“For continued system cohesion, the mean rate of system adaptiation must equal or exceed the mean rate of change of environment.”

—  Derek Hitchins

Source: Putting systems to work (1992), p. 63 Cited in: Lars Skyttner (2005) General Systems Theory: Problems, Perspectives, Practice. p. 103

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "For continued system cohesion, the mean rate of system adaptiation must equal or exceed the mean rate of change of envi…" by Derek Hitchins?
Derek Hitchins photo
Derek Hitchins 14
British systems engineer 1935

Related quotes

Jack Welch photo

“When the rate of change outside exceeds the rate of change inside, the end is in sight.”

Jack Welch (1935) American executive: General Electric CEO

Variant: If the rate of change on the outside exceeds the rate of change on the inside, the end is near.

“That a system is open means, not simply that it engages in interchanges with the environment, but that this interchange is an essential factor underlying the system's viability, its reproductive ability or continuity, and its ability to change.”

Walter F. Buckley (1922–2006) American sociologist

Source: Sociology and modern systems theory (1967), p. 50.

“When the rate of change increases to the point that real time required to assimilate change exceeds the time in with change must be manifest, the enterprise is going to find itself in deep yogurt.”

John Zachman (1934) American computer scientist

Zachman (1994) cited in: Ronald G. Ross (2003) Principles of the Business Rule Approach. p. 35

Michel Chossudovsky photo

“A new global financial environment has unfolded in several stages since the collapse of the Bretton Woods system of fixed exchange rates in 1971.”

Michel Chossudovsky (1946) Canadian economist

Source: The Globalization of Poverty and the New World Order - Second Edition - (2003), Chapter 20, Global Financial Meltdown, p. 309

“[Throughput is the] rate at which the system generates money through sales.”

Eliyahu M. Goldratt (1947–2011) Israeli physicist and management guru

Source: The Haystack Syndrome (1990), p. 19; as cited by: Gerald P. Marquis (2011) A Framework for Propagating Measures of Performance Throughout Organizations Using Object-oriented Technology., p. 10

Arthur Ponsonby photo

“People must never be allowed to become despondent; so victories must be exaggerated and defeats, if not concealed, at any rate minimized, and the stimulus of indignation, horror, and hatred must be assiduously and continuously pumped into the public mind by means of "propaganda."”

Arthur Ponsonby (1871–1946) British Liberal and later Labour politician and pacifist

Falsehood in Wartime (1928), Introduction

Clayton M. Christensen photo

“Low-end disruption occurs when the rate at which products improve exceeds the rate at which customers can adopt the new performance.”

Clayton M. Christensen (1952–2020) Mormon academic

Christensen cited in: Philip Kotler, John A. Caslione (2009) Chaotics: The Business of Managing and Marketing in the Age of Turbulence. p. 23
2000s

“For a given system, the environment is the set of all objects outside the system: (1) a change in whose attributes affect the system and (2) whose attributes are changed by the behavior of the system.”

Arthur D. Hall (1925–2006) American electrical engineer

Source: A methodology for systems engineering, 1962, p. 61 cited in: Clute, Whitehead & Reid (1967) Progressive architecture. Vol.48, Nr. 7-9. p. 106

Russell L. Ackoff photo

“[The environment of a system is] a set of elements and their relevant properties, which elements are not part of the system, but a change in any of which can cause or produce a change in the state of the system.”

Russell L. Ackoff (1919–2009) Scientist

1970s, Towards a System of Systems Concepts, 1971

“The upper limit of cell size is probably set by the rate of diffusion of solute molecules in aqueous systems.”

Albert L. Lehninger (1917–1986) American biochemist

Principles of Biochemistry, Ch. 1 : The Foundations of Biochemistry

Related topics