17. září 2004 339 ze 412 20 REWRITIN G THECODE 1 ystems thinking teaches that there are two types of complexity— the "detail complexity" of many variables and the "dynamic complexity" when "cause and effect" are not close in time and space and obvious interventions do not produce expected outcomes. The tools for systems thinking introduced in this book are especially designed for understanding dynamic complexity. They help in seeing underlying structures and patterns of behavior that are obscured in the fury of daily events and the incessant activity that characterizes the manager's life. They help in understanding why conventional solutions are failing and where higher leverage actions may be found. But what about detail complexity? What about the hundreds, per- haps thousands, of feedback processes in any real managerial situation, all operating simultaneously? How can we possibly cope with such complexity? What good is systems thinking, anyhow, if it only teaches us to identify a few feedback processes amid this welter of activity? In Chapter 13,1 suggested that one of the subtler lessons of the S 17. září 2004 340 ze 412 systems perspective is that this enormous detail complexity renders all rational explanations inherently incomplete. Human systems are infinitely complex. "You can never figure it out," I suggested— because it's "un-figure-out-able." Nonetheless, we can enhance our mastery of complexity. Evidence is overwhelming that human beings have "cognitive lim- itations." Cognitive scientists have shown that we can deal only with a very small number of separate variables simultaneously. Our conscious information processing circuits get easily overloaded by detail complexity, forcing us to invoke simplifying heuristics to figure things out. But then how can we explain driving an automobile at sixty miles per hour in heavy traffic—or playing tennis, or playing a Mozart sonata? All of these tasks are enormously complex, involving hundreds of variables and rapid changes that must be recognized and responded to immediately. Moreover, to the extent that we are masterful in these tasks, they are accomplished with little or no "conscious attention." We drive through traffic while carrying on a conversation with the person next to us. The tennis professional focuses entirely on the strategy of the match and the point being played. The concert pianist thinks only of the aesthetics of the performance, not the mechanics. Clearly there is an aspect of our minds that deals quite well with detail complexity—in fact, which is designed for the task. In the chapter on personal mastery, we called this "the subconscious" to suggest an aspect of mind that lies "below" or "behind" our normal conscious mental processes. Other labels are possible, such as auto- matic mind or "tacit knowledge," but the label is unimportant. 2 What is important is recognizing that we have enormous capacities to deal with detail complexity at the subconscious level that we do not have at the conscious level. It is also important to recognize that the subconscious can be "trained." In fact, all learning involves an interplay of the conscious mind and the subconscious that results in training the subconscious. We did not start off driving in heavy traffic; we practiced driving very slowly in a parking lot or on a quiet street because the subconscious was not yet trained to the task of driving. Gradually, more and more of the task is "taken over" by the subconscious—shifting gears becomes "automatic," "natural." This frees our conscious mind (with its limited information processing ability) to focus on the next stage of learning. 3 17. září 2004 341 ze 412 There are many ways by which the subconscious gets pro- grammed. Cultures program the subconscious. If you grow up in a society that discriminates sharply between certain races or castes, you will literally see and interact with people differently from the way you will if you grow up in a culture that is less race or caste-conscious. Beliefs also program the subconscious. It is well established, for example, that beliefs affect perception: if you believe that people are untrustworthy, you will continually "see" double-dealing and chicanery that others without this belief would not see. Perhaps most subtly, language programs the subconscious. The effects of language are especially subtle because language appears not so much to affect the content of the subconscious but the way the subconscious organizes and structures the content it holds. If this is true, how, then, have we been teaching the subconscious to organize information? As shown in Chapter 5, it is extremely awkward in normal verbal language to describe circular feedback processes. So, by and large, we give up and just say, in effect, "A caused B, which caused C." But this convenient shorthand suggests to the subconscious mind that "A did cause B." Subconsciously, we tend to forget that "B also caused A." If all we have is linear language, then we think in linear ways, and we perceive the world linearly—that is, as a chain of events. It is impossible for us to grasp the scope of the consequences, but we know they are sweeping. However, if we begin to master a systemic language, all this starts to change. The subconscious is subtly retrained to structure data in circles instead of straight lines. We find that we "see" feedback processes and systems archetypes everywhere. A new framework for thinking becomes embedded. A switch is thrown, much like what happens in mastering a foreign language. We begin to dream in the new language, or to think spontaneously in its terms and constructs. When this happens with systems thinking, we become, as one manager puts it, "looped for life." As organizational theorist Charles Kiefer puts it, "When this switch is thrown subconsciously, you become a systems thinker ever thereafter. Reality is automatically seen systemically as well as linearly (there still are lots of problems for which a linear perspective is perfectly adequate). Alternatives that are impossible to see linearly are surfaced by the subconscious as proposed solutions. Solutions that were outside of our 'feasible set' become part of our feasible set. 'Systemic' becomes a way of thinking (almost a way of being) and not just a problem solving methodology." 17. září 2004 342 ze 412 Rewriting theCodeThe subconscious is not limited by the number of feedback pro- cesses it can consider. Just as it deals with far more details than our conscious mind, it can also deal with far more intricate dynamic complexity. Significantly, as it assimilates hundreds of feedback re- lationships simultaneously, it integrates detail and dynamic complexity together. This is why practice is so important. For any meaningful interplay of conscious and subconscious, practice is essential. Conceptual learning is not enough, any more than it would be for learning a foreign language or for learning to ride a bicycle. In this context, tools like microworlds come into their own—as cultural media, as places to practice thinking and acting systemically. The value of systems thinking also goes beyond that derived by any institution. To explain, let me take a step back. There is a certain irony to mankind's present situation, viewed from an evolutionary perspective. The human being is exquisitely adapted to recognize and respond to threats to survival that come in the form of sudden, dramatic events. Clap your hands and people jump, calling forth some genetically encoded memory of saber- toothed tigers springing from the bush. Yet today the primary threats to our collective survival are slow, gradual developments arising from processes that are complex both in detail and in dynamics. The spread of nuclear arms is not an event, nor is the "greenhouse effect," the depletion of the ozone layer, malnutrition and underdevelopment in the Third World, the eco- nomic cycles that determine our quality of life, and most of the other large-scale problems in our world. Learning organizations themselves may be a form of leverage on the complex system of human endeavors. Building learning organizations involves developing people who learn to see as systems thinkers see, who develop their own personal mastery, and who learn how to surface and restructure mental models, collaboratively. Given the influence of organizations in today's world, this may be one of the most powerful steps toward helping us "rewrite the code," altering not just what we think but our predominant ways of thinking. In this sense, learning organizations may be a tool not just for the evolution of organizations, but for the evolution of intelligence. . conversation with the person next to us. The tennis professional focuses entirely on the strategy of the match and the point being played. The concert pianist. to affect the content of the subconscious but the way the subconscious organizes and structures the content it holds. If this is true, how, then, have