When it’s not working, we often limit our response to doubling down on fixing faulty parts, when we should also focus on strengthening the relationships between the parts so they connect better as a whole.

The whole is not the sum

of its parts. It's the

relationship

between them.

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Insight emerges from the relationship of the whole, not from a reduction to the parts. 

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​​The ability to keep discovering new ways to make things work emerges from our relationship with the whole.

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The generation that emerged from the world war developed relational skills to engineer standards while rebuilding after the war. Later generations used technology to extend those inherited skills, breaking the world down into smaller parts. Today we need relational skills to reconnect what has been deconstructed so it can function more effectively as a whole.

 

When you feel comfortably in control,

your attention is probably focused entirely

on fixing faulty parts.

Unless you also pay attention

to the relationships that connect the whole,

it will soon stop working.