A selective process goes on, whereby Systems attract and keep those people whose attributes are such as to adapt them to life in that System: SYSTEMS ATTRACT SYSTEMS-PEOPLE Systems-people everywhere share certain attributes, but each specific System tends to attract people with specific sets of traits. For example, people who are attracted to auto-

COMPLEX SYSTEMS EXHIBIT UNEXPECTED BEHAVIOR One is merely a pessimistic feeling; the other conveys the exhilaration that accompanies recognition of a Law of Nature. Because of its fundamental importance for all that follows, we have termed this Law the Generalized Uncertainty Principle.

Ignorance of the Basic Axiom is responsible for the most widespread and futile of all administrative errors—pushing harder on the nonfunctioning System to make it work better (Administrator’s Anxiety): PUSHING ON THE SYSTEM DOESN’T HELP You might as well try to bring the elevator up to your floor by pulling on the indicator lever or pounding the ca

the Basic Axiom of Systems-function, the one from which all the others are ultimately derived: BIG SYSTEMS EITHER WORK ON THEIR OWN OR THEY DON’T. IF THEY DON’T, YOU CAN’T MAKE THEM

although people build Systems almost instinctively,[b. ] they do not lightly turn their ingenuity to the study of How Systems Work.

The power of the Naming Effect should not be underestimated. It is literally the power to bring new “realities” into existence.[g.] Because of this power the various wars on “crime,” “poverty,” “addiction,” and the like not only continue in a state of chronic failure: they are doomed to be waged forever, so long as they continue to be framed in tho

When a System continues to do its own thing, regardless of circumstances, we may be sure it is acting in pursuit of inner goals. This observation leads us, by a natural extension, to the insight that SYSTEMS DEVELOP GOALS OF THEIR OWN THE INSTANT THEY COME INTO BEING Furthermore, it seems axiomatically clear that: INTRASYSTEM GOALS COME FIRST More

SYSTEMS RUN BEST WHEN DESIGNED TO RUN DOWNHILL More briefly formulated: AVOID UPHILL CONFIGURATIONS —or, in the vernacular: GO WITH THE FLOW In human terms, this means working with human tendencies rather than against them.

In a smoothly-functioning System, the number of formal messages is near minimum. The tasks get done and the System moves on to new tasks. In contrast, a poorly-functioning System begins to generate increasing numbers of messages, often shaped around such questions as “What went wrong?”, “How far along is Task X?”, and especially, “Why don’t we have