How many times do we decry the “broken” world around us? Or express anxiety about the imperfections in our organizations or in our own lives? Well, Sam Carpenter has just written an amazing post, on his Work the System website, that is a simple but deep reminder that most systems are not only working but working perfectly according to their original designs: whether it is plant life emerging in spring just as it has in previous years and looking just the same, or a human-designed system such as an airline getting passengers to New York City from Chicago. Systems – millions of them – are working! Why not focus on effective systems and improve those as environments change, rather than on the “imperfect” ones – which, in my view, are not always whole systems but are human habits, human assumptions about reality or what is or is not possible, or about flawed human decisions.

On this spring day in the Midwest where daffodils (perfect ones) are pushing up through the ground, why not stop and appreciate the extraordinary abundance of perfect systems operating around us?

Thank you Sam Carpenter!

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