Contingency
Contingency is a concept which points out that something could be this way, but also another way. Something is contingent, when it is neither certain or excluded. As, in the world, most things could also be different than they are (i.e. different people or the weather), all systems (psyche, groups, organisations) require the ability to choose, to focus, to ignore, to organise, to develop expectations and to allow oneself to be disappointed and much more. Systems shape the world by deciding what differences they make and maintain (I am a manager and not a farmer, we are a business and not a golf club, we produce glass for windows, not laxatives). Systems can only alter the world to a limited degree, but they can alter which environment they choose and how they react to it. Thus, contingency enables possibilities of choice in the world, and through this it creates responsibility and freedom. However, what is also linked to the contingency of the world is that insecurity is an avoidable phenomenon for all systems. Insecurity must, therefore, be transformed, to a degree, into security, if systems wish to endure.