Draft V2 - LAW OF NATURE

Manifesto V2 DRAFT

This is to replace the current homepage by keeping the videos and the list of co-creators

What used to be called ‘Manifesto Part x’ is now called ‘Tutorial x’

Various links won’t work (or might go to the current homepage)

Initiatives waste their time and resources on overcoming mountains of obstacles

Available solutions of the high(est) impact get stuck in the system by default

Our long-standing approaches to solving the growing problems we face failed us

An enormous solution potential is waiting to be unleashed

Bureaucracy and fixed ways of thinking prevent us from unlocking it

After 2+ Decades of Failed Solution Attempts

Emile van Essen, Founding Chair of World Sustainability Fund:

As far as I know, this is the only initiative worldwide responding to the following at the level required:

What prevents us from unleashing the available solutions?
Where and how do we have to intervene to unleash the solutions of high-to-highest impact within the deadlines set by Nature and deadlines agreed on by international treaties?

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The Law of Nature Manifesto^TM

For Solving Complex Problems

Across fields, industries, and challenges, we now observe common patterns of
what delivered the needed results where our long-standing approaches failed us

The overload of patterns and information was reduced by answering these questions:

What delivered the needed results where our long-standing solutions failed us?

What delivered the HIGHEST IMPACT at the LOWEST COSTS and RISKS at the SYSTEM LEVEL?

This led to following INTERVENTION POSSIBILITIES
of the HIGHEST IMPACT at the LOWEST COSTS and RISKS:

Manifesto

V2.0, Jan 2025

Let go of the thinking that created the growing problems. Keep what works well.

Listen to what delivered the needed results where our long-standing solution approaches failed us

Intervene where the highest impact can be made at the lowest costs and risks™ AT THE SYSTEM LEVEL

Why | Laws of Nature | One Law-of-Nature-based word to drastically reduce bureaucracy...

Why ...

After 2+ decades of failed solution attempts, large groups have learned to intuitively recognize when a new solution attempt or movement applies too much of the same thinking that created the growing problems. They respond with a lack of interest and support or opposition.

Common patterns of ‘the same thinking that created the problems’ include:

Complex problems are broken into parts. Only a few parts receive priority and funding, while causes located outside the addressed parts receive no priority nor resources.
Relevant Laws of Nature are missing or overruled.
Every complex environment is different. Yet, it is assumed that what worked in a small environment, earlier or elsewhere, will work in the particular environment.
Lessons learned are lost and re-learned again and again.
Movements, methods, frameworks and the like assume that people in target audiences can find problem-solving solutions to highly complex problems while they do not have the necessary training, knowledge, and experiences.

Laws of Nature ...

Hard Laws of Nature, typically available from physics, mathematics, chemistry and biology, cannot be overruled or ignored. Nature does not allow it. Yet, it happens day in and day out, resulting in huge damage, such as crippling bureaucracy, available solutions getting stuck in the system, resistance, and violent opposition. Several of the same laws provide practices to intervene where the highest impact can be made at the lowest costs and risks AT THE SYSTEM LEVELS. That’s without worrying about mathematics and across industries, fields and challenges.

A simple introduction of the two Laws of Nature almost certain to occur in complex environments is available through the Manifesto Tutorials 1 & 2 of the Guidance Package of Intervention 4.

One Law-of-Nature-based word to drastically reduce bureaucracy ...

One word, derived from two Laws of Nature, is bound to provide the highest-impact solution at the lowest cost and risk for the crippling bureaucracy and overwhelming complexity. It prevents decision-makers and experts from unconsciously fueling bureaucracy and enables them to select practices that reduce bureaucracy, resistance, and opposition.

How this word can be applied is available via the Guidance Package of Intervention 4, Tutorial 3.3.

Resolve the knowledge, solution, and experience gap of how complex problems can be solved by TREATING IT AS A SINGLE GAP

An Extension and a Guidance Package for closing the gap ...

With the growing problems being complex and the long-standing solution attempts having failed us for 2+ decades, it has become evident that the gap of how to solve complex problems must be resolved with a fresh approach.

