System traps are ways a system can go wrong, can end up in dysfunctional behavior.
System traps can be escaped by recognizing them in advance and not getting caught in them, by changing the structure, by reformulating goals, by altering or adding feedback loops. That is why these are not just traps, but opportunities.
Trap 1: Rule Beating
Whenever there are rules, there is likely to be rule beating. The cause of rule breaking is usually related to the fact that these rules are perceived as unjust or not flexible enough with respect to real life issues.
Ideas for way out: Improve Rules in order to support self organisation. Design, or redesign, rules to release creativity not in the direction of beating the rules, but in the direction of achieving the purpose of the rules
Trap 2: Shifting the Burden
Shifting the burden, dependence, and addiction arise when a solution to a systemic problem reduces the symptoms, but does nothing to solve the underlying problem. The system will become more and more dependent on the intervenor and less and less able to maintain its own desired state. It is like "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime"
Ideas for way out: The best way out of this trap is to avoid getting in, Intervene in such a way as to strengthen the ability of system to shoulder its own burden, Take the focus off short-term relief and put it on long-term restructuring
Trap 3: Attractiveness principle
The basic idea behind the “Attractiveness Principle” is that, in the long run, you can’t be all things to all people. If you offer “the best” on every competitive dimension, the market will swamp you with so much demand that you will eventually become less attractive in certain areas.
Ideas for way out: Optimize the whole, not the parts. Focusing on overall relative attractiveness means focusing on optimizing the whole, not the parts. This means, choices have to be made about where to deploy limited company resources.
Trap 4: Escalation
Everyone tries to outdo each other by creating more problems. When the state of one stock is determined by trying to surpass the state of another stock and vice versa then there is a reinforcing feedback loop carrying the system into an arms race, a wealth race, a smear campaign, escalating loudness, escalating violence.
Ideas for way out: Change the rules of the game, avoid getting in it. If caught in an escalating system, one can refuse to compete, thereby interrupting the reinforcing loop. Or one can negotiate a new system with balancing loops to control the escalation.
Trap 5: Fixes that fail
Fixes work, but come back to haunt.In our search for the quick fix, we often rush into “solutions” without taking the time to understand the full impact of our actions. It is a chronic problem. One of the tricky things about systems is that they usually point our attention toward short-term fixes and away from fundamental solutions.
Ideas for way out: Start with problem symptoms, map the unintended consequences, Identify loops and their connections.
Trap 6: Success to the Successful
The richer gets richer while the poor stay poorer. In this system trap if the winners of a competition are systematically rewarded with the means to win again, a reinforcing feedback loop is created by which, if it is allowed to proceed uninhibited, the winners eventually take all, while the losers are eliminated.
Ideas for way out: Shuffle people, Diversification, which allows those who are losing the competition to get out of that game and start another one, policies that level the playing field, removing some of the advantages of the strongest players or increasing the advantage of the weakest, policies that devise rewards for success that do not bias the next round of competition.
Trap 7: Limits to Success/ Failure
Everything that is an asset becomes liability and Everything that is a liability becomes an asset. The “Limits to Success” archetype shows that being successful can be just as dangerous to long term health as being unsuccessful. Even success can sow the seeds of failure by stressing and overburdening the current system. Success can also trap us in a mentality of “what worked in the past will continue to work in the future."
Ideas for way out: Strengthen Talent pipeline, Identifying growth engines, Identifying potential limits and balancing loops
Trap 8: Seeking the wrong Goal
If the goal, the indicators of satisfaction of the rules are defined inaccurately or incompletely, the system may obediently work to produce a result that is not really intended or wanted.
Ideas for way out: Specify indicators and goals that reflect the real welfare of the system. Be especially careful not to confuse effort with result or you will end up with a system that is producing effort, not result.
Trap 9: Tragedy of Commons
Everyone thinks that it is someone else’s Job.This arises from missing or too long delayed feedback from the resource to the growth of the users to that resource. The more users there are, the more resources are used. The more resources are used, the less there is per user.
Ideas for way out: Dialogue before introducing anything.Educate and exhort the users, so they understand the consequences of abusing the resource. And also restore or strengthen the missing feedback link, either by privatizing the resource so each user feels the direct consequences of its abuse by regulating the access of all users to the resource
These nine System traps when identified, becomes an opportunity for the organization to be aware of the dysfunctions and hence, take the appropriate measures and grow efficiently.
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