 |
 |
 |
 |
describe a system will be simplistic (ie over-simplified); then it will become complicated; but ultimately it will become simple again:
There are three other words that also fit into Jardin's model:
Jardin often applies in scientific research, where what start as simplistic models become more and more complex in order to incorporate all of the anomalies. Then finally somebody like Einstein produces a unifying formula that once again simplifies the whole subject, yet in a profound way.
However, Jardin's principle also appears to operate in every other walk of life, particularly in fields which have an elite, sophisticated image: art, wine-tasting and literature, for example. The film "Educating Rita" (with Julie Walters and Michael Caine) is all about Jardin's Principle. Rita, a Liverpool hairdresser who wants to learn about literature, starts with a refreshing but simplistic approach to the subject, which her tutor, who has a profound and simple insight into the subject, greatly appreciates. Their relationship gets strained however when ... |
|
 |
|
Jardin's Principle
A model that explains why management has a tendency to over-complicate things
[This is the original, unedited text for my article published in the Financial Times on 2nd January 1997.]
As an engineering student I was taught a number of analytical tools which helped me to understand how things work. Now I notice that many of those tools have been discovered by management schools and have become part of modern business philosophy. For example, the science of control engineering has resurfaced as The Fifth Discipline (the technique of looking at systems as a whole). "Chaos" and "entropy" have appeared in management textbooks, and, of course, that increasingly meaningless term "process re-engineering" is now part of office-speak.
However, there is one little-known scientific model that we often discussed as students but which I have not yet seen in any of the management text books. For rather obscure reasons it became known as Jardin's Principle, and the more I study organisations the more I think that its time in management has come.
Jardin's Principle is this: if you are trying to understand any subject or system, your level of understanding will pass through three stages. To start with, the way that you see and |
|
 |
|