What A Triangle, A Pencil Case And A System Have In Common
Introduction
The following section describes the Triangle Game, the Pencil Case game, as well as explains why systems work so well and their connection to the concepts discussed further on. It's purpose is to show how things that seem to have no connection between them influence each other. It also discusses the ways in which a change in one variable can affect the outcomes of the whole system or shape of structure, and how the change in thinking about a system can change the final outcome.
Games and Key Concepts
The Triangle Game
The objective of the experiment on the video displayed below is to make as many equilateral triangles as possible between 3 people. The production of equilateral triangles along the way, repetitively, creates new shapes, which replicate the Koch's Snowflake system segment discovered by the Swedish Mathematician, Helge von Koch in 1904.
The following section describes the Triangle Game, the Pencil Case game, as well as explains why systems work so well and their connection to the concepts discussed further on. It's purpose is to show how things that seem to have no connection between them influence each other. It also discusses the ways in which a change in one variable can affect the outcomes of the whole system or shape of structure, and how the change in thinking about a system can change the final outcome.
Games and Key Concepts
The Triangle Game
The objective of the experiment on the video displayed below is to make as many equilateral triangles as possible between 3 people. The production of equilateral triangles along the way, repetitively, creates new shapes, which replicate the Koch's Snowflake system segment discovered by the Swedish Mathematician, Helge von Koch in 1904.
Why Systems Work So Well?
Concept 1: Resilience (as seen in triangle game)
- “Placing a system in a straitjacket of constancy can cause fragility to evolve”
- With every change, it became easier to adapt
- Even with the removal of people, the system was able to adapt (high resilience)
- When one of “our people” was removed, we were allowed to change
- Minor constraining factors (namely space) meant high resilience & elasticity
- During both games, there was an alteration added to influence the output/ Result (Optimization)
- Meta Resilience behaviour where the system develops a new behaviour - it Learns, Diversifies, Becomes more complex and Evolves to new structures
Concept 2: Self-Organisation
- Initial simple rule: make an equilateral triangle
- The system becomes complex as we, ourselves, become a part of the system organized in small subsystems
Concept 3: Hierarchy
At the beginning, each one of us was given the task to form a triangle, that consisted of 3 people, however, each structure was interconnected to others that could consist of other 3 people and so on - a system. Thus, together we created a big system that consisted of subsystems of interconnected and interrelated structures. Additionally, the leader instructed us to move in a certain direction depending on the movement of one of the chosen students. Thus, since we were disorganised (the triangles were badly formed within the group), whenever the system had to move due to the instructions and management it moved very slow and with delays in order to keep the same form and proportion. Thus, it was concluded, that a part of the system becomes dominant over others when a system forms a perfect shape of organisation which allows to move faster and reduce the delay time.
The Pencil Case Game
This game targets critical and innovative thinking in order to find ways to create solutions to problems that are not necessarily obvious with the use of the following conditions. Three pencil-cases were used during the game.
Four main rules were applied:
1) players cannot have more than one pencil-case in their hands at a time,
2) any pencil-case can be dropped only once
3) the order of passing must remain the same
4) everything that is not forbidden is allowed
Everyone came in the middle of the class and gathered in a circle. The game was played in a few rounds:
1) people were standing in a circle and were THROWING the pencil-cases to each other in random order
2) students aligned in the order and started PASSING the pencil-cases that made the game more efficient
3) players started to use the technique of STALKING UP the hands, while the teacher was holding the pencil-cases, and then dropping the hands one by one
4) HAND FLOW allowed students to be as efficient as possible in this game.
Concept 4: Diminishing returns
If we drew the graph of how the game was carried out, we would see, that first the “benefits” for the team (in our case cutting off time) were outweighing the costs (our efforts). However, it became more and more difficult to progress. With more rounds we were able to cut less time. Between first and second round, we eliminated around 60% of time elapsed, then from second to third only about 40% and then around 20% and change, etc. If we kept playing the game, we would reach a limit at one point when it is not possible to advance anymore. We would just lose time and no matter how hard we tried it wouldn’t be possible to go beyond a certain time interval. This is why it is possible to relate the game to theory and real life at the same time. For example, if someone is doing fitness, in the beginning of a training regime, fitness levels improve rapidly, but as a person become fitter, the returns diminish.