When the Manifesto’s co-creators could not find any group, institute, or organisation addressing or taking on this matter at the required levels in the field, they took it on. Highest-impact knowledge from science and experiences with what delivered needed results where our long-standing approaches failed us, led to an extension of this closing-the-gap intervention and a Guidance Package of surprisingly short video tutorials.

Get solution possibilities EARLY ON over the Tipping Point where they become executable, scalable, and durable at the SYSTEM LEVEL

How | Starting small | When this need can be dropped ...

How to get over this Tipping Point ...

The Guidance Package of Intervention 4 includes a fresh approach to get over this Tipping Point EARLY ON. This approach is available through Tutorial 3.4.2. When, despite the efforts, it remains unclear how this Tipping Point can be crossed, foreseeable failure can be prevented by:

Reducing the ambition to something achievable
First executing the enterprise or system-wide project of Intervention 8
Stopping the initiative or putting it on hold until the time is right

The rollout can start in a small environment when ...

Once it is clear how the system level can be achieved and this is part of the identified approach, the rollout can start in a small environment. Differences with the long-lasting but failed approach of ‘start small, scale up (and get stuck)’ are:

Many obstacles are out of the way from the beginning
Solving further obstacles is integral to the project design and can be addressed before they hit
Resistance and opposition are (much) lower as many obstacles are out of the way
Instead of ongoing firefighting, project members can focus on what provides value
The identified solution may involve a (small) percentage of the effort and costs normally seen

Parts of this need can be dropped when ...

Scalability and system-level needs can be dropped when the problem to solve is within a small environment and the following criteria are met:

The individuals involved (and impacted) know and see each other regularly
The following criteria are in balance with each other:
- External dependencies are well understood, addressed and proactively resolved when they create new damage outside the small environment
- The value¹ created by the solution within the small environment is greater than the new damage the changes may cause outside

The early-on need can be dropped when the criteria for a small environment are met, and the analysts and solution designers are highly experienced in the cross-disciplinary knowledge and solution possibibilites of this Manifesto.

¹ Value includes non-financial value such reducing (virtual) capacity bottlenecks like those of skill shortages, productivity improvement from motivated employees and clients trusting vendors and institutions

Ignite the PROBLEM-SOLVING thinking by asking THE SAME HARD-TO-IGNORE questions which guide DECISION-MAKERS and EXPERTS to the HIGHEST-IMPACT SOLUTIONS

Examples & where to find more questions

Examples

When decisions are to be made, the following questions can be asked:

What Laws of Nature can occur? What practices do they demand?
- Highest impact Laws of Nature: See Manifesto Tutorial 1 and 2 and the few Laws of Nature surfaced more relevant than others for complex matters
Does the decision improve or worsen the health of the people, organisation, environment, or planet?

More hard-to-ignore questions

More such questions are provided near the end of each Manifesto tutorial. A downloadable collection is available via Section 5 of the Guidance Package.

Verify decisions against relevant Laws of Nature, Core Human Values, Essential Behaviours and Value Cases

Why verification simplifies | Resolving the decision-making gap of the highest damage ...

Why verification simplifies

Decisions with far-reaching consequences are made day in and day out. Decision-making is the ‘place’ where the difference between fuelling or solving the growing problems we face is made.

Manifesto Tutorials 1, 2, and 3.2 of the above-mentioned Guidance Package identify:

Why we are trapped in problem-fuelling decision-making
How this trap led to an exponential growth of bureaucracy and complexity
Why this situation is undermining ‘everything’ we do

Tutorial 3.3 identifies how a single word, derived from two Laws of Nature, opens the door to get out of this trap and how this drastically reduces bureaucracy and complexity.

Resolving the decision-making gap of the highest damage ...

What created the gap: Observed patterns ...

Until the late 1990s, decision-making was based on a combination of numerical and pattern-based information¹. Thereafter, it was believed that decisions should be predominantly based on hard information such as numbers, dollars, and euros, along with step-by-step proof. However, this approach only works up to the Tipping Point of complexity, and this critical limitation was overlooked. Beyond this Tipping Point, even mathematics cannot provide reliable outcomes.

