Join the full conversation on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/antlerboy_publicservicetransformation-activity-7500448806606397440-VkuW?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAACuq-oBecVFDW6PCf3lkoG-peMeuLBeoho

Back to term with an inspiring example of #publicservicetransformation that shows how hard the work is!

A lot of public service reform still has a bad habit; it takes a model from somewhere else, gives it a local name, adds a diagram, runs a few workshops, and then does a mishmash of ‘what we were doing anyway’ and whatever they understand of the imported model. And, guess what, it doesn’t stick…

That’s one reason talking to Lee Tillman and Damian Allen from Doncaster Council was so interesting; they weren’t trying to sell me a model.

In fact, they were careful not to. Their Thrive work isn’t presented as a five-step method, a branded product, or a heroic example. It’s much more serious than that – it’s a long-term attempt to change how the council and its partners work with places.

The important word is ‘with’.

Not doing things to places, designing services for places in a meeting room, or importing a success story and hoping the local conditions are roughly similar.

Doncaster has built a nested approach. There’s a ten-year borough strategy, the Team Doncaster partnership, five localities, locality partnerships, delivery networks, six regenerative neighbourhoods, and then work that gets right down to particular streets, schools, parks, landlords, GP practices and households. Inspired by a raft of brilliant thinkers and theories, a synthesis all about right action in context.

That’s what I think matters; a two-way connection of strategy to reality.
In Edlington, the work involved a very specific set of conditions: three streets, absentee landlords, derelict housing, crime, schools with deep relationships, and a need to rebuild trust through visible action. In Highfields, the conditions were different: weaker community capacity, a need for a gathering space, a new CIC, a community house, and even a pump track because that’s what local people and young people said would make a difference.
Same broad principles. Quite different work.

This is what too many discussions of ‘scaling’ (and ‘learning’) miss. You can transfer method, posture, and discipline. You can’t transfer the answer. And the mechanisms for both are quite different!

There is a tendency in public service reform to tidy things up too quickly. We turn situated practice into a model, then turn the model into a presentation, and fret when it doesn’t change the world.

The Doncaster story is more useful because it’s less tidy. It suggests that the real work isn’t to find a better model, but to build the capacity to understand a place, act with the people who have trust there, learn as you go, and keep enough political and organisational authorisation around the work for it to last. If you don’t understand the place, you’re not transforming it. You’re working for your own ego.

I recorded this interview some weeks ago; release delayed as unfortunately we’ve been unable to recover the video from Microsoft Teams! Full audio at link in comments.

What do you take from this story?

The Viable Operating Model: Organisation, Constraint and Human Development

Daniel Nemenyi · Robot Makes Free: The Leibnizian cryptowar of Norbert Wiener (2023)

https://transduction.systems/prior-maps/systemic-evolution/?node=n1&view=full&depth=1&realm=all&status=all

The map was originated by Eric Schwarz in 1996; extended in 1998 with material from Will Durant’s The Story of Philosophy; elaborated in 2000–01 for the International Institute for General Systems Studies; and extended in 2016 by Benjamin Hadorn with Beat Hirsbrunner.

Main site

https://transduction.systems

​John A Challoner on facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/ISARC51Sociocybernetics/?multi_permalinks=10167637583268709&notif_id=1787904672000000&notif_t=group_activity&ref=notif

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New paper and course modules: Foundational Causality

Causality is fundamental to systems thinking, explanation, diagnosis and intervention. Yet causal relationships are often represented in highly compressed form: A → B.

My latest General Systems Theory paper, Foundational Causality, asks what lies behind that arrow.

Beginning with processes and physical transfers of matter, energy and embodied information, the paper progressively examines multiple causal contributions, causal chains and networks, PTP and TPT perspectives, recurring causal structures, persistent causal organisation, conditions and constraints, systems and emergence, causal leverage, and the development of causal knowledge.

A central idea is causal decompression: progressively exposing the processes, transfers, conditions and constraints concealed within apparently simple causal relationships.

The paper is accompanied by eleven free course modules (GST 81–91). These take the learner from elementary cause-and-effect reasoning through causal networks and systems to leverage, causal knowledge and the interaction between hypotheses, explanations and theories.

A single flooding example develops throughout the modules so that learners can see a simple causal representation progressively become a systems-level causal analysis.

Recent research in science education has highlighted the importance of mechanistic reasoning, while other recent work has explicitly explored its relationship with systems thinking. The paper approaches that territory from a General Systems Theory perspective.

I would particularly welcome comments, criticisms and suggestions from systems thinkers, educators and researchers.

Alongside the paper I have also published a new set of General Systems Theory course modules featuring plain-English explanations, diagrams, examples, and practical exercises.

Both the paper and the course modules are open access. The paper is available at:

The course materials are available in two ways:

 Open access (self-paced): https://rational-understanding.com/gst-course/

 Supported learning: via Google Classroom through the ISSS Student SIG

Those in full-time or part-time education are especially encouraged to join the Student SIG, where they can benefit from guidance by experienced systems scientists, discussion with fellow learners, and access to a wider international community. To join go to: 

https://lnkd.in/p/dHurPn-f

“I have drilled two pretty thick boards with the VSM this year and learned a lot. I’m looking forward to sharing this with you!”

That is how Judith Hennemann describes what she will bring to our next Metaphorum VSM-Practitioner Webinar on 9 September, 6:00–7:00 pm CET.

Vacancy Details IRC2362539

Senior Systems Thinking Manager

As Senior Systems Thinking Manager, you’ll be one of the leading Systems Thinking practitioners within the organisation, helping shape how the railway approaches complex operational, strategic and organisational challenges.
– Full Time Hours
– Salary: £85,395 – £104,160
– Location: London Puddle Dock, Blackfriars
– Closing Date: 30/08/2026

https://q.thenhsalliance.org/get-involved/events/exploring-the-role-of-the-knowledge-weaver

https://guild.host/events/cybernetics-in-the-annex-tbara6

Encounters with the Other
​
How we continue to misunderstand,   dehumanize, scorn, humiliate,  oppress − and even kill − others. 
And how we can stop.
​
Barry Oshry

Encounters with the Other – Triarchy Press