System Failure? Look Upstream (David Korten)

Created by : Francis Goodwin View profile

Jan. 25, 2011 (YES! Magazine) -- Many years ago a wise Canadian colleague, Tim Brodhead, explained to me why most efforts to end poverty fail. "They stop at treating the symptoms of poverty, such as hunger and poor health, with food programs and clinics." They never ask the obvious question: "Why do a few people enjoy effortless abundance, while billions of others who work far harder experience extreme deprivation?"

I realized it was the same lesson my business school professors had drummed into my head in my student days. "The visible problem-a defective product or an underperforming employee-is a symptom of system failure. Look upstream to find and fix the problem at its source. Step back and look at the big picture."

Tim summed up his observation with a profound lesson, "If you act to correct a problem without a theory about its cause, you inevitably treat only the symptoms."

I soon found myself asking a yet larger question: "Why does our economic system consign billions of people to degrading poverty, destroy Earth's ecosystem, and tear apart the social fabric of civilized community?"