Synthesis

A strategic approach to business is only necessary in adaptive environments. Therefore, a strategic approach requires managing the functionality, dynamics, and evolution of businesses.

This involves going beyond the operational aspects of businesses by accessing their functionality and then returning to operationality to make things happen. The discovery of functionalist principles enabled managing the functionality of businesses, and the use of unicist binary actions transformed their functionality into operation.

Therefore, unicist binary actions are the tactical aspect of any strategy that allows for simultaneously opening possibilities and ensuring results. Binary actions are the “actors” that simplify business processes.

The research developed at The Unicist Research Institute demonstrated that any adaptive system and environment (living being or artificial construction) is driven by binary actions. Some examples will help to grasp the idea:

1. The active function and the energy conservation function of the intelligence of a tree drive its growth and survival.
2. Lift and propulsion make airplanes take-off and fly.
3. The cover and the back-cover define the functionality of the packaging of a book.
4. The music and the lyrics of a song define its aesthetics.

Universally known examples of binary action are:

• Efficacy + Efficiency = Effectiveness
• Empathy + Sympathy = Personal influence
• Participation + Power = Leadership
• Marketing + Sales = New customers
• Productivity + Quality = Value generation

The use of binary actions to manage adaptive environments is a must. This implies profiting from the influence of the context and/or building the necessary binary actions that allow influencing without generating reactions. It requires understanding a specific system, which is described by the unicist ontological structure that defines its functionality.

Introduction

After decades of researching and implementing binary actions in social, economic, and business environments, it became possible to discover the ontogenesis of binary actions. Binary action is the name of the actions of the maximal and minimum strategies of an adaptive entity.

This discovery was led by Peter Belohlavek at The Unicist Research Institute. It allowed for the description of their essential functionality and operational rules, making it feasible to introduce them to businesses to benefit from automation and AI. It led to the definition of the law of unicist binary actions, making them accessible and usable by everyone.

Unicist Binary Actions are based on the functionality of processes and are composed of two synchronized actions where the first one generates a reaction that makes the second action use this reaction to produce results. An example might clarify the algorithm of binary actions:

An airplane flies driven by two basic binary actions—the action of the engine and the action of the wings. The first binary action generates propulsion, and the reaction to this propulsion is the airplane’s speed. This speed is then used by the wings to generate lift, incorporating the airplane into its environment without changing it. Binary actions use the reaction to the first action as the basis for the requirement of the second action.

Therefore, a set of binary actions generates no reactions. Binary actions are based on the functionalist principles of an entity or specific environment and their functionality follows the rules of the unicist logic. The binary actions are adaptive actions that work when they fit into the structural needs of an environment and the people involved. They are defined by the fundamentals that drive the functionality of an environment.

Managing Adaptive Systems and Environments

Working with adaptive systems and environments requires developing synchronized actions that include maximal strategy actions to grow and minimum strategy actions to ensure results. Perhaps it needs to be clarified that adaptive systems are those that are dominantly feedback dependent.

When the results of a system depend on bi-univocal relationships with the environment, the system is open and it is necessary to manage the concepts of what is being done and developing what we have named unicist binary actions to develop actions with a maximal strategy to grow and a minimum strategy to ensure survival.

Dualistic Actions vs. Unicist Binary Actions

• Dualistic actions are functional in controlled environments. (1 actor, 1 action)
• Unicist binary actions are necessary in adaptive environments (1 actor, 2 synchronized actions)

Dualistic actions are “solitaire” actions to influence the environment to produce results. They are functionally valid in controlled environments where the cause-effect relationships are being managed.

Dualistic actions are such because they integrate the actor and the action. These dualistic solitaire actions in adaptive environments generate spontaneous reactions that inhibit their functionality. These reactions adopt different shapes according to the environment.

Unicist binary actions integrate the actor with two synchronized actions including, on the one hand, the maximal strategy to foster growth and, on the other hand, the minimum strategy to ensure survival.

Unicist binary actions respond to the needs of the nature of what is being managed and therefore generate no reactions.

“Half a table is an expensive heap of wood”. Dualistic actions in adaptive environments are half a table, they generate costs and do not generate results.

It has to be considered that dualistic solitaire actions are installed in the fallacious myths of many cultures and environments. The saying “you didn’t try hard enough” implicitly fosters univocal dualistic actions to generate results, which is valid in controlled systems but fallacious in adaptive environments.

