How to achieve the goal with the least resistance road?
Editor’s note: This article is from WeChat public account “Kizhi School” (ID: openmindclub), author Hailiang Authorized to reprint.
Individuals need to change in their daily lives – whether it is to develop a good habit or to achieve a goal, you should pay attention to the structure of your life and the path of least resistance.
We are all living in complex systems
We need to understand a rule: we all live in a complex system. This system includes our daily lives, social norms, interpersonal relationships, and natural ecology. The structure of the system largely determines what events will evolve and what actions and outcomes we will take in response to the incident. As the system thinking expert Venela Meadows said in “The Beauty of the System”:
The system structure is the root of behavior, and the behavior of the system is a series of events that occur over time.
These events are good for us, we call them “outcomes”; what is bad for us, we call them “problems.” And we want to make changes, either to get better results or to solve bad problems.
Each system has its structure, and we can imagine those invisible structures as a single track. The actions we take or the ways we respond are made along these structures. Just like a train, all its itineraries are set by the tracks below it. These structures or tracks define the path of least resistance to our actions, which is the most labor-saving path of our actions.
No matter what kind of life we live, what kind of company we work in, or which country we live in, there are hidden structures in our reality—the structure of everyday life, the structure of the company, the structure of the state, and The path of minimum resistance specified by the structure.
Image source Baidu Encyclopedia
Why people’s changes are always so hard
Why do we want to change when we want to change, or we will either quit halfway, or will it repeat even after the success?
For example, we want to improve our interactions with people,Or simply want to develop a habit of getting up early, always have to pay more energy and effort, and the result is often halfway. why?
This is because of our daily life structure, which invisibly constrains human change. The length of our work and leisure time, our energy rise and fall, our diet and preferences, our way of travel and length of stay, our income and consumption habits, our culture and customs, the people we interact with and the face Things, our character and choice preferences, etc., constitute our daily lives, they are the elements of the living system, and its structure.
In normal times, we are subconsciously acting along the path of least resistance of the structure. Once we want to deviate from this orbit and change, we need to use more power to make changes. Just like a person, who was sliding on a flat ice surface, it was very labor-saving, but now it has become a glide on a rugged mountain road; or it is suppressed by the structure, just like a train traveling on a track, now it is on the track. Driving in the same direction without changing the situation, the results can be imagined.
But many people are not aware of this. When people make changes – whether to develop a good habit or to solve a “problem” – they always act directly and hope to act to make a difference. They did not realize that simply acting without changing the structure is like changing the train without changing the track, or finding that the road is unreasonable and halfway; or forcibly changing lanes, struggling to succeed one or two times, and finally turning back. The original track.
So, if you want to change, you don’t take action directly, but observe the structure in which you are, then change the structure and make changes based on the least resistance path of the structure.
No change strategy
Before we analyzed from the perspective of the structure itself, why people’s changes are always resisting, and often they are halfway. In this part, we analyze from the perspective of changing the strategy, why many people’s changes are always capricious, even if they succeed once or twice, and finally return to the original state.
“Tension – Soothing Law” and “Problem – Problem Solving”
We often see a physical phenomenon: when we stretch a spring outward, the spring creates a tension, and the spring automatically returns to the starting state after the hand is released. As the springs tend to be the same, there is a rule in the structure of each system that the tension tends to be soothing.
For example, in our daily life system, when we are anxious for some reason, this anxiety is a kind of tension. In the face of anxiety, we will find ways to take various actions to ease the mood. As for what is the problem, sometimes we don’t care or think that the actions we have taken have solved it.
The tension-soothing process is actually a “problem-problem problem.” When a problem occurs, when tension occurs,In order to achieve the goal successfully, or to avoid bad results, we will take certain actions to solve, that is, want to ease the tension. Usually, the solution is the reverse of the problem conflict.
For example, our problem is that we are hungry, then eating is the solution. This approach also makes the tension in the structure (hungry problem) tend to be soothing (stomach full). For example, some people think of poor body and health hazards after obesity, then regular fitness seems to be a good way.
Common strategy for change: manipulating conflict strategies
This kind of conflict management through the operation conflicts – hunger and fullness, avoiding fattening and fitness – is the common conflict management strategy. Sometimes this strategy will achieve good results. In fact, many organizations do this whether it is religion, business or charity.
They will show you bad results (or good results) through advertising, whether it’s commercial or public service ads, and trigger your inner conflicts (such as guilt, guilt, anxiety, sense of accomplishment, vanity, Happiness, compassion), prompting you to take action. This inner conflict is a kind of tension. In order to relieve this tension, people will take action to balance.
But the strategy of taking action by causing conflicts is short-lived. As the conflicts ease, people’s actions stop and return to their original state. As musicians and composers, Robert Fritz, famous for developing structural dynamics, said in The Road to Least Resistance:
The road to the least resistance to problem solving is to change the problem from deterioration to improvement, and then to worsen by improving the return. This is because all actions are problem driven. If the problem improves because of your actions, your motivation to take further action is less intense.
The author is based on The Road to Minimum Resistance
When the solution leads to bigger problems
In addition, this kind of manipulation conflict strategy can make the situation counterproductive and counterproductive.
