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This paper identifies a key contribution to improving the productivity and well-being of individuals, beginning with a top-down derivation. Top-down
system1 views begin with an overall goal, and any subsystems are considered in the context of interactions and
interferences between the subsystems. The initial top-down approach is generally effective in identifying some of the more subtle potential interferences, and many of the most significant interactions. Following a top-down examination with a bottom-up approach (and iterating) has additional benefit.
The system assessment and analysis necessarily include system environments that could be dynamic and unexpected. To support human productivity and well-being, the appropriate overarching system framework is defined as collective
humanity. An ideal top-down goal for humanity is
surety, meaning perfect safety, security and reliability, sustained into the foreseeable future (inherent
sustainability). A balance would have to be achieved among the development of infrastructures, population pressures,
exergy sources and energy consumption and controls to assure personnel and infrastructure safety, security and reliability would have to be put into place.
Strategies to not only put all of this into place, but to respond effectively to the dynamics of the earth's environment, unexpected natural occurrences and the vagaries of human behavior must also be developed. A secondary goal is productivity. Ideally, every participating person would have to possess perfect awareness and perceptive ability to achieve these goals.
This overwhelming scenario can be made more tractable by approaching the most important and highest priority key subsets of the inherent factors. For the purposes of this paper, the goal of perfection will be replaced temporarily with one of practicality, and the goal of "into the foreseeable future" will be replaced by a goal that can be achieved in the short term (as a step toward the long term). These goals, although generally easy to state, are much harder to achieve. Strategies, human behavior and rewards must be
managed to make progress toward the goals. This requires management strategies, rewards and metrics to judge success or failure, a need which has been previously addressed [Ref. 1]. Management cannot function in isolation. Communication is an inherent necessity. Effective
interpersonal communication is vital.
This was the reason that an
entropy-related communication study was undertaken by the authors [Ref. 2]. Communication strategies and metrics are required. But management and communication strategies will not work in an atmosphere of
fear and destructive
interactive games, a problem that has also been addressed by the authors [Ref. 3]. An important related consideration is the functionality of teams or
collectives [Ref. 4]. Coordinating collective activities in a strategic manner can produce significant synergy. If implementations are to be successful, even a suite of management strategies, communication strategies, team strategies and the elimination of fear may not be sufficient. The success or failure of these approaches depends on the
individuals who participate. Strategies can look attractive on paper, but reasonable success requires substantial individual effort (and perfection would require incredible human effort). A system-oriented chain of reasoning, illustrated in Figure 1, frames the subject of this paper.
Figure 1 — Top-Down Derivation Process.
Following the top-down derivation pointing to individuals, we will deduce the characteristics of an "optimum" individual. Then, we will address the contribution of individuals to collectives, as well as the contribution of individuals to collective goals. Methods of utilizing all individuals to optimum advantage will be developed, and methods for encouraging individuals to move toward the optimum ideal will be considered. We will also derive quantitative analytical structure that can be used to measure degrees of success.
This emphasis on individuals does not mean that top-down goals can only be achieved through bottom-up implementation. However, the strategies to meet such goals for humanity must be effective on an individual level. For example,
democracy is a management strategy that can be applied to arbitrarily large portions of humanity. In a democracy, individuals vote for representatives who implement policies, laws, judicial systems, enforcement details and defense modes for individuals and the collective. The voters retain self-responsibility for the actions of their representatives. In this way, although individuals do not directly assure societal actions, they have an indirect voice. When elections take place, the focus is on the individual vote, which emphasizes individual responsibility. Another example is religion. Particular religions are practiced by large numbers of people who follow general doctrines. These are generally partitioned into congregations. However, the focus is on individuals and their participation in the religion. Other organizational examples are the military, economic systems, business organizations and families. In these cases, group success depends on high-level strategies that are mapped into intermediate strategies, with the ultimate aim of involving individuals and their core beliefs. So, individuals are the ultimate key focus.
1 Italicized terms are defined in a popup window. If your browser does not allow this window, please refer to the glossary.
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