Concept 5: Norms
The impact of the teacher throwing the pencil case provoked it being thrown by the players. It became a norm; however, it was not established by the rules. The players automatically considered the act of throwing as the right act and used it throughout the game. Moreover, the fact that the teacher has thrown the pencil case to the person in front of him, made the players recognise another norm and implement it to the game. Those norms disrupted our attention from the goal and the way to achieve this goal. As in real life, norms create boundaries for systems to work in and regulate them. Those norms can be both positive and negative for the system depending on how those norms were established.
Concept 6. Self-organisation
As we started the game, we did not have any clearly determined self-organisation. As per definition, self-organisation is the capacity of a system to make its own structure more complex. We started the game and as productivity was not an element we self-organised ourselves by choosing the partners to whom we wanted to throw the pencil case. Self-organisation occurred all along the game, as every round created a new system to reach the goal. As more clearly defined rules came along, we self-organised accordingly. We self-organised in an order which simplified the passing of the pencil case while still respecting the predetermined rules. Self-organisation is often abandoned for productivity reasons and that also occurred as we stopped self-organising and set our mindsets in solely being as fast as possible and succeeded on our last round.
If we drew the graph of how the game was carried out, we would see, that first the “benefits” for the team (in our case cutting off time) were outweighing the costs (our efforts). However, it became more and more difficult to progress. With more rounds we were able to cut less time. Between first and second round, we eliminated around 60% of time elapsed, then from second to third only about 40% and then around 20% and change, etc. If we kept playing the game, we would reach a limit at one point when it is not possible to advance anymore. We would just lose time and no matter how hard we tried it wouldn’t be possible to go beyond a certain time interval. This is why it is possible to relate the game to theory and real life at the same time. For example, if someone is doing fitness, in the beginning of a training regime, fitness levels improve rapidly, but as a person become fitter, the returns diminish.
Concept 5: Norms
The impact of the teacher throwing the pencil case provoked it being thrown by the players. It became a norm; however, it was not established by the rules. The players automatically considered the act of throwing as the right act and used it throughout the game. Moreover, the fact that the teacher has thrown the pencil case to the person in front of him, made the players recognise another norm and implement it to the game. Those norms disrupted our attention from the goal and the way to achieve this goal. As in real life, norms create boundaries for systems to work in and regulate them. Those norms can be both positive and negative for the system depending on how those norms were established.
Concept 6. Self-organisation
As we started the game, we did not have any clearly determined self-organisation. As per definition, self-organisation is the capacity of a system to make its own structure more complex. We started the game and as productivity was not an element we self-organised ourselves by choosing the partners to whom we wanted to throw the pencil case. Self-organisation occurred all along the game, as every round created a new system to reach the goal. As more clearly defined rules came along, we self-organised accordingly. We self-organised in an order which simplified the passing of the pencil case while still respecting the predetermined rules. Self-organisation is often abandoned for productivity reasons and that also occurred as we stopped self-organising and set our mindsets in solely being as fast as possible and succeeded on our last round.
Conclusion
- Everything is interconnected and interrelated, so it should not be overlooked when dealing with every single situation about the smallest elements
- You can never do only one thing - the others must follow and adapt, thus, if you want to change something - think about where you start
- Different people in the same structure will produce similar results and follow, thus, when the system structure changes, outcomes change too
- The collection of different movements can affect the whole performance of the system and subsystems (make it fail). However, if one of the components is missing, depending on the nature of the system, it can fall apart or adapt e.g. human body adapting and healing itself, versus, cancer in human body that kills the human because of lack of proper immunity or medicine to kill it . This can not only be applied to the system, but to real life and various sciences.
- Changes can arise without anticipation (example: we move incorrectly to create a triangle, we don't catch the pencil case). This means that a chaotic flow does not mean that things are going the wrong way, it means that it is restructuring.
Reference:
Meadows, D. and Wright, D. (2008). Thinking in systems. Sustainability Institute.