Strategic Modelling and Business Dynamics: A Feedback Systems Approach

4.2. Redesigning Your World of Showers

In World of Showers A, the plumbing in your five-star hotel is of the highest quality. It is well-designed so that adjustments to the tap setting correlate closely with movements of temperature, albeit with a time delay. In other words, your decisions lead to the outcome you intend (once you have mastered the impact of the delay). It is a manageable world of low dynamic complexity in which you have the freedom to act independently of others who may also be taking showers in the hotel at the same time.

In World of Showers B, the quality of plumbing in your two-star hotel is distinctly inferior. Comments in the guest register suggest you are not the only one who has had problems with the hotel's showers. Your friend has confirmed this view, recalling in particular her experiences on the day you both arrived: 'It was impossible to get the temperature right. The tap was totally useless. I almost ripped it off the wall.' As you peruse a litany of similar criticism from long-departed guests, you realise that the hotel's shower problems probably arise because different rooms unwittingly share the supply of hot water. Showers interfere with each other. Hence, if you need more hot water, someone else (invisible to you) receives less and vice-versa. It is a less manageable world of high dynamic complexity and interdependence. Cause and effect are not closely correlated and your actions inadvertently have an impact on others, which can worsen their ...