put the mixture into a preheated oven. But the oven stays lukewarm.
Why? Because the power that heats the oven comes from the way that all
the components (people, resources and best practises) work together. It may
well be that this connexity is dysfunctional. It may be that divisive power
and demarcation issues abound. It may well be that interpersonal issues
create tangled mess. In this murky manipulative mess, non-understanding may
have emerged as an indispensable technique! And so, the heat in the system is
faulty and the cake turns out an indigestible mess. Authentic power resides in and emerges
from the functional matrix. All the different components
form the structure of the matrix. The power of the matrix comes from the 'connexity - the pathways, relationships and processes that
bind and interconnect all the different parts into a living pattern of
organization. Without this power, even the best mixture will still turn out
as slop. The wisdom of Natural Lexicon Processes
comes from a focus on process and quality rather than on outcome (see 'structuring excellence' and 'process and
outcome approaches'). It may be seen that focussing on outcome, e.g. a
good cake, tends to obscure what's happening along the way. People get so
concerned about getting to the finish line that when they encounter dysfunction in their ability to perform their tasks they
will shut down shop, shut up and most importantly, not communicate their
dysfunctionality to the network. Enough of this type of behaviour accumulates
to weaken the matrix. A different approach is where dysfunctionality
is communicated, acknowledged and talked about, perhaps even welcomed - not
in the sense of fault-finding - rather, in order to evoke the wisdom of the
system to enable the challenged part to explore and develop new pathways and
strategies. In this way the 'connexity; the ability of
the system to nurture and enable a safe internal environment in which it can
explore and navigate change and complexity, supports its drive to succeed.
When the part is enabled to negotiate the challenge, the result may well be
that the system as a whole bootstraps itself upwards in power and
functionality. In reference to the example, all kinds of yummy stuff can come
out of a good oven linked to sustainable power - cakes, roasts, bread, and
puddings. E-Matrix (life) seeks to enable the emergent matrix so that
whatever is put in - cooks. In this way the system thrives in the
realm of greater possibilities, in contrast to mere surviving in the
realm of few possibilities. From Greek auto : self, poiesis
: making. Therefore meaning self-making. A network of producing/constituting
processes (refer co-re-constituting) in which the function
of each component is to participate in the producing and or
transforming/reconstituting of other components in the network. A business
unit/entity/network is socially constituted (refer reification),
and in this process the people and the people system are themselves
constituted (refer 'normative action research). In this
way, the entire network continually remakes itself. It is constituted by its
components and in turn constitutes those components. And also, the business
as system constitutes a permeable boundary specifying the domain of the
networks' operations. Business sub-systems likewise have permeable boundaries
for ebb and flow interaction between other subparts and
the wider world. In so doing, these boundaries help define the system and
sub-systems as units. Structure and process are
pervasively interconnected, interdependent, inter-woven, inter-related and
inter-constituting. Resonant concepts are Cleavered Unity',
Connexity, Dichter and Denken, Holon', Co-Reconstituting', and Reification. A system state leading to the potential
and emergence of sudden whole system transcending
transition to higher and more unpredictable complexity and improved
performance. Also see Holon. Normative action-research
embracing the wellbeing of the people-business system and its relating with
the wider business environment (refer Ecology, INMA and Business Ecosystem). Systems of related subsystems in their habitat; also refer holon). This raises the
issue, 'What is the natural place or locality for people, systems and
subsystems? What would occur in nature (refer Geosocial
Mindbody Processes)? How would things be interconnected? What 'free energy would be entailed? Business system designers in
the past have imposed on nature rather than perceiving the inherent wisdom in
nature, and incorporating nature's design principles in their action (refer
'Keyline' as model in Geosocial Mindbody Processes). Business Ergotrophic and Trophotropic
System These concepts are modelled on the bodies
Ergotrophic and Trophotropic Systems. The Business Ergotrophic system ensures a
business' long-term wellbeing. The Business Trophotropic system ensures a
business' short-term wellbeing. Both systems are in a 'Connexity'
relation. The Business Ergotropic system's
function: The principal function is the control of short range, moment-by-moment
adaptation to events in the world and the internal environment It gears the business or business part to initiate and carry out
action - often extremely quickly It's particularly connected to fight/flight/avoidance behaviours The system's activation shunts the system's metabolic energy (renewal)
away from long-range developmental activities, towards fast response, though
renewal is not ignored It enables the expenditure of vital resources Quick response energy pathways are opened and Quick
Response Networks are engaged It mediates stress relative to events in the World and the internal
environment Historically, it allows us to eat without been eaten The Business Trophotropic system's
function: the system operates to maintain the optimum internal balance of
business functions for continued good health and development of the business
as a people-system holon it controls the business functions responsible for the long term
