The Tyranny of Small Steps: Discovery of a reoccurring behaviour

The Tyranny of Small Steps (TYST) has been discovered to be a systemic reoc- curring behaviour. Explained through a system dynamics perspective, the behav- iour TYST is an unwanted change to a system through a series of small activities that may be independent from one another. These activities are small enough not to be detected by the 'surveillance' within the system, but significant enough to encroach upon the "tolerance" zone of the system and compromise the integrity of the system. TYST is an unintentional process that is experienced within the sys- tem and made possible by the lack of transparency between an overarching level and a local level where the encroachment is taking place. The Orby case study il- lustrates a real life manifestation of the TYST behaviour in planning. The TYST illustrates the necessity for total transparency in any systems in order to avoid un- intended consequence of the behaviour. The TYST process may be regarded as a part of wide range of complex systems but depending on the conditions, it can remain dormant, and only become active when the conditions for lack of transpar- ency are fulfilled.