Simple rules lead to complex behavior. Complex rules lead to stupid behavior.[1][2]
Do No Harm’s lessons are simple. Their implications are vast. These six lessons, learned by the Do No Harm Project, form the basis for our understanding of how interventions have impacts. They outline the factors that together afford a coherent understanding of a context and the interaction of an intervention with that context.
The Six Lessons
- Whenever an intervention of any sort enters a context it becomes part of the context.
- All contexts are characterized by Dividers and Connectors.
- All interventions interact with both, either making them worse or making them better.
- Actions and Behaviors have Consequences, which create impacts.
- The details of interventions matter.
- There are always Options.
[Chart to the right: Six Lessons of Do No Harm]
Do No Harm built these lessons in two Frameworks as a way to make them practical and useable by everybody. The Frameworks each offer a slightly different process for going through these lessons in ways that have been found useful.
Do No Harm does not, and cannot, make things simpler. Rather, Do No Harm helps us to understand more clearly the complexity of the conflict environments where we work. It helps us see how decisions we make affect intergroup relationships and to anticipate the likely interactions of assistance with a context. It helps us think of different ways of doing things to have better effects.
In the learning process of Do No Harm, it became clear that many people have an intuitive understanding of these lessons. They make good decisions without the formal process of Do No Harm.
The following pages explain each lesson in depth.
At one impressive organization, I suggested that they did not need formal training in Do No Harm as they seemed to already understand and live the principle. One of the senior staff said, “Formal Do No Harm training advanced us by three years in our understanding of how to do our work. That is why Do No Harm is important to us.”
Previous Page Two modes of effective Do No Harm Practice
Next Page Lesson 1: Interventions become part of the context
Related Topics
Lesson 1: Interventions become part of the context
Lesson 2: Contexts are characterized by Dividers and Connectors
Lesson 3: Interventions interact with Dividers and Connectors
Lesson 4: Actions and Behaviors have Consequences
Lesson 5: The details of interventions matter
Lesson 6: There are always Options
The Do No Harm Frameworks
[1] “Simple rules lead to complex behavior. Complex rules lead to stupid behavior.”
The first half of this statement is the fundamental basis of emergence. The second half refers to proceduralization (see Chapter 6, “The Proceduralization of International Assistance: A Distorting Influence” in Time to Listen).
A good, non-mathematical introduction to how simple rules lead to complex behavior can be found in The Perfect Swarm: The Science of Complexity in Everyday Life by Len Fisher, especially the discussions in Chapter 2, “The Locusts and the Bees”, and Chapter 3, “Ant Logic”.
[2]“Simple rules lead to complex behavior. Complex rules lead to stupid behavior.”
I first encountered this quote in Getting Real. The authors of Getting Real attribute the quote to Andrew Hunt, though I do not recall that it appears in his book The Pragmatic Programmer.
Hunt likely got the quote from Birth of the Chaordic Age by Dee Hock, where it was stated: “Simple, clear purpose and principles give rise to complex, intelligent behavior. Complex rules and regulations give rise to simple, stupid behavior.”
All three of these books—Getting Real, The Pragmatic Programmer, and Birth of the Chaordic Age—are concerned with the principles by which human organizations are structured.