wellbeing links to business and business part growth and longevity regulating all of the business's vegetative functions: reconstructing and growth of system 'cells' - sub-parts digestion of new input/output from within/without the system relaxing for renewal sleeping on aspects Business Surviving and Thriving To survive is to fight to maintain
relationship to the present reality. To thrive is to use natural
processes, available resources and emerging resources and motivation to
explore and constitute new possibilities, choices and realities that in turn
nurture future growth and ongoing success. Refer Autopoiesis,
Sickness and Disease Model, the Illness-Wellness
continuum, the Causation of Business Sickness, Self Organising and Self-help. Small changes having big unpredictable consequences
in complex systems far from equilibrium - hence having
system-wide capacity for scanning and identifying such effects Causation of Business Sickness We can use the metaphor of business
'sickness'. In most diseases prevalent in the industrialized nations, eg
degenerative diseases and autoimmune diseases, there is typically no single
causal agent identified. Furthermore, there is typically a large spectrum of
changes (signs and symptoms) that occur with the disease in joints, muscles,
attachments, organs, circulation, psychology and so on. Much effort and money
continues to be spent elucidating each and every pathway that deviates from
the expected norm. The assumption of the research strategy is
that eventually the experts will identify the critical pathway that can then
be modified to control the disease. This is a profoundly first-order 'cybernetic approach in which an expert, remaining 'outside'
the organization, seeks to steer a system. In the best case scenario,
in which a critical pathway has been identified and interrupted so as to
limit most if not all of the expressions of disease, the attractor(s) that
governs the system's behaviour has not shifted; only the system's
ability to express itself has been controlled. Refer 'Emergence
of Resonant Strange Attractors). Furthermore, the outside intervention
introduces multiple variances into the complex feedback processes which
maintain the integrity and 'connexity of the living
system. We call these 'side-effects' but they are really effects of
attempting to control complexity. An analogy would be trying to control the
environmental and social problems in Bangladesh with a large supply of sand
and hessian sacks. What do we do if the flooding is related to non-local
climate changes (see 'butterfly effect)? Or it may well
be that no matter how many sand bags we use, education and investment in
infrastructure are just as critical to development as flood control. Generally, the more ongoing intervention
that is required to control the 'disease', the poorer the quality of life
outcomes for the person/organization. A useful question may be, 'What options
are there which enable living systems to thrive, grow and evolve, and
organically respond well even if they happen to be in trouble or diseased?' A more natural and fundamentally different
approach to the traditional 'outside expert diagnosing disease and prescribing'
is the using of a second order cybernetic approach. This
approach involves using enablers who are embedded in the system, to support
the people experiencing 'sickness'. These enablers may come from 'outside'
the organization. However they have transcendent
perception, which enables them to quickly enter the organisations transcendent realities and become insiders. The focus is the
living system in all its connexity. The energy-consuming
feedback processes in the process of life are very dynamic. In other words,
the system is very actively engaged in these processes. Even when deep in the
basin of attraction of a sickness process, some subsystems are relatively
freely operational (refer using 'free energy). If the
larger system can entrain itself to, and enhance these inherent processes,
then it will tend to become sensitised to higher order attractors and will
make a global and spontaneous upwards shift in self
organisation. In other words, the system uses intrinsically available, or
endogenous (internal to the system) processes to steer itself towards better
quality of life outcomes, regardless of the presence or reversibility of
previous structural changes. Refer 'Structural Coupling. A second order cybernetic approach is
basically about enabling the living system to locate and enhance its innate
drive to thrive which in turn enables it to steer itself successfully through
change, crisis, catastrophe and chaos. Refer 'Cybernetics'.
Typically, people tend to think of 'chaos'
as a 'complete mess'. The essence of chaos is randomness with constraints -
the constraints of the context and system. Much of the
business world is chaotic. Chaos tends towards order. Chaos in nature often
unfolds into things of great beauty, design and symmetry. Chaos may be self organising (which see) and have emergent properties
(refer emergence ). For example the random build up of
calcium deposits on the seashell is constrained by being only able to attach
along the exposed edge. The shellfish can only enlarge the shell's opening in
constrained ways. This constrained randomness builds to make the wonderful
spiralling seashells.
Random events, within constraints, may
produce interconnected (refer 'connexity') self-organizing
systems - hence the practicality of having system-wide capacity for scanning
and identifying business opportunities and threats in the flux (refer 'danger alert'). Functional matrices may
take this form. Simultaneously apart and together -
dissipative/replicative - respect for difference enhancing unity - rich
implications (also see 'Colindivity', 'Connexity,
'Dichter and Denken' and Holon);
entails the joint engagement of both the following concepts: Dissipative (dis-sipative from the Latin dissipatus
- dis = apart, sipare = to throw) hence, 'to throw apart' Replicative (re-plicative: from the Latin replicare
- re = again, plicare = to fold) hence, 'to refold' Co-learning may take place in supportive
learning contexts that break down the artificial divide between teacher and
learner. All participants may bring capability, local knowing and capacity.