Dualistic actions are unavoidable in over-adapted environments, when the concepts of what is being done are unknown or when the individuals who develop these actions are marginals.

A Precedent of Binary Actions in Business: The Du Pont Method

The Unicist Conceptual Management of adaptive environments is based on the use of maximal strategies to expand and grow and minimum strategies to ensure results and survive.

This implies developing two synchronized actions to ensure the generation of value.

These actions were named unicist binary actions because they are based on the unicist logic that allows dealing with adaptive environments. The original Du Pont Formula is a precedent of how these UBAs are measured.

The Du Pont formula, developed in 1920, implies the existence of unicist binary actions and is a precedent of the mathematics that allows measuring their functionality.

The Use of Binary Actions

Binary actions are needed to develop solutions in adaptive environments. They require approaching the world by accessing the functionality of a solution, which requires being driven by the requirements of the environment and not beginning by the comfort zone of the present situation. Therefore their use requires having a deep understanding of the environment and its possibilities.

To clarify with a universal example:

An airplane flies driven by two basic binary actions—the action of the engine and the action of the wings. The first binary action generates propulsion, and the reaction to this propulsion is the airplane’s speed. This airspeed is then utilized by the wings to generate lift, integrating the airplane into its environment without generating an equal and opposite reaction.
Binary actions are based on the functionalist principles of an entity and follow the rules of unicist logic.

Binary actions are needed to develop solutions in adaptive environments. They require approaching the world by accessing the functionality of a solution. Therefore their use requires having a deep understanding of the environment and its possibilities. There are Four Types of UBAs

UBA 1 – Binary Actions to Catalyze Processes

The catalyzing binary actions cover the latent needs of the environment and of the people involved. That is why they drive an environment to its next stage. Without catalysts the existing comfort zone prevails, and the introduction of a new solution fails.

UBA 2 – Binary Actions to Expand Boundaries

These binary actions are based on the catalyst that has been introduced and their actions need to fit into the expansive functions of the concept of an activity. These are adaptive actions that work when they fit into the structural needs of the environment and the people involved.

UBA 3 – Binary Actions to Ensure Results

To ensure results the binary actions of the minimum strategy need to manage the urgent needs of the adaptive environment that is being managed. It requires defining the urgent needs, which are driven by the dysfunctionality of the fundamentals of an adaptive system.

UBA 4 – Binary Actions of the Unified Field

The management of the binary actions of the unified field is an integration of binary actions 1, 2, and 3, which implies that it deals with the management of latent, structural, and urgent needs. But it is possible to make a shortcut avoiding steps 2 and 3 and develop only catalyzing binary actions and essential binary actions when the complexity of an environment is low.

In the case that this simplification has been used and the results cannot be achieved, it becomes necessary to develop the complete process, integrating the 4 types of binary actions.

UBA 1 – Catalyzing Processes and Establishing a Framework

A catalyst is an external entity, that does not belong to a system, but has the necessary energy, influence, and timing to open possibilities that are used by a system to accelerate processes. On the one hand, the UBA1 actions expand boundaries, and on the other hand, they establish the framework of the solution that is being implemented, based on the gravitational force.

The implementation of solutions requires beginning by installing catalysts that might exist in the restricted context of an activity or might be built. In complex adaptive environments, it is necessary to begin by installing catalysts that make a new solution possible.

The catalyzing binary actions cover the latent needs of the environment and of the people involved. That is why they drive a function to its next stage. Without catalysts the existing comfort zone prevails and the introduction of a new solution fails.

The results assurance of the catalyst is established by the gravitational force, which is based on an authoritative role that sustains the solution that is being catalyzed and implemented by establishing the framework where solutions are functional.

UBA 2 – Binary Actions of the Maximal Strategies

Maximal strategies deal with the active function of the functional principles of businesses and foster growth by expanding their boundaries. Its binary actions foster the expansion based on the structural needs of the environment while it provides an internal catalyst for the minimum strategy actions that ensure results.

They are based on the catalyst that has been introduced and their actions need to fit into the expansive functions of the functionalist principles of an activity.

They must fit into the concept people have in their minds. They cannot work if the functionalist principle of an activity is unknown, because people cannot see the solution as meaningful.

UBA 3 -Binary Actions of the Minimum Strategy

The purpose of a minimum strategy in nature is to ensure survival, while in social and business environments it ensures results. To ensure results the binary actions of the minimum strategy need to manage the urgent needs of the adaptive environment that is being managed.

