Systems Thinking (2)

This is a continuation of my post on Think Big, Start Small.

After reading the post, my wife said she still was not very clear on what were the systems, loops and connections I was talking about. I will relate two stories which Dr Jacob said.

====== Story 1/ Seeing Loops ======

A newly married lady found it unbearable to live with her mother-in-law. The often argued and the family became a very unhappy place. It got so bad that this lady went to see a TCM doctor and asked for some herbs which can help to get rid of her mother-in-law. The doctor told her that he will give her some herbs, but because if the mother-in-law died suddenly, it is too obvious, the herbs will only take effect after some time. And also to prevent suspicion, the doctor said that the lady must be very nice and obedient to her mother-in-law until the day that the mother-in-law dies. So this lady dutifully followed the advice and this went on for six months. Thereafter, she went to the TCM doctor but now asked for medicine to prevent her mother-in-law from dying. After these six months, the mother-in-law has grown to like her and she in turn has accepted and also grown to love her mother-in-law. The TCM doctor said that the herbs he gave were actually normal herbs which had only beneficial properties. The poison was actually in the lady's mind which needed to be cleansed.

The loop was actually a vicious loop: lady angry with mother-in-law >> mother-in-law angry with lady and so on.

After spotting such loops in our work or life, we can then take steps to reverse the vicious loop. And the area to work on is where we have the most control, often, it is our selves.

====== Story 2/ Seeing Connections ======

A lady who had a severe headache went to see a TCM doctor. The pain was too much to bear and she could not understand what was the cause of the pain. She was therefore puzzled that the doctor, after diagnosis, gave her medicine to use on her feet. After clarification, the doctor said that the headache was actually from the lady's constipation and did she know that the feet is actually linked to the head via nerves.

This story shows that if we fail to see the connection between things, we may not be able to see the solution of the issue.