Everyone, including teachers and trainers, can be co-learners and all can
take on the enabler role in supporting each other’s learning. In these
contexts, learners can learn things that teachers have never dreamed of, and
participants may learn very different and personally relevant things. The pioneering Australian
barrister/psychiatrist, Dr. Neville Yeomans used the term 'colindivity' (col
from collectivities and indivity from individuals) to refer a gathering
of individuals and collectivities interacting as individuals and
collectivities. The most frequent collindivities would be those including
both the extreme individualists and extreme collectivists working together on
a common problem in interaction. The collectivists would tend to function as
parts of a team and for its stability, while the individualists would
function as single entities and for their own separate stabilities. Such a
subgroup of individualists could be called an indivity', that is, a
collectivity functioning under an individualistic ideology with its
individual units primarily fostering the reality of their own systems; for
example an international gathering of extreme nationalists. From the Latin com-plex : com
(with), plexus (ply or to fold) From the Latin con-nectere : to
join together; simultaneously having complex pervasive
interdependence, interrelatedness, interconnectedness and interweaving; a
system having all of these characteristics; a system design frame;
connexity is usefully explored using Dichter and Denken.
Also refer Logic for the link between 'reason' and
'connexity'. From the Latin con-scire : knowing
together, i.e., consciousness is essentially a social phenomenon - an example
of separated unity or cleavered unity From the Latin contexere : 'to
weave together' or 'webmaking'. The setting of experience which can shed
light on its meaning. We may use awareness of context, especially scope for
multiple realities (refer 'realities) as a frame
for dichter and denken and kennen.
See also comments on context in interpreting. Business people in line management are
accountable to shareholders. Line managers' control is associated with the
prerogative and power to make decisions and authorize action. This top-down
control is often accompanied by system resistance expressed as noise and
filtering in the up-flow of the feedback used in control (refer the concepts
'Fuzzy' and 'Fuzzy Logic'). Line
management is vertically linear. In contrast, matrix or network processes are
non-linear (refer Process and Non-Linear
Process), in that they involve multiple local, inter-local, lateral and
three dimensional (mainly horizontal) energy flows (refer 'connexity').
See also discussion on forms of power and control in authentic
empowering. Line managers are preoccupied with
protecting their prerogatives in relation to decision-making and delegation.
Worker participation by non-line managers in decision-making has been
resisted over the past forty of so years. Natural business concepts included
in this lexicon and 'Normative Action Research' may
subtly alter the absolute linear control of decision-making and action
authorizing. The nature of delegated accountability and action initiating may
shift. Delegated accountability and action initiating may be given more to matrices, networks and people systems rather than only to
line personnel. Even decision-making may have
complementary processes whereby, 'what to do' emerges from normative
action research (which see), so that all those involved sense what to do,
and begin doing it, without a 'let's decide' meeting even taking place. Refer
Authentic Empowering for a discussion on similar themes.
'Effectiveness' and 'does it work' are continually being monitored (refer 'Normative Action Research'). Action is continually
assessed for fit with other interconnected, inter-related, inter-dependent
aspects of the business (connexity). All of the prudent business checks and
balances as to resource access, allocation, review, and acquittal may be
built into the emerging matrix process. The traditional linear processes may
be supported and complemented by non-linear processes, with open flow of
information, negotiated meaning and action between the two modes (refer Process and Non-Linear Process).
Computer networks, email, e-groups, and the Internet may facilitate this
process. Social systems/realities are socially
constituted, and hence can be reconstituted. 'Co-reconstituted' implies an
interconnected mutual interaction for reconstituting system(s) (Refer 'Connexity', 'Realities' and especially,
'Reification'. Also refer Normative
Action Research). In the process of mutually constituting
and reconstituting social realities, this process folds back to constitute
and reconstitute the people involved as socially constituted products of the
process - a connexity based intertwining and
intermingling of causes and effects (refer Non-Linear Process).
Back to Terms listed in
this Lexicon First Order Cybernetics models close-to-equilibrium (refer 'equilibrium')
mechanistic systems. When first order cybernetics is applied to living
systems it typically treats the living system in mechanistic terms. The focus
is homœostasis - keeping the system on an even level and dampening of flux. A
thermostat is an example. First order cybernetics does involve a shift of
focus from the individual part to the system interaction. It views the
observer of the model as external to the system. Second Order Cybernetics models far-from-equilibrium living systems. The
focus is morphogenesis (the evolving of structure and pattern in living
systems) and integrative functions at the edge of instability. Second Order
Cybernetics recognizes that all people in the business are in a connexity relation - they are profoundly interconnected.
