Categorization as a Barrier To Systems Thinking and Education

The Danger of Categorization

We build too many walls and not enough bridges.

"It's a pity nature isn't divided into the same categories as universities," say wise people.

We need categories to be able to handle the huge amount of information we use and control. That's why we have a hierarchy of folders and files in our computer, and that's why universities are categorized into faculties and departments.

Categorization helps you, but can also prevent you from using what you know about one field in another.

Barriers to Systems Thinking

There is a well known problem in education called the transference problem. If you teach something in one context, students most likely will not be able to use that knowledge in another and build synergies.

Master of Business Synergies (MBS)

Synergize Ideas

The silo mentality is a big barrier to communication and collaboration between departments in an organization. A rigid budget system is also organized hierarchically according to categories. Even individuals unconsciously create a budget system.

Functional Mindset as a Barrier to Strategy Implementation

In one of their experiments K&T found that if a person purchases theater tickets at say, $100 and accidentally loses them, he will NOT buy new tickets. But if that person lost $100 he would still go and buy the theater tickets on the same day. The explanation is that after purchasing the tickets, the money already "belongs" to the theater budget. When lost, new tickets are not purchased because the "theater budget" has been spent. When losing $100, the money had not yet been "assigned" to a certain budget category, so the theater budget is still available.

When solving problems we also use a categorization system to help us deal with the vast amount of data involved. For example, we make an almost automatic distinction between what's relevant to the problem and what's not. The problem is that some information may not seem relevant to the problem, but may be highly relevant to the SOLUTION.

Think about the 'big picture' while you are inventing small things, so that all the small things go synergistically in the right direction.

Ваш обозреватель не поддерживает встроенные рамки или он не настроен на их отображение.