AXIOM 46 Locus of Control is Shaped by Time to Change Variety Distributions

In any hyper-complex situation, the locus, dynamics and ownership of power is shaped by the distribution of variety. However, variety that cannot be accessed rapidly enough is effectively unavailable when needed. Thus, time-to-access is itself a dimension of variety.

The effective variety available to an agent is determined not only by the absolute variety they control, but by how rapidly they can access and deploy that variety. Fast access to limited variety can dominate slow access to extensive variety when speed of deployment is critical.

Surprise attacks (for example) are more effective when:

  • One or more parties can access and deploy the variety they control more rapidly than other parties
  • This speed differential creates a temporary variety advantage, even when static variety balance favours the slower party
  • The Coasian transaction costs of executing the rapid deployment and managing subsequent consequences (including protection from reprisals) are less than the benefits gained

This does not just apply to military actions. It also self-evidently applies to diplomacy, managing disasters and epidemics, learning a new topic or skill, political negotiations, decision-making under pressure, creating art, comedy, jazz, and many other circumstances.

Relationship to interpretation variety: In military situations, having reduced time to access control variety or to change variety distributions offers benefits in improved power and control that compound with the benefits of creating variety of interpretations, including misinformation and deceptions.

Strategic implication: Static variety accounting (counting assets, forces, capabilities, knowledge, power) is insufficient. Speed of access to variety and to the ability to rapidly change variety distributions is as important as the total variety available. In competitive dynamics, faster access to smaller variety distributions can overcome slower access to larger variety distributions. Speed of variety access is a fundamental strategic resource across all competitive domains.