This raises the challenge of business people observing and understanding a
system of which they are, of necessity, an integral part. Second Order Cybernetic observers and
actors include themselves as a constitutive element in the system they are
observing and acting in, and recognize that their very observing has
constitutive and 'co-reconstituting potency. This view
changes the 'them-us' stance with the accompanying, 'We are right and they are
wrong'. Understandings and action take account of connexity.
Also refer Logic for the link between 'reason' and
'connexity'. It follows that attempts at knowing are
constitutive. The word 'fact' comes from the Latin word facere : to
make - hence manufacture, (from Latin manu : hand, fact : make)
originally meaning 'make by hand'. Facts, as meanings, are 'made' by people
in the role of factors, that is, as the maker of the facts. Facts are
extracted from the complex of human experience and the very process of
extracting facts, makes more facts. This process embraces 'kennen
as well as wissen (refer Process and Non-Linear
Process). Second Order Cybernetic thinking and
perceiving (making sense of our senses) gives up a relentless quest for
certainty. Uncertainty may be scary, or at least disconcerting, though it
liminally (refer limin) opens the door to many new
possibilities - possibilities for example, of scanning for gain, loss,
safety, and danger in the context of opportunity and threat (refer 'dichter and denken' and 'Fuzzy'). Second
Order Cybernetic thinking views things tentatively (refer 'Fuzzy
Logic') and has everything under continual review. It breaks down reified
(refer reification) dogma and sacred cows. However it fully
respects and draws understanding and inspiration from the businesses' structural coupling and eco-history without being bound by
these aspects. Pervasive among the web of life is a sense
of danger. Some people and groups have this sense blocked. Businesses can set
up network processes with the function of continually scanning for,
recognizing, and immediately responding to danger (refer Dichter
and Denken). From the Latin destino : the
weaving; hence the notion of weaving together future possibilities - making
futures These words combined form a German
expression. As an example, some great creative people are called 'dichter and
denken'. When using this term to refer to say a poet, the speaker is
suggesting that the listener merges in his or her reflection the poet, the
poem making and the poem. This is calling for us to engage in a very rich
form of reflective contemplating. It is about our intersubjectively
responding to the intermingling of the three elements, i.e., the poet, the
poem making and the poem. In the business context, an example is the merging
of firstly, system designers/reconstitutors, secondly, system
designing/reconstituting, and thirdly, the system(s); and perceiving these
three as a connexity/holon. Note that it is easy to think about any of
the three separately. Thinking of two simultaneously is more 'work', and
merging the three in contemplation (refer kennen) is
typically a challenge - though a worthwhile experience into a new (higher?)
more 'connexity based mode of reflecting/perception
(making sense of the senses). An example of Dichter and Denken is
simultaneously scanning for initiators of, the initiating process involved
in, and the unfolding of, gain, loss, safety, and danger and the interplay of
high/low levels of each - eg, safely doing dangerous things, while maximizing
gain and minimizing loss; another is spotting when relatively safe things are
being done dangerously for little gain and potential for high loss (refer Non-Linear Process). Another expression that is similar is
'connexity perception' (refer connexity). A part of this
in the visual sense is simultaneously attending to visual full field - the
ever shifting background-foreground distinction, the flitting point of high
acuity, the distant-close distinction and the peripheral; and including in
awareness the aware self as responding perceiving (sense-making)
mindbody-viewer, the viewing and the viewed (refer structural
coupling and eco-history). Using dichter and denken may be useful in Fuzzy contexts. Back to Terms listed in
this Lexicon Business organizations are open
dissipative structures - structures that dissipate energy. Far from
equilibrium, the systems flow processes are interlinked through multiple
feedback loops (refer Second Order Cybernetics). When the
system encounters a bifurcation point, it may branch off
suddenly into an entirely new state of greater potential. Put another way, a
special characteristic of dissipative business structures, is that as the
system moves further away from the equilibrium state, the system may develop
suddenly into forms of ever increasing complexity and capacity - a process of
neg-entropy, meaning the opposite of entropy. This is a wide spread
phenomenon in natural organic complex systems. Life is primarily innovative. In this
context, living systems are historically being challenged with levels of
environmental change that exceed their current capabilities and capacities. To be immersed in a situation which
exceeds one's present functionality is to be dysfunctional in that context.
Evolution happens when a living system innovates a new pathway or new
sub-system (see liminality) which can handle the
challenge, and the system as a whole moves to a higher level of functionality
and coordination between sub-systems. In this regard, refer 'agency' and
'transcendence' in holon. Adaptation has occurred.
Dysfunction is therefore an essential ingredient in the evolutionary process.
See incapability capability. When part of a system is challenged by an
event that exceeds its capabilities and capacities (the definition of
dysfunction) the system as a whole draws upon the resilience of its network
(see 'Connexity ) to enable the part to develop a new strategy/pathway
to handle the challenge. A key talent in this context is having incapability capability. If the process is successful, the system as a whole grows and evolves to a higher order of intercon |
