Russian Dolls

That the world is a system, and is itself made up of smaller subsystems, was the most important technological idea of the twentieth century, according to Norbert Wiener. It is equally important for the functioning of our organizations. The nesting of smaller, self-controlling units into complex alliances, and these in turn into even more complex alliances, is a prerequisite for functioning control. Environmenal complexity is already absorbed where it arises by the self-controlling units at the lower levels. The central control of the network only needs to manage the residue. Failing this principle of “Russian dolls,” on the other hand, every control system sooner or later becomes chronically overloaded. It faces environmental complexity unarmed and must use its entire capacity to keep track of everything. It is absorbed by urgent and operational issues, suffocated by problems, and makes wrong or too late decisions on details about which it cannot be sufficiently informed. Any similarities with real events or living persons are—not—purely coincidental. Where, on the other hand, the principle of Russian Dolls is used to design enterprises, one of the most important steps toward functional control has already been taken.