Living Systems

(Deutsche Version verfügbar: Philosophie/Lebende Systeme)
 

"Precisely given instructions are followed by precise actions" is a faith one can loose if one looks at the results of "precise instructions" given to other human (or, equally animal) beings. 
Often one is seeking for the button you can push on to effect better actions, but actually you can't find. There's a lot of literature about "push-button-treating" of others, and, if you ask me, I can give you some names of books for better manipulation. But my way is another one. 
One of my first known experiences was: Every other being has its own head, will, intentions, mostly differring of mine, when not in "this" moment, just a little bit later i will perceive. My first reaction, I remember, was, to wait for the (actions and) reactions of the others on my action, as I knew, I could hardly calculate it before the reaction. The result of this (quite usual) attitude were early problems with others, as some thought, they could make with me, what they wanted. That every time turned out to be an error, because I already as a boy played the forced-up games with the rules of the creators, today known as "Tit For Tat". 
Some years later, in the middle of my twenties (1970), when I had to educate my doughters, I found out, that the result of my former experiences was to strengthen their will, to enable their own decisions and helping them to detect the boarders and helping them, to accept these. .... and, naturally, set them as a protect, if necessary (by the way, as I later found out, familiar to the education, I experienced from my mother). This attitude is staying typical for my behaviour, my attitudes and my thinking. 
 

Accepting the fact of autonomy of the individual demands new kinds of behaviour
In 1977 I started to work with a concept, basing on this attitude: "Leading by Coaching". That means: Not to say to my co-workers, what they had to do, but advise them, how to reach, what they wanted to. From 1990 I offered this concept to companies. 
Back to "instructions": What about your experiences with this subject? Do you like to get instructions like: Do this in this way? Surely not. Everybody has his own thoughts, own intentions and own will. And only then we can act in an optimum manner, when we are composing our actions by our selves. And thus the others,... all. 
"You can't instruct living systems" 
(Humberto Maturana) 
(...probably, as they don't have buttons to push on). 
So, in my way of logical thinking, it is the most simple way to co-operate with others, accepting the indisputable fact of their own deciding and put that in the foreground of our thinking. 
 

(Is to be continued ...) 
 
 
 
 

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©1990-2007 Rolf Reinhold 
Last updated at 07 Nov 2007