The distinction between common cause and structural variation is useful. A lot of organizational dysfunction comes from treating structural variation (amplified by the system itself) as if it were just random noise. Managers adjust staffing or inventory in response to normal fluctuations and inject more variability than they remove. The surfer metaphor is right. You navigate the wave, you don't try to flatten it.
The distinction between common cause and structural variation is useful. A lot of organizational dysfunction comes from treating structural variation (amplified by the system itself) as if it were just random noise. Managers adjust staffing or inventory in response to normal fluctuations and inject more variability than they remove. The surfer metaphor is right. You navigate the wave, you don't try to flatten it.