Beating the Rules
In manual therapy, we call this type of system behavior compensation.
In her book Thinking In Systems, Donella Meadows describes traps and ways out of them. One such trap she calls “Beating the Rules.” In which the rules to govern the system can lead to rule-beating. The trap of rule-beating is defined as
Perverse behaviors that gives the appearance of obeying the rules of achieving the goals, but that actually distort the system.
As a manual therapist, I often encounter a real-life manifestation of this trap when assessing people’s joint function. Consider a hip that appears to be internally rotating, but in reality, it's not the hip joint that's rotating. Instead, it's the same-side pelvis and low back, moving upward in a completely different plane of motion. This is a classic example of ‘Beating the Rule.’
The lumbopelvic-hip complex is a simple place to find perverse behaviors, giving the appearance of obeying the rules, but they are, in fact, not.
The Way Out
Design, or redesign, rules to release creativity not in the direction of beating the rules but in the direction of achieving the purpose of the rules.
In a clinical setting, I can design rules and constraints to redirect the system toward achieving its given purpose and function. For the hip, this means creating an environment in which it can behave like a hip and rotate without the use of the lower back or other parts.
We do this in a self-determining fashion and train the system so that it will later self-organize similarly and not resort to its old ways.