Systemic Management 5
Sustainable human interactions with ecosystems and the biosphere, part 5
A book by Charles W. Fowler
Sustainable human interactions with ecosystems and the biosphere, part 5
Introducing Pattern-based Management
Systemic management relies heavily on using empirical information from other species as guidance for human self-control at the species level…. Patterns are part of the foundation for systemic management. Through the process of emergence, they provide integrated objective information that automatically accounts for the complexity we are unable to consider in conventional practices. A probability distribution like the standard “bell shaped curve” is a function of all factors that contribute to its formation. Patterns integrate and account for complexity and all its elements in direct proportion to their relative importance. This includes all interactions and interrelationships — it specifically includes ecosystems.
It is information that represents a complete, integrated accounting of all factors through its emergence. Subjective assignment of the relative importance of various factors to be weighed in conventional decision making is replaced by the objective weights realized in nature to account for their actual relative importance.
Patterns replace humans [stakeholders, experts] in accounting for complexity.
The observable patterns of what works determine policy/action. Humans don’t get a vote as to what works to persist on the planet long term.
We need to understand better how patterns are natural phenomena that emerge from and reflect complexity — how they represent cybernetic information that accounts for complexity so that stakeholders, scientists, and managers confine their roles to [that of systemic management of humans]. Then we can proceed toward a more thorough understanding of how patterns serve as guidance for systemic management. We need a deeper appreciation of the ways patterns account for human influence.
List of articles in this book review series: Systemic Management.