This requires defining the urgent needs, which are driven by the dysfunctionality of the fundamentals of a business. These fundamentals need to be functional with the gravitational force that sustains the business. Unfulfilled urgent needs introduce discomfort in the comfort zone of a business, which is frequently accompanied by the denial of the true problem that is being faced.

The binary actions need to expand the boundaries of the solution ensuring the functionality of the fundamentals of the business and paying the prices that need to be paid to ensure the achievement of results. Paying prices implies making the necessary compromises to ensure results. It requires managing the actual possibilities that were opened by the maximal strategy.

UBA 4 – Binary Actions of the Essential Function

The management of the binary actions of the essential function is an integration of the binary actions 1, 2, and 3 which implies that it deals with the management of latent, structural, and urgent needs.

But it is possible to make a shortcut avoiding steps 2 and 3 and develop only catalyzing binary actions and essential binary actions when the complexity of an environment is low.

The complexity is low when there are few objects and simple processes that are being managed. This allows influencing the environment by just making the catalysts tangible and operational. In the case that this simplification has been used and the results cannot be achieved it becomes necessary to develop the complete process, integrating the 4 types of binary actions.  

Example:
Strategy Building Using Unicist Binary Actions (UBAs)

Unicist binary actions allow managing the functionality, dynamics, and evolution of adaptive systems and environments. They imply having a strategic approach to the environment. This technology allows dealing with any type of adaptive environment, from nature to social environments. It was specifically developed to foster growth and sustainability in social, institutional, and business environments.

The unicist strategic approach that emulates the intelligence of nature defines that every adaptive system needs to have a maximal strategy that fosters growth, while it has a minimum strategy to ensure survival.

This is based on the discovery of the triadic structure of the ontogenetic intelligence that regulates its evolution defined by a purpose, an active and entropic principle, and an energy conservation principle.

This intelligent structure defines the concepts of things, which define the root causes of their functionality. These concepts are intrinsic in living beings, which means that they are part of the biological structure of the living being, and are extrinsic concepts when dealing with inanimate entities.

This drove towards the development of the unicist logic that explains the functionality of nature and allowed emulation of the functionality of adaptive systems and environments and building unicist binary actions that drive the functionality of complex adaptive systems.

Unicist Strategy Building

The first step is the development of catalyzing objects that work as UBA type 1 to foster the expansion of an activity, which ensures having the necessary critical mass to generate the influential power. This allows defining a functional identity in an environment that avoids needing to adopt survival roles.

A person, organization, institution, or society that cannot expand in an environment needs to adopt survival actions that hinder adaptive behavior. Thus, the system enters into a chaotic or stagnated behavior to survive. No binary actions are possible in these conditions.

UBAs type 4 can be built when the first step of UBAs type 1 has been successfully fulfilled. These UBAs establish two actions satisfying the needs of the maximal and of the minimum strategy. It has to be considered that the sequence of the actions defines their functionality.

The first step is the development of actions that deal with the perception of the maximal strategy and immediately afterwards the development of actions that deal with the minimum strategy.

The Use of the Four Types of UBAs

• UBAs Type 1: integrates the influence of the environment with the specific function or object. It includes the integration of external catalysts.

• UBAs Type 2: that integrates the active and the energy conservation function of the maximal strategy.

• UBAs Type 3: that integrates the active and the energy conservation function of the minimum strategy.

• UBAs Type 4: that develops the central binary actions of the essential function.

Each UBAs include two levels of actions:

• Level a) deals with the expansion of boundaries, which drives the maximal strategy of a function or object.

• Level b) deals with the assurance of results that drives the minimum strategy of a function or object.

The process of the use of UBAs begins by developing the UBAs Type 1, which implies expanding the boundaries of an activity, continues with the UBAs Type 2, to development the maximal strategies, UBAs Type 3 to develop the minimum strategies, and UBAs Type 4 to manage the essential function of the process.

In the case of processes with a low level of complexity, the UBAs 2 and 3 might become unnecessary.

Conclusion: The Systematic Use of Unicist Binary Actions

Businesses, as adaptive environments, require managing their functionality in the short-term strategy and their evolution in the long-term strategy. This is the basic binary action of businesses.

The long-term strategy must precede the short-term strategy because it establishes the possibilities for the business, while the short-term strategy focuses on operation and the opportunities provided by current circumstances.

Designing all adaptive business functions using unicist binary actions accelerates growth and enhances efficiency from both short- and long-term perspectives.

The Unicist Research Institute