A system's performance cannot exceed the quality of the model of that system held by whoever controls it.
Conant and Ashby's 1970 result: every good regulator of a system must contain a model of it. It is the formal reason a manager cannot control what they do not understand, however much authority they hold.
In practice
- A regulator without a working model of how the firms make money writes rules the firms restructure around within a quarter.
- A parent who does not understand what the child is doing online cannot set a rule that constrains it, however firmly stated.
- Subject
- Design & Systems
- Essay
- The limits every design runs into