This is because the real world or complex system is not a simple linear cause and effect, but a multi-factor and multi-level mixture. In “The Beauty of the System,” Venela Meadows introduced us to the six major barriers to understanding the system and the eight traps of the system.
In the book, Denella Meadows warned us that in order to better recoverIn the miscellaneous world life, we should not be confused by the various representational events produced by the system. We should pay attention to the internal structure of the system, because the system structure is the root of the system behavior and event generation and evolution. And the real world is non-linear, don’t look at the world with a linear mindset.
Besides, Denella Meadows tells us that in the face of a complex world, the boundaries of the system should be clearly defined, taking into account various constraints and time delay effects. Also, pay attention to bounded rationality. Because we can only seek satisfactory solutions from the current few obvious choices within our limited field of vision, we will not consider the overall long-term optimal solution. Only when we are forced will we change our actions.
Although Tenella Meadows analyzes the system from an organizational perspective, the above views are more applicable to individual behavioral changes.
We are all part of the system and are one of the components of the system, not independent of the system. Whether you want to achieve any purpose, develop a habit, or solve certain problems, we should focus on the rules and structures of the system.
Refactoring the elements and constraints of the system from a broader and holistic perspective, abandoning linear thinking, understanding the time delay of the system rather than immediate feedback. In this way, it is possible to change or achieve the goal.
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An example of “comfort and sadness” was mentioned in “Change: Principles for Problem Formation and Resolution”:
According to common sense, the way to resist a painful or unpleasant incident is to introduce its opponent into the situation. For example, when friends and relatives comfort a depressed person, what is more reasonable than teasing him? But the one in eighty-nine people who were depressed did not benefit from it, but fell into deeper sorrow, which prompted others to work harder to make him see the golden edge of the cloud.
They are led by “sense” and “common sense” and can’t see (the patient can’t tell). Their help is equal to asking the patient to have some feelings (happy, optimistic, etc.), should not Other feelings (sad, pessimistic, etc.). As a result, for the patient, it may have been a short-lived grief, but now it mixes with other feelings, that is, failure, bad, and not grateful to those who love him and want to help him. This is why depression itself – not the original grief.
In the face of a friend’s sadness or depression, we don’tYou should try to make the other person happy, but should understand the other person’s feelings, recognize the other’s feelings, and then try to reduce the other’s grief.
Our behavior is similar to “psychotherapy”. As the author puts it, psychotherapy must focus on “disarming people’s suffering” and cannot monopolize the work of “seeking happiness”. Otherwise, psychotherapy itself will Become a disease.
Not all problems can be solved
As we mentioned earlier, by manipulating the conflict strategy, the problem can’t be solved and can only be alleviated—to alleviate the severity of the situation or to alleviate the anxiety of the problem owner.
In addition, without changing the structure of the system, the so-called problem solving is not really solved, or even if the problem is solved, it will happen soon, it will present a cyclical iteration, such as an individual. The weight loss, the social economic crisis.
In fact, problem solving is limited, just like psychotherapy and doctor treatment. Its role is to remove obstacles and should not expect a better outcome. As the author of “Change” said:
We take aspirin and expect it to relieve headaches, but we don’t expect it to make our minds flexible and even prevent future headaches. Basically, our attitude towards psychotherapy should be the same.
Image source Pixabay
For the improper resolution of the problem, the three authors of “Change” summarized three forms:
a, terrible simplification, attempting to solve the problem in a way that negates the problem: there should be action.
b, Utopia syndrome, that is, an attempt to change a certain difficulty, and from a practical point of view, the difficulty is not unchangeable, or does not exist at all, and ultimately no action should be taken, but action is taken. Unchangeable such as the generation gap, or a small part of the total population who cannot be cured; the non-existent such as the overbearing president and Mary Su in TV dramas or web articles.
c, made a mistake in logic level misplacement, resulting in a game without endings
This can happen in two situations:
First, trying to change a situation in the first order, and the situation must be changed from a higher level of logic.
The second case is just the opposite. When the first order change is enough to solve the problem, it tries to promote the second order change and take action at the wrong level. For example, if you are dissatisfied with the change in other people’s behavior, and further ask forChange in attitude.
The so-called first order change, we can understand that some changes are made within the problem or within the same category, such as feeling cold, wearing thick clothes directly, this is the first order change. The operational conflict strategy we mentioned earlier belongs to the first order change; the so-called second order change is to jump out of the original same kind or category, put the problem in different frameworks, directly target the problem rather than the hypothetical reason. Start with.
In the face of problems, there are two extremes—oversimplifications and utopians. The former can turn a blind eye to a problem, while the latter is out of nothing. The problem is clear and unsolvable, but he firmly believes that there is a solution.
It can be seen from the above that not all problems have solutions, and even if there is a problem, the solution is simply to make the situation return to normal rather than better.
小结
Individuals need to change in their daily lives – whether it is to develop a good habit or to achieve a goal, you should pay attention to the structure of your life and the path of least resistance.
Simple actions, or changes in maneuvering conflict strategies, like off-track trains, the result will only be halfway, or further step back, swing back and forth. Only by changing the structure can we use the path of least resistance to achieve our goals and keep moving forward.
Returning to daily life, we are working with problem solvers, advancing and retreating, falling into one cycle after another, it is better to be a system or structural reformer and creator, to form a positive feedback structure, let the path of least resistance guide itself Forward.