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Requisite Variety
Why Choice Not Strategy Is the Secret to Winning the Game of Life
Those of you who have worked with me will know that I love to read books.
In fact, my love of books is equaled only by my love of rummaging through the eclectic mix of titles found in second hand bookshops. And it was as a result of a visit to a local bookshop, filled with dusty, cloth bound hardbacks and boxes of tatty old route maps, that I stumbled upon something totally unexpected and absolutely fascinating. That was the day that I discovered the work of William Ross Ashby.
Back in 1952, cyberneticist Ashby was exploring how machines powered by Artificial Intelligence could be programmed to respond to problems in the same way that our brains do. As part of this process, Ashby’s work explored the adaptive behaviours of the human brain and its ability to solve complex problems in order to develop his theories on the development of AI machines.
And it was as a result of this work that he established a theory which was as valuable to cybernetics in the 1950’s as it is in my coaching practice today.
Put simply, Ashby observed that when faced with a complex problem that presents multiple challenges, the person or AI system attempting to overcome it must be capable of generating an equal or greater number of solutions.
He called this principle the Law of Requisite Variety.
Although it emerged from the world of cybernetics, Ashby’s law is grounded in human behaviour and psychology. And as a result, it is just as relevant in helping us overcome the challenges in our everyday lives.
Why Flexibility Matters.
In cybernetic theory, variety refers to the number of different responses a system can produce to overcome a problem. And my coaching philosophy includes a principle which is remarkably similar.
If we are faced with the kind of life challenge that keeps us awake at night, it’s inevitably because it feels too complex for us to solve with the strategies available to us at that time. Each time we think of a solution, such as deciding to speak up, trying to ignore it or feeling forced to take drastic action, it doesn’t solve the problem. In fact, in most cases, the hand-full of solutions that we find available to us, simply seem to lead us into yet another equally unsatisfactory situation.
The reason for this is that when our bodies experience situations that cause us anxiety, we lose our ability for relaxed, resourceful thinking. That’s when our stress responses kick in and our solutions become limited to just four types of response.
Fight, flight, freeze or fawn.
But when we repeatedly run through this handful of familiar, well-rehearsed responses, only to discover that none of them offer a satisfactory solution, it is easy to conclude that the situation is impossible to resolve.
In reality, however, the complexities of our situation are simply greater than the variety of solutions that we generate in response to it.
Psychologists describe our ability to generate a variety of solutions in response to such problems as cognitive flexibility. And the measure of our cognitive flexibility is our capacity to adapt our thinking and behaviour in response to our changing circumstances. So, rather than relying on the same old habitual responses that no longer fit the situation, we require the flexibility to choose a variety of new responses. It is this flexibility, rather than sophisticated success strategies or dogged determination, that enables us to navigate complex challenges successfully.
As a professional coach, I often work with clients who have been experiencing the effects of cognitive inflexibility for months or even years without recognising it. Unaware that the stress of their situation has limited their problem-solving capacity, their strategy of drastic action, soul-numbing resilience or simply trying even harder, fails to solve the problem. And they arrive feeling frustrated and defeated.
In some cases, they may even have begun to suspect that they themselves are the problem that requires a solution.
When The Problem Is Greater Than Our Current Capacity.
When the complexity of the outside world exceeds our internal ability to respond, we can easily begin to feel overwhelmed.
As our nervous system interprets our uncertainty and frustration as a threat, our stress response narrows our focus. Creative thinking gives way to familiar thinking, and familiar thinking repeatedly produces familiar results.
Instead of expanding our repertoire of responses, we double down on the strategies that have always served us well. The success strategies that helped us build our careers; our relationships or our reputations quietly evolve into survival strategies that no longer serve us.
Over time, those stress responses begin to feel less like chosen strategies and more like personality traits. We tell ourselves, "This is just the way I am." Yet what once represented itself as resourcefulness gradually becomes rigidity and erodes the very strategies that brought us success.
The decisive leader becomes cold and controlling.
The conscientious professional becomes paralysed by perfectionism.
Without noticing, the very behaviour that was once a virtue becomes a vice.
And our internal map of the world and perception of what we are capable of, shrinks.
The Map Is Not the Territory
In 1933 philosopher Alfred Korzybski famously observed that "the map is not the territory."
Korzybski developed this concept to explain his field of General Semantics, proposing that human beings cannot experience the world directly. But instead perceive reality through the filters of our senses, thoughts and language. In other words, the mental picture we hold of the world is never the world itself. It is simply our interpretation of it.
Every experience we have, every success, disappointment, great relationship and emotional setback, contributes to the map we carry in our minds. The trouble is that maps have limitations. They simplify reality, contain errors and just like the tatty old maps in the bookstore, they fail to automatically update. As a result, they omit new possibilities and quietly convince us that the routes that we have tried and found blocked, were our only way forward.
When that happens, our map presents an over simplified representation of the complex reality that we are trying to navigate.
The reality therefore, isn't that achieving our goal isn’t impossible.
It's that we need to update and expand our map.
The opportunity to change the map and therefore change the game is one of the reasons my clients find my coaching philosophy so effective.
Clients rarely seek me out in the belief that they need my advice. In reality, most already possess far more knowledge than they are using. What they lack isn't information, it's a collaborative thinking environment that enables them to gain a fresh perspective and to generate new solutions.
This fresh perspective gives them the clarity to recognise assumptions they didn't realise they were making, question learned patterns of behaviour that they had mistaken for personality traits, and discover a greater variety of responses that had previously remained invisible.
As we increase our self-awareness, we are able to expand our internal map of the world.
An expanded map enables greater cognitive flexibility and a greater variety of choices.
And a greater number of choices creates more possibilities.
Reflection
Perhaps the greatest challenge we face when overcoming complex problems, is not our lack of ability to generate a greater variety of creative solutions to overcome them, but our inability to recognise the limitations of our map.
Ashby's Law reveals that a problem which presents a variety of challenges, can only be overcome by a greater variety of solutions. But what that law also reveals, may be something far more inspiring.
The inspiration that comes from the belief in possibility.
And the realisation that the situations that once felt impossible to navigate, have the potential to be overcome.
Not by taking or drastic action, but by simply reducing our anxiety and frustration and expanding our map.
Because the bigger our world view, the greater the number of potential responses available to us and every additional response we develop expands the range of possibilities.
The moment that we recognise that variety is the solution and our map is not the territory, we change the game.
Before you go,
Is your map in need of an update?
What inspiring opportunities might become visible, if you created a bigger map?
And if you’re content with the variety of responses are currently available to you,
What might become possible if you created a few more?
You have been reading The Law of Requisite Variety, written and conceived by Susan Doherty.
This original work remains the intellectual property of Susan Doherty and may not be reproduced or presented as the work of another without permission."
Susan Doherty is a professional coach, development specialist and practitioner of NLP. Originally trained as a Neuro-Linguistic Programming Practitioner by Richard Bandler and as a hypnotherapist by Paul McKenna, she specialises in working with motivated clients who are driven by a desire to understand themselves and others, courageous enough to challenge established thought patterns and ready to explore new possibilities.
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If you enjoy exploring the psychology behind who we are and what we do, you can follow me on LinkedIn where I regularly share my observations, insights and questions designed to challenge our thinking and encourage new perspectives.
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If this article has prompted you to question your own situation or future direction, then perhaps it is time to explore them from a different perspective.
Arrange a confidential, no-obligation conversation with me and discover what new possibilities may become available when you have more clarity and more choice.