Outward-directed activity systems allow an entity system to interact with its external environment. Examples are a person’s parenting, working and socialising activities; or an organisation’s production functions.
Inward-directed activity systems develop and maintain systems in the inner environment. Examples are a person’s health related activity systems, or an organisation’s business support functions.
Self-directed activity systems connect an entity system to itself, allowing it to self-refer, memorise, plan, make decisions, celebrate, play, learn and allocate resources for its development.
The directedness of an activity system is determined by its purpose, not the flow of substance within it. For example, the purpose of breathing is aimed at providing the cells with oxygen, even if the flow of the gases moves in, out and through the body. Thus, the directedness is an organisational concept and not a physical one.
The purpose and functioning of the various activity systems is in-formed by the ethos of the entity system. (In the figure, the ethos is represented by a radiating orange dot.)
Not all knot-like systems in the biomatrix are entity systems. If a system does not have all three types of activity systems, it is an incomplete entity system. Examples are artefacts, some parts of natural systems (e.g. a limb in the body) or social systems (e.g. a department in an organisation). Because they lack inward or self-directed activity systems, they cannot maintain themselves or self-refer which would enable them to make relatively independent decisions.
relevance
Through its three types of activity systems, an entity system links up with other systems in the outer and inner environment and refers them to itself. Every entity system is an interconnected web, not a structure floating isolated through space.
relevance for the change manager
Change management implies the development of each of the three types of activity systems of an entity system, as well as their balanced interaction.
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