Change can be hard within a system

Complex systems¹ often self-heal and self-correct over time, especially when the attempt at change occurs in the wrong place. Finding the right place to introduce change is the difficult part.

---

If a factory is torn down but the ratioinality which produced it is left standing, then that rationality will simply produce another factory. If a revolution destroys a government, but the systematic patterns of thought that produced the government are left intact, then those patterns will repeat themselves...There's so much talk about the system. And so little understanding

• Robert Pirsig, Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance

Backlinks

• System
  • This complexity and interconnectedness makes systems resilient to change - which can be an advantage or a disadvantage. Depending on your perspective.
• Thinking in Systems - Donella H. Meadows
  • Change can be hard or impossible within a system
• The importance of education
  • change within a system is hard - peoples understandings are often the right pivot point for change. Expanding their views and providing new lenses will help to affect change.

---

1. Thinking in systems ↩