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Things coming in are routed about, molded and shaped on their way
out.
Outputs are exchanged for things coming in; then the cycle starts all
over again.
Systems are loops, they're cycles of events. Focusing on
"parts" doesn't make much sense.
If you would make use of the systems view, here's some well-meant
advice from me to you:
When observing systems from the outside, trace their outputs back
to their input side,
for what systems "do," or so I believe, is act to control
the things they receive.
A system's first purpose is to survive; it takes new inputs to keep
it alive.
Some are changed, transformed, and these pass on through; others
nourish, they sustain and renew.
Outputs for inputs: these interactions are more technically known as
"transactions."
For the human race, it is much the same; we all are involved in the
systems game.
But stand well clear of the digital view; it doesn't fit me, it
doesn't fit you.
Our lives are continuous, not discrete. Besides, bits
and bytes don't love, sleep, nor eat.
Though behaviorists rant, and some might rave, stimulus in doesn't
make us behave.
The S-R model is a mindless one, human as "black box" - an
automaton.
Conditioning can't work, so why the fuss? We human beings are
autonomous.
Behavior results in things rearranged, the measure of which is
perception changed.
Saying what should be requires believing; gauging what is
depends on perceiving.
Perceptions tightly linked to intentions; any gaps soon closed by
interventions.
Made up of people and thus perception, organizations are no
exception.
Remember, all those goals and objectives are nothing more than human
directives
conveying some boss's valued "druthers" (to be achieved through the
labor of others).
Problems regarding what other folks do can best be resolved from the
systems view.
Step One is to Align the Reference.
Mind you, this is more than mere preference.
Feedback is not found in your words to me; it's found weighing my
goals with what I see.
Perception. Reference. These are the keys to unlocking
mysteries such as these:
Why? Why do we humans do what we do? Who's in control? Is it me?
Is it you?
The answers are there, waiting to be found in studies of loops going
'round and 'round.
There is a moral, a point to this rhyme of cycles of events tumbling
through time:
Listen with great caution to those who shout for you to focus
on what you put out.
Their self-serving clamor, their raucous din, should not distract
you from what's coming in.
There are no hard rules for what should go out save this one: It
will somehow come about
that what goes out will affect what comes in. What you produce is
irrelevant, then,
except in light of its impact on you. That is the essence of
"the systems view."
Enjoy these few small truths, ponder them well, and perhaps some day
in turn you can tell
someone you know - be it family or friend - how there is no
beginning and no end,
no cause, no effect, not one can be found in closed loops going
around and around.
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