Even if resources aren’t limited, consuming them just to generate economic activity isn’t smart. Lean thinking starts down this path, but is limited because the present system stresses labor productivity. Financial hackles rise when labor is paid, but does nothing. However, the system’s logic does not question whether entire business models are waste. It assumes that whatever somebody pays for is not waste. It doesn’t ask whether nature can “pay for” it. In advanced economies, without being intentionally extravagant navigating the system for daily living, all of us pay for big resource wastes.
The present system assumes unending expansion, that more “stuff” can always be found somewhere. Screw up; get more stuff; try again. But when short of resources, there is less margin for error. Without the assumption of endless resources and unlimited expansion, business thinking flips upside down. Compound interest is a growth formula. Its inverse, net present value, strongly discounts the future, and market valuations are short term. Consequences thirty years hence factor in with great difficulty. This system is not structured to give much thought for the morrow. Any new system has to project many morrows hence.
From an expansionary financial view, efficiency is fewer people processing more and more “stuff.” But if all work processes were totally automated, and resources unlimited, you’d still only want what you want when you want it, not piles of unused “stuff.” As nature sees it, efficiency is low resource-use, minimally disruptive processes that let us enjoy life from our view, but that it can “pay for.” Striving to bridge this gap redefines work responsibilities for both individuals and work organizations — as in an economy aboard a space ship. What sense would expansionary economic and business practices make there? Our survival would utterly depend on the ship’s systems. In effect, we would be parasites feeding on those systems. Smart parasites do not kill their hosts.
For this transformation, we must feel our way into very different patterns of thinking. Some preliminary ideas are in the last two chapters ofCompression, and in some organizational postings on this page. It’s also anticipated to be the most adventurous area of Compression Learning. One reason the expansionary market system has worked well is commonality in organizational transaction systems all around the world. But going forward, we need equally common patterns of learning systems around the world — adding learning discipline to transactional discipline.