This article builds on a previous contribution to this blog identifying a set of complex adaptive systems that are particularly useful in the formulation of theories of change (TOCs), find the link to the blog here. These include the concepts of the Social-Ecological Systems, boundaries, domains, scales, agents, adaptive behavior, and emergence and system development trajectory in the formulation of theories of change. This article briefly explains how to use these concepts and presents some aspects of an the article Development trajectories and complex systems-informed theories of change which was published in September 2020 in the American Journal of evaluation (Zazueta et al., 2020). A non-edited version of the article is available here. The article illustrates the use of the approach in the evaluation of the UNIDO /SECO project SMART- Fish in Indonesia (UNIDO, 2019)…
by Andrea Roli 1,2,* and Stuart A. Kauffman 31Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna, Campus of Cesena, I-47522 Cesena, Italy2European Centre for Living Technology, I-30123 Venezia, Italy3Institute for Systems Biology, Seattle, WA 98109, USA*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.Entropