Turning To One Another:
The Opportunity In Facing Y2K*
February 1999 - No. 12
The Year 2000 computer problem (Y2K) sits in our midst, terrifying
some, boring others.
Y2K is not just a technical computer problem. We don't have the time or resources for a fix left solely to the technicians. Y2K is now a social and political issue. We can respond to Y2K in our communities and organizations with the possibility of new strength in our relationships and capacities. Y2K also illustrates - the intricate human and technical dimensions of complex systems.
The Nature of Complex System's Problems
Symptoms of complex system problems include:
-
As problems come more into focus, they appear fuzzier;
- costs always far exceed what was budgeted for fixing the problem;
- and when cause and effect are impossible to track, there is no clear individual or group to blame;
Complex systems are inherently uncontrollable.
Initially, Y2K was thought to affect only software-it seemed to be a relatively simple programming problem. Later we learned that some microprocessors' hardware was vulnerable to the date change. Combine that with the estimate that the average American is in contact with 70 microprocessors before noon each day and the scale of the problem mushrooms. These chips influence the functioning of all our major support systems; healthcare, utilities, governments, transportation, food supplies, public safety, finance, telecommunications and defense. The problem touches us all. We can't wait for someone else to find it but, in a complex system individual preparedness is not enough.
New Relationships
Margaret Wheatley and Myron Kellner-Rogers write that: "complex systems require new approaches to deal with their entangled interdependencies and inherent fuzziness. They require collaboration, participation, openness, and inclusion. The more we cling to hierarchies, boundaries, secrecy, and competition, the more we deepen the crisis and prevent solutions. Y2K insists that we turn to one another in new ways."
In short, Y2K is an opportunity to strengthen community.
Disasters often illuminate what is best in us. We willingly come together, we use whatever resources are available to save others.
Wheatley and Kellner-Rogers assert "We don't have to know the future in order to be prepared for it. Organizations and communities that learn to work together, that trust one other, and that become more expansive and inclusive develop the capacity to deal with whatever happens."
They report that people do want to be together differently, 89 percent of respondents to a survey wanted simpler, more decentralized systems so that their communities could be more self reliant and independent.
The sweet irony of Y2K is that if we use it now as an opportunity to re-create our communities and culture, whatever technological failures materialize won't have the same negative impact.
For more information on building community capacity see: http://www.resilientcommunities.org.
*Adapted from: Leverage: News and Ideas for the Organizational Learner, September 1998, No. 18. "Turning to One Another: The Possibilities of Y2K" by Margaret Wheatley and Myron Kellner-Rogers. See www.pegasuscom.com on the web.
Gerry Campbell
Professor and Extension Specialist
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