Anda di halaman 1dari 3

Zen Cafes – for investors in sustainable enterprise

The three primary principles that scientists consider


sufficient to account for all phenomena in the universe are
: self-organisation, interdependence and diversity.

Self-organisation means that everything in the universe


has the power to sustain its own unique identity.

Just as the universe itself creates its own order and its own
identity out of homogoneous, random disorder, so each
entity in nature makes real – actualises – an inherent
unique potential that defines it as utterly distinctive.

By itself, the power to self-organize – to define and sustain the unique self – implies the
potential to grow without limit. Indeed that potential exists everywhere at every
moment.

Preventing any single entity in nature from using its self-organising power to grow
without limit is the principle of interdependence. In theory it is possible for any one entity
in nature to use all the energy that exists simply to embody its unique self in all the
matter that exists.

However, nature has not permitted any


one phenomenon to fill the entire
universe. Instead of only one galaxy,
there are billions. Instead of only one
type of atom, there exist many. This
limitation on growth arises from the
principle of interdependence. Deeply
rooted in the fabric of modern relativistic
and quantum physics, this principle
holds that everything in the universe
interrelates with everything else. Because all things are related, thr single self-organising
entity inevitably bumps up against, and is challenged by, other self-organising entities.

This perpetual challenge limits the ability of any single systém in the universe to use
energy to embody itself into more and more matter.

In fact, the interactions of unique identities transform a propensity for extensive growth
into a universal capacity to generate new things – new entities that did not exist before
these interactions. Nature combines a cyclical dynamic – the imperative to relate – with a
linear dynamic – the imperative to self-organise – in a recursive process that generates
endless newness. For example, within galaxies, the interaction among hydrogen and
helium atoms generates stars: among sexually reproducing organisms on Earth, the
interaction of partners generates new offspring: and among humans the interaction that
occurs in conversation generates new thinking.

Newness continually arises from the constant interaction of unique entities. This
remarkable production of new entities occurs because everything is related to everything
else, and relationships among self-organising entities generate diversity, the third
principle underlying the unfolding universe.

According to the diversity principle, nature‘s process never produces the same output the
same way twice. Nature never repeats itself because, being a recursive process, it
continually acts upon the output of its own operation. In other words, nature self-
organises unique output in a cyclical process that continually re absorbs its own output as
feedback. Compound interest is an example of a recursive process. So too, is learning,
acquiring a new skill, learning a language and learning to play a game.
For further analysis, the reader is invited to look at: Profit Beyond Measure – Extraordinary Results through
Attention to Work and People
http://www.amazon.com/Profit-Beyond-Measure-Extraordinary-Attention/dp/068483667X
Zen Cafes – for investors in sustainable enterprise

In nature, no matter how many billions of recurrences there are of one phenomenon –
galaxies, carbon atoms, stars, humans, snowflakes, whatever – no two are the same.
Moreover the species of phenomena themselves seem to diversify without limit. Indeed,
diversification produces constant chane – the central discovery modern science has made
about the nature of the universe.

Nature‘s capacity for constant change, constant


diversification, ensures the survival of the
universe and bio systems on Earth. As systems
engineers have long understood, a dynamic open
system that clings to one state or condition is
destined to collapse. If a surfer riding in the curl
of a giant wave clings to one position, he or she
will fall.
The surfer maintains an upright position, that is – survives – by constantly changing
every muscle in harmony with the ever changing contour of the wave. Similarly the
universe changes continuously through the perpetual flux of a constant budget of matter
and energy.
The Norwegian philosoher Arnes Naess used the phrase: Rich Ends from Simple Means
to describe nature‘s seemingly endless ability to generate newness from the same bundle
of matter and energy.

Businesses that emulate the principles of natural systems as Toyota have done can
achieve the rich ends from simple means
such as variety at mass production costs
–referred to by Naess.

Unfortunately, many businesses today are


held back from realising their potential
because the thinking that guides their
action is not derived from the principles
that shape natural systems. Instead, their
thinking derives from principles that are
grounded in a mechanistic worldview that
has prevailed since the 1700s. The culmination of the work of Copernicus, Galileo,
Descartes, Newton and others sees, on this worldview the universe as a machine – a
giant clock work as Newton described it. The order a machine manifests is imposed on its
parts by an external design.

Business leaders holding such a notion regard their


companies as machines and employees as cogs in
the¨machine gears. Guided by unconscious conformity to
this mechanistic view they cannot believe that satisfactory
results will emerge simply by following principles implicit in
all natural living systems. Indeed, most managers today
believe that the best way for an organisation to reach its
goals is to have each of its parts concentrate on achieving
local quantitive targets that by design or plan are supposed
to add up to the desired company-wide results.
Reinforcing that belief is the conviction that what occurs in
the organisation happens because of external forces and
influences that can be expressed quantitatively. The whole
is seen as equal to the sum of its parts, and the parts themselves regarded as
independent, not intrinsically related.

For further analysis, the reader is invited to look at: Profit Beyond Measure – Extraordinary Results through
Attention to Work and People
http://www.amazon.com/Profit-Beyond-Measure-Extraordinary-Attention/dp/068483667X
Zen Cafes – for investors in sustainable enterprise

In contrast to such thinking, modern science now offers a fresh worldview that can
liberate and transform the waÿ we think about and conduct economic activities. If we
view a business organisation as an evolving self-organising system, not as a mechanical
collection of parts, we would jettison the misguided notion that order derives exclusively
from human intervention. Instead we would realise that pattern and order - Harmony –
emerge spontaneously when an organisation conforms to nature s principles and is
managed in accord with those principles. Indeed the order evidenced by living systems is
not externally imposed.
Rather, this order emerges from within, from a process
that embodies self-organising pattern in material
substance. A living organism can be described, then, as
an embodied pattern. In other words, its design is not
separate from its material substance, which itself evolved
from relatively homogenised cosmic dust at the time of
the big bang into the diverse manifestations we now
perceive in the universe.
Were design separate from, and external to, matter, one
would expect to find identical fingerprints, retinal
patterns, and mating calls among different organisms.
The fact that individual living organisms are unique
suggests that a pattern embodies itself distinctively in the
substance of every particular organism.
Looking at a business as an embodied pattern – as modern scientists now view a life
systém – would imply that the natural way to manage would be to discover and nurture
appropriate relationships and wait for results to emerge sponstaneously, like a skilled
gardener who knows that properly caring for the soil is enough, the rest is up to nature.

To emulate nature‘s systems then managers must


enable a business to organise its work according to the
universal principles of self-organisation,
interdependence and diversity.

Toyota serves as a useful prototype of what it properly


means to organise business activities according to the
principles that underlie all natural systems.

The real source of the difference in performance


between Toyota and other motor manufacturers, in the
1950s to the present day, is not just the methods of
Toyota but the different thinking implicit in the methods
themselves.

For those who want to know more

1. The nature of results


2. What this means in practice

For further analysis, the reader is invited to look at: Profit Beyond Measure – Extraordinary Results through
Attention to Work and People
http://www.amazon.com/Profit-Beyond-Measure-Extraordinary-Attention/dp/068483667X

Anda mungkin juga menyukai