Missing this limitation led to pattern-based information being overlooked and overruled by numerical and bureaucratic requirements, resulting in the LOSS OF A STRUCTURAL FOUNDATION FOR SOLVING COMPLEX PROBLEMS. – More on this and the following is available throughout the Guidance Package and in particular Tutorials 1, 2, 3.2 and 3.3.

¹ Creating patterns is how our brains makes sense out of complex information.

Consequences of this gap: Observed patterns ...

Initially

While managers believed they were following state-of-the-art practices, so-called management mistakes became common occurances
The problem-fuelling trap identified under ‘Why verification simplifies’ above and its devastating consequences developed

Large groups learned to recognise when

An element of trust and integrity failed: Delivering to a promise remained more important than adjusting to new insights or changed situations (an agility requirement)
Methods, theories, and practices, designed for recurring situations failed as, in complex environments, every situation can or will be different
The new approaches of agility and self-organisation failed for higher levels of complexity as executable guidance was missing (exceptions granted)

The situation escalated

Large groups withdrew their support from the establishment and backed other movements, even if it meant creating an additional dimension of problems, and moving us further away from solving the exponentially growing problems.

Solution needs ...

Over the past two decades, we have seen many attempts to solve this decision-making gap, such as demanding ethics, value-based decisions, regulations, and the like. Even if they are brought in line with the relevant Laws of Nature and further elements of this Manifesto, it remains hard to see how they can be made executable during decision-making processes and provide the value required. This led to these needs:

1. Value Cases need to complement business cases
2. A set of Core Human Values & Essential Behaviours is required

The values and behaviours need to be short enough to be remembered and suited for quick alignment verification during decision-making processes. If needed, they can be complemented with executable elements of ethics, regulations and the like.

Core Human Values, Essential Behaviours and a Value Case approach are available through the extension to this intervention.

Consider one enterprise or system-wide project removing mountains of obstacles

Why this may be necessary ...

Across industries, fields, and subjects, a common pattern emerged

High-to-highest-impact strategies, solutions, projects and the like are undermined and get stuck by the same obstacles, such as the obstacles of bureaucracy, complexity, and practices of a world gone by. These obstacles are usually outside the sphere of influence of these strategies, solutions and projects, and hiding below the surface. To create powerful strategies, make hidden solutions visible, and unleash their value potential, an enterprise or system-wide project aimed at removing these obstacles may be necessary.

Example: Simplification project –Good intention, but worsening the problem

What do we do when environments become too bureaucratic or complex? We start simplification projects in a few boxes. However, bureaucracy at the system level increases more than it is reduced within these boxes. This happens when the damage created from the changes outside exceeds the value created inside. In our connected world, it worsens when different groups chose different solutions and drift in different directions.

More on this and the simple solution are available in Tutorials 3.2 and 3.3, as well as in section 3.4 of the Guidance Package.

Possibilities with an enterprise or system-wide project ...

Possibilities with an enterprise or system-wide project are:

One word, derived from two Laws of Nature, is bound to provide the most powerful solution for drastically reducing the unnecessary bureaucracy. How this word can be used and easily integrated into decision-making processes is available through Tutorial 3.3 of the Manifesto’s Guidance Package.
Designing and executing this project with a small team should be far more effective than using a large team.
Implementation starts by training and coaching key personnel
- Those trained and coached should, in turn, coach others as part of their daily activities
- Key personnel typically include higher-level decision-makers, their advisors, strategists, senior innovation and project managers, and senior solution designers
Implementation uses the existing bureaucracy and natural process flows to speed up implementation and reduce project costs

Manifesto Extension to Intervention 4:

Resolve the Knowledge, Solution, and Experience Gap of
How Complex Problems Can Be Solved

4.A.

Practices for analysing complex problems and designing impactful solutions

Intervene where ... | Focus on ... | Provide universally applicable guidance for...

INTERVENE where the HIGHEST DAMAGE is created at the SYSTEM LEVEL ...

