Synergy is a behavioral characteristic of systems where the behavior of the whole is not predictable from the behavior of any or all of its subsystems. This behavior operates recursively so that the behavior of a suprasystem as a whole is not predictable from the behaviors of its component systems, and so on. The sign of a synergistic effect may be a plus or a minus in terms of the purpose of the system in the eyes of the observer. It follows as a corollary that if the behavior of a whole system and that of some of its parts is known, that the presence, characteristics and behaviors of other parts may be inferred and examined. Thus, when an operation is not going as well as it should, **negative synergy** between some of the parts may be investigated and eliminated to improve its performance. Likewise, a better than average performance may be investigated to see if its **positive synergy** can be reproduced elsewhere. If a management undertakes synergistic planning at a . metasystemic level; it may take actions that decrease the profitability of one or more of the parts in order to achieve a greater level of profitability for the whole. Without such planning the behavior of the whole may not differ much from that of the collection of its parts and its central management function will be ineffective.
According to Stafford Beer, an algebraic example of synergy may be found in a function such as the squaring of two variables, say a + b. This operation is carried out on the two variables yielding 'a' squared plus 'b' squared plus 2ab. This additional 2ab thrown off is the synergy. # SOURCE Fuller, W. B. (1975). Synergetics. New York: MacMillan. # EXAMPLES • the behavior of two different drugs taken together on the body
• the behavior of a team working together to achieve an objective • the behavior of symbiotic pairs in biology • two soldiers sitting back to back facing an attacker • the efficiency of the well structured committee • the improvisation of a jazz band # NON-EXAMPLES • the efficiency of the average committee • hierarchical chains of command without horizontal lines of communication • separate categorization of common functions in an operation such as shipping two products on two different transportation services # PROBABLE ERROR • Misidentifying the system level where an observed instance of synergy takes place • Changing an operation that is going well and destroying its synergy, e.g. by computerizing it and losing human interaction that actually makes it work.
# SEE Recursion; Metasystem; System