The law of requisite Variety
The only way you can control your destiny is to be more flexible than your environment.
The person who creates the most choice in a given situation has the best chance of succeeding or of controlling that interaction. This is true for the individual or a group setting. Everyone has seen a child throwing a tantrum in public and the parent concedes and offers the child whatever they need to placate them. This is probably bad parenting and an example of how flexibility of behaviour controls the entire family. This can also be seen with pets. A pet will demand so much attention that it can control the family unit. It gets fed when it wants , pampered at will and surely has mastered this presupposition ?
Flexibility of choices in the case of the tantrum fueled child may result in the parent throwing an equally embarrassing fit to eclipse and embarrass the child. Another way of considering the Law of Requisite Variety is that you need to be flexible within your values and beliefs. Flexibility within a system doesn’t always mean caving in or bending over backwards to accommodate the behaviour but should also include inflexibility as a strategy to maintain balance. Boundaries and guidelines are necessary and important tools when employed in the appropriate context.