When we understand where the highest damage is created, we have guidance on where the highest-impact can be made. Further patterns became:

Analysis paralysis can be prevented
The overload of information, lessons learned, symptoms and methods can be reduced to manageable levels
Various so-called wicked problems turned out to be solvable

FOCUS on HIGHEST IMPACT: Fundamental principles of science requiring (re-)integration in decision-making, in organisations and institutions

With the growing problems we face, humanity can no longer afford to miss out on fundamental principles of science. Yet, WHEN PROBLEMS TO BE SOLVED WERE COMPLEX, the Manifesto’s co-creators could not find anyone working with or responding to applying the following principles of science, neither in organisations nor in science itself. Typical responses were “doesn’t fit my discipline,” “what’s a Law of Nature?” or no response at all. The following principles urgently need to be (re-)integrated into decision-making, research, strategy design, innovation processes, and much more:

SEEK THE TRUTH
- Identify what decision-makers REALLY NEED to make problem-solving decisions
- Identify what initiative owners REALLY NEED to get high-to-highest-impact solutions through the system
IDENTIFY AND APPLY LAWS of NATURE relevant IN COMPLEX ENVIRONMENTS
- Especially when they cannot be expressed in exact ways, which is common in complex environments
- Like Darwin did, various laws need to be expressed in phrases or sentences when they cannot be expressed in exact ways

Experience: A small number of such laws can have a huge problem-solving impact

APPLY the EINSTEIN-NEWTON-DARWIN PRACTICES
- Utilise the key practices they applied to find deep insights to highly complex challenges and Laws of Nature
- These key practices are available through Tutorials 1 and 2 of the Manifesto’s guidance package

FOCUS on HIGHEST IMPACT: Practices for re-creating trust ...

The following practices emerged as foundations for re-creating trust. To make it happen, relevant practices may need to be part of a larger package designed to get over the Tipping Point where the package becomes executable, scalable, and durable at the system level (Intervention 5):

Listen to and deliver what decision-makers, employees and initiative owners REALLY NEED to make the problem-solving decisions or get their job done in normal ways
Co-create with representatives of all groups involved and impacted
- Small co-creation teams of knowledgeable representatives of the groups appear to be (far) more effective than large teams
- Small teams may find solutions large teams cannot find
Provide Laws of Nature that cannot be expressed in exact ways, Core Human Values and Essential Behaviours in the most condensed form possible so they can be
- Understood and applied by professionals unfamiliar with the subject at hand
- Remembered

For Core Human Values and Essential Behaviours, see Manifesto Extention to Intervention 7

Verify important decisions against RELEVANT LAWS of NATURE, CORE HUMAN VALUES, and ESSENTIAL BEHAVIOURS
Apply Manifesto Interventions 1 to 8
Provide SIMPLE solution elements that COMPLEMENT EACH OTHER for far-reaching spin-off effects and highest impact

PROVIDE UNIVERSALLY APPLICABLE GUIDANCE for the ENTERPRISE or SYSTEM ...

This is to

To enable people of various groups, fields and subjects to move into a common direction and act as a single entity
- A single entity can be a project, movement, institution, company or a system like health services
The guidance
- Is provided in a highly concentrated form, yet reasonably complete to make problem-solving decisions or a real difference
- Contains simple but complementary solution elements for far-reaching impact
- Uses simple language to ensure people unfamiliar with vocabulary of different groups, fields, and subjects can understand each other
- Is reasonably complete to help users get their solutions and projects over the Tipping Point of Intervention 5 above

4.B.

From the guidance package and associated video tutorials, select what is relevant

Selection need | Using third-party elements or Guidance Packages ...

Selection need ...

Knowledgeable representatives of the groups involved and impacted decide TOGETHER what is relevant and will be used. The rest can be ignored.

Using third-party elements or Guidance Packages ...

Other solution elements you or the groups involved and impacted may have, as well as third-party guidance packages can be used, provided they:

Align with other Manifesto elements identified as RELEVANT
Complement the selected solutions
Are equally effective or better

4.C.

