The Limits of “Systems Thinking”:
Surprise, Transformation & Excellence
Through Spontaneous
Discovery (2 of 2)
To make a long story short:
I now have a new hobby, and maybe, ye
gads, my life’s work for years to come. This winter I’ll do a little, but I also plan to
read up on outdoor spaces, Zen gardens, etc; visit some rock gardens—spaces close by or amidst my travels; and, indeed, concoct a more or less plan (rough
sketches) for next spring’s activities—though I’m sure that what I do will move forward
mostly by what I
discover as I move forward. (what discovers itself may actually be a better way to put it—there’s a “hidden hand” here.) As
I’m beginning to see it, this is at least a 10-year project—maybe even a multi-generation
project.
I proceeded by trial and error and
instinct, and each experiment led to/suggested another experiment (or 2 or 10) and to a
greater understanding of potential—the “plan,” though there was none, made itself. And it was
far, far better
(more ambitious, more interesting, more satisfying) than I would have imagined. In fact, the result to date bears little or no
relationship to what I was thinking about at the start—a trivial self-designed chore may become
the engine of my next decade;
the “brushcutting project” is now leading Susan and I to view our entire property, and what it might
represent, in a new light.
I was able to do much more than I’d dreamed—overall, and project by
project. “Systems
thinking”? It would have killed the whole thing.
Is “everything connected to everything
else”? Well, duh. But I had no idea how everything was connected to everything else until I
began (thank you, Michael Schrage) “serious play.”