Statics: What provides the stability for this system?
A second facet is to be found in the policies, procedures and processes that hold the system together. This is a structural perspective. This is the conservative element of a polystatic process: the baseline and predictions must remain relatively stable if we are to operate with some level of sanity in our VUCA-Plus world. While attention is usually drawn to the dynamic properties of a system, there are often overlooked mechanisms in the system that provide stability and continuity. It is in the statics (rather than dynamics) of a system that one will find Essence. That which is repeated and replicated every day and taken for granted constitutes the Essence of a system.
Those involved in the study of complexity would point to the fractals that are found in most living systems—especially those that are self-organizing. We find the same structure replicated at all levels of a pine tree (limbs, branches, needles). It is often noted that Mother Nature is rather lazy: when she finds something that works then she will replicate it many times and at many levels. The same can be said for human systems. It is in these replications that we find Polystatic stability.
Primacy: How does the founding of this system influence how this system is operating today?
A third facet of the Lens relates specifically to the founding experience of a system. What happens at birth and what happens first (primacy). What was the baseline and first predictions to be found when first establishing a polystatic process in any specific system. At the level of an individual human being, we can focus on this person’s early life (a psychoanalytic perspective) or even their experience at birth when seeking to understand their motives and behavior later in life. One can engage a similar perspective in seeking to understand why a system operates as it does. There are decisions made early in the life of this system and events that impinge on the system when it is first formed that continue to have an impact on the system throughout its life.
In many cases, the responses made to early challenges in the life of a system continue to dictate the way in which members of this system continue to view the outside world—even when this world has changed and when the system has matured. Old baselines and predictions linger and influence (even determine) how we act in the world. The leadership style(s) engaged early in the life of a system are likely to remain in place, even when new leaders enter the system. Founding stories are told repeatedly as a way to ensure that values and priorities are maintained. Behavioral economists write about the power of primacy in decision-making. This effect operates at the level of an entire system. The Essence of any system resides in this primacy.
Central Operating Principle: What is the fundamental assumption about how this system does/should successfully function?
The Essence of any system contains the core beliefs, principles and assumption that exist in the minds (and hearts) of those operating in this system. My colleague, John Krubski (2023) offers a hierarchical perspective. He proposes that the identification of one central operating principle (COP) is critical when any team is planning, problem-solving or making decisions. The COP is, in turn, built on three distinctive (yet interdependent) propositions that the team identifies. These propositions, in turn, are derived from seven significant facts about the system that are identified by the team. John describes a 7-3-1 process that enables a team to gain clarity and insight regarding steps to be taken in addressing any challenge facing the system.
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