The Fundamental Processpatterns of Living Systems Can Be Summarized in Five Descriptive Terms

North Seattle Community College
Embracing a Complex Future, Winter 2011
Living Systems Vocabulary and Concepts

Patterns are images in our mind’s eye that we create from repeated observation of the world around us. For example, hierarchy is a pattern. But living systems are also patterns. Our ability to recognize and apply the fundamental process patterns of natural, organic systems to social systems just might be the key to creating healthier, more sustainable families, communities and organizations. The ability to recognize patterns is what Heifetz calls “balcony thinking.”

The fundamental processpatterns of living systems can be summarized in five descriptive terms:

1) Emergence: While most of our social and political worlds can be explained in terms of command systems and hierarchy, living systems assemble themselves without a single “executive” branch calling each shot; all organic systems have the capacity to develop within a collective context – to emerge from low-level rules to higher level sophistication. Multiple agents interact in multiple ways following local rules, oblivious to any higher-level instruction. New patterns just seemingly emerge in an unhurried, unfolding process.

An example of emergence is that we are creating the future everyday by what we choose to do and how we do it.

2) Interdependence: Interdependence is a universal pattern of complex connection and mutual dependence that is vital to all things, most especially living systems; relationships sustain life. All phenomena in the universe can only be understood in the context of an inseparable web of relationship.

This means to understand one thing completely we have to understand all things completely – making it impossible to understand anything completely. Another word for interdependence is nested systems.

3) Self-organization: Scientists see self-organizing behavior in systems like ant colonies where organization comes from individual ants pay attention to their immediate neighbor rather than to orders from above. There is no above. We see it in cities where products and materials get distributed with no one in charge of it all. Ant colonies and cities, like all other living systems, continually self-organize in response to felt needs.

For example, all living things organize and sustain themselves through networks. The human brain is a complex network. Organisms reach out, learn and re-create themselves through a diverse network. The ability for a living system to create or recreate themselves is called “autopoiesis” (HumbertoMaturana, biologist).

4) Purposefulness in context: Purposefulness is insight into how “what we do” as persons or organizations serves the needs of the “whole”. It means being aware of the near and far effect of our efforts, and the uniqueness of the contribution we make. It means keeping the end in view while at the same time recognizing that there is no end. It is through the recognition of purpose that organizational and personal identities emerge.

This means that it matters, and shapes our experience, if we are clear about what our purpose is (in organizing), what outcomes we seek, and how often we adjust to realign with our greater purpose and outcomes. It’s called intentionality.

5) Self-adjustment: Self-adjustment is made possible in a system when information about outcomes returns to the source – keeping itself stable in the midst of dynamically changing situations (environments). We refer to this as an adaptive system.

Feedback takes two classical forms – positive and negative. Positive feedback propels and amplifies creating a self-fueling cycle (effect). Negative feedback keeps the system in check. Since system change is an act of cognition, feedback is always associated with learning.

Mechanical structures are often not responsive to their environments. In contrast, living systems are responsible to their environments enabling it to remain in harmony with an environment even as the environment changes. This concept is also called “structural coupling” which means that the structure of the living systems, determine its behavior, and must be in accord with the requirements of its environment in order to thrive.

This means that in a social world we are all a thermostat – reading the group temperature and adjusting our behavior accordingly.

6) First and Second Laws of Thermodynamics: Thermodynamics describes the movement of energy. The first law says that the total amount of energy in the universe is constant. The second law says that matter and energy tend to spread out and dissipate. In mechanical systems, the executive in charge must constantly be infusing the system with new energy and direction because of the dissipation of energy. In living systems, since they self organize, are nested within larger systems, feed off of each other’s direction and growth (through communication patterns), and self adjust, they have the capacity for evolution and resilience.

7) Part-Whole Connection or Seed Principle: Inliving systems, the whole is not only composed of parts, but it is contained in the parts (holacracy or holocracy). For example, in living systems, a simple cell contains all of the information it needs to generate the whole organism when it interacts within an environment that contains the appropriate nutrients. The cell and the acorn may seem alike, but in fact they are in both places. Henri Bortoft (German physicist and philosopher of science) called it “presencing the whole.”

When we understand this principle, we see our schools, colleges, organizations, not as parts, but as seeds of potential interacting with larger environments.

______

Living Systems Concepts adapted from:
Stiehl, Ruth. “Fundamental Process Patterns that Distinguish Organizations as ‘Living’ Systems”, 2009.

Sweeney, Linda Booth. Connected Wisdom: Living Stories about Living Systems. Regent Publishing, 2008.