When variety emerges in a system, it necessarily operates within control mechanisms (physical, structural, normative, relational) that constrain and regulate its behaviour.
These control mechanisms may be pre-existing (activated by the new variety) or develop in response to it.
Explanation:
New variety emerges within multiple types of constraints:
- Physical (resources, natural laws, material limits)
- Structural (existing organization, hierarchies, boundaries)
- Normative (rules, norms, cultural expectations)
- Relational (effects on other system elements)
These mechanisms regulate new variety without necessarily requiring feedback loops or deliberate design. They may be:
- Feed-forward controls (threshold responses, policy triggers)
- Constraint-based controls (budgets, physical limits, laws)
- Emergent regulatory responses (new rules, organizational adaptations)
Implications:
Systems that generate variety without considering control mechanisms risk:
- Unintended constraint activation (triggering rigid pre-existing controls)
- Dysfunctional control emergence (ad-hoc responses that impede development)
- Excessive constraint (new variety suppressed before it can mature)
Effective design of variety-generating systems includes intentionally creating control mechanisms that channel variety productively.