Buffering the core technology

I've been working on the internal processes for the business model that gives college dropouts a second chance. As I've explored different ways to conceptualize those processes, I've come back to a favorite model of mine from the field of "sociotechnical systems". The model is comprised of a core technology that gets buffered by a requisite variety response capabilities to deal with environmental turbulence. Lets unpack that one piece at a time.

A core technology is something we want to keep doing regardless of changing circumstances. Our body functions are a core technology. We want to keep breathing, circulating blood cells, replacing dead cells, eating, etc. regardless of how crazy things get around us.

Environmental turbulence is the craziness unlike "business as usual" that can disrupt a core technology. Our body functions experience getting suffocated or stabbed with a knife as turbulence which jeopardizes our core technology of bodily functions.

Response capabilities deal with the environmental turbulence so the craziness does not disrupt the core technology. Our abilities to fight off attackers and evade confrontations are response capabilities that keep us from passing out or bleeding out.

Buffering the core technology occurs when we have enough different response capabilities (requisite variety) to deal with the full range of assaults we may encounter.

We each have many different core technologies in use personally. Production systems contain numerous core technologies also. When we're caring for others, there are core technologies between us that make it possible to have positive effects on others and ourselves. As I will explore in some of my future posts here, each of these core technologies can be buffered by response capabilities to avoid disruption by environmental turbulence.