Integrate relevant guidance into decision-making at all levels, problem analysis, solution design, innovation processes and project management

A lowest effort yet highest-impact approach can be ...

Training and coaching of key personnel in relevant Manifesto elements
- Key personnel typically include higher-level decision-makers, their advisors, strategists, senior innovation and project managers, and senior solution designers
Creating highest-level policies that override, for example, rules in conflict with relevant Laws of Nature
- More on this and a policy example are available in Manifesto Tutorial 3.3
Making further coaching of employees a ‘natural’ part of decision-making processes
- Ideally, this should be carried out by the key personnel already trained and coached

4.D.

Create complementary research and innovation processes

These processes are ...

Based on:

The fundamental principles of science under Intervention 4.A above
The problem-solving practices of individuals like Steve Jobs (iPhone / smartphone), Jacinda Ardern (former Prime Minister of New Zealand, compassion and leadership style)
Technical and NON-technical innovation
Value creation over bureaucratic requirements; value includes non-monetary value like the health of the people, organisation, environment, or planet

Funded by:

Reducing today’s high failure rates of innovation and research projects by applying relevant elements of this Manifesto, such as the fundamental principles of science under Intervention 4.A and establishing executability per Intervention 5 early on
Moving, for example, 30% of today’s innovation and research budgets to these processes

For more information, see Manifesto’s Tutorial 3.4.4

Manifesto Extension to Intervention 7:
Core Human Values, Essential Behaviours & Value Case

7.A.

Core Human Values

Health

This is the health of the people, organisation, environment and the planet¹

As health requires biodiversity, it includes a healthy biodiversity

Safety

Includes climate and peace¹

Basic Needs

Clean water and air, shelter, food, and energy¹

Truth Seeking

What may be seen as the truth today can change over time. Establishing truth can be challenging. That’s why this value is truth seeking.

Freedom by being in harmony with each other

Everyone should be able to live freely. However, the freedom of one person ends where the freedom, health, or safety of another person begins.

¹ Based on “Sustainocracy: The new democracy.” Jean-Paul Close. https://sustainocracy.blog/what-is-sustainocracy/

7.B.

Essential Behaviours

Act With Adaptive Integrity

We give our word (a promise, commitment, etc.) when we have sufficient confidence that we can keep our word. As soon as we know that we cannot keep our word, we inform all parties counting on us and clean up any mess that we caused in their lives.^{1, 2}

People, objects (products, services, etc.), and systems are IN or OUT of INTEGRITY.³

References ...

¹ Integrity: Without it Nothing Works. Jensen, Michael C. Harvard Business School. Jesse Isidor Straus Professor of Business Administration, Emeritus. April 6, 2014. https://ssrn.com/abstract=1511274
² First sentence adjusted to meet an executability need
³ Seminar. Jensen, Michael C. Erasmus University, Rotterdam. 2011.

Be Authentic

Be yourself

Seek the Truth

Characteristics ...

Exploring multiple perspectives
Authentic listening
Constructive criticism
Responding to new insights and changing situations
Respecting each other
Questioning oneself: Is this the truth or do I want it to be the truth?

Listen Authentically

Authentic listening involves ...

Avoiding prejudgement
Do those listened to have the feeling they are fully understood?
What can I do or must I do with what I have heard?
Is the person or group listened to given sufficient time and means to contribute their views?

Of course, this cannot mean listen to everybody and everything. Such approaches would quickly be in conflict with the Tipping Point and Capacity Bottleneck Laws of Nature. As such conflicts occur, a switch to other practices is required, like those most relevant to everybody, which brings us to the Core Human Values and Essential Behaviours provided here. A further practice is that of co-creation on equal terms, and with knowledgeable representatives of the groups involved and impacted.

Learn From Failure

In complex environments failure is guaranteed to happen as every situation can or will be different and the ‘unexpected unexpected’ keeps popping up. The following pattern surfaced: Learning from failure and an attitude of preventing the same failure from re-occuring reduces failure rates structurally.

Take Ownership

Ownership for solving complex problems implies ...

Personal responsibility and accountability

Within boundaries, individuals and teams are given the freedom and means to solve complex problems:

Only a few goals and boundaries are agreed on with the owners and senior experts of the analysis and solution design team(s)
Individuals knowledgeable and experienced in a field AND individuals who have demonstrated to have found solutions that delivered needed results in multiple fields, complement each other for optimum effect
- To find system-level individuals: See skillsets in Tutorial 3.4.3
The solution designers and project owners are educated in
- How to design solutions that are executable, scalable, and durable at the system level
- Resolving gaps and conflicts in today’s solution thinking
- Co-creation on equal terms with representatives of all groups involved and impacted

7.C.

A Value Case approach ...

Like Business Cases identify high-to-highest impact information in the form of numbers, Value Cases do the same with patterns.

Patterns are reliable practices because creating patterns is how our brains make sense of complex information. A benefit is that we do not have to go through endless discussions, for example, on agreeing on definitions. Everybody can have a somewhat different view. As long as we understand each other, decisions can be made.

Examples of patterns:

Illustrations
Words, phrases, sentences and the like
Emotions like those creating interest and support versus those creating lack of interest and opposition
Worsening or improving situations
Hidden costs

With the numbers AND patterns at hand, hard-to-ignore Guiding Questions such as those in the following box, and in the collection (point 5 in the tutorials table) are responded to.

To get the ball rolling: Guiding Questions everybody can ask ...

When decisions are to be made

Does the decision improve or worsen the health of the people, organisation, environment, or planet?

When stress, burnout rates, or cost saving-pressures are high

When productive employees are laid off

Where is the project to reduce the unnecessary bureaucracy and complexity to healthy levels by applying the Tipping Point and Capacity Bottleneck Laws of Nature (more in Tutorials 1 to 3.3)?

On Adaptive Integrity

Is the person, group, organisation or system IN, or OUT of INTEGRITY?

Is the object (i.e. a product or service), solution, or service IN, or OUT of INTEGRITY?

On Attitude

Is the person’s attitude in line with relevant Core Human Values, Essential Behaviours, Value Cases approach, and Laws of Nature?

Is it based on

Preventing the same problems from re-occurring?
Motivating employees?
“Don’t fool clients”?

On Learning from Failure

Is the organisation’s culture one of learning from failure, or is it one hit by the same failures being repeated?

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Applicability

Universally applicable lessons learned, Laws of Nature, practices, and guidance for:

Industries

Aviation
Business services
Construction
Education
Energy
Health Services
IT
Public services
Manufacturing
Science
Social enterprises

And more

Fields

Agility
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Best practices & Methods
Education
Finance
Health
Human Resources
Indigenous knowledge
Innovation
Knowledge Management
Land use
Management
Natural Earth Systems
Organisations
Politics
Project management
Research
SDGs¹
Societal matters
Youth & Children

And more

Challenges

Agile yet reliable decision-making
Artificial Intelligence: Downside prevention
Automation
- Beneficial versus counterproductive
Bureaucracy & Complexity reduction
Cooperation & Co-creation
Circular economies: Making them happen
Education and skill gaps
Fixed ways of thinking & Behaviour
Food security
Health of
- People
- Projects, organizations and environments
- Planet
Innovation
- High(est)-impact getting stuck by default
- Out-of-the-box, social and organizational
Marine life
Safety
Security
Trust: (Re-)creating trust
Truth finding
Productivity improvements
Project failure rates far to high
SDGs¹
Social and organisational innovation needs
Water security

And more

The Law of Nature Manifesto: Guidance Package

———————–Three boxes copied from the current homepage below. No changes———————–

What delivered needed results where our long-standing approaches failed us (examples)

The smartphone ...

While the phone industry tried to re-invent the phone step by step, Steve Jobs ignored the common innovation processes. Instead of marginal improvements, he drove for going beyond the Tipping Point where it delivered what users really wanted.

The Manifesto's Co-Creators

A group of individuals with extensive experience in what provided needed results where our long-standing solution approaches failed us

[[[Existing list remains + new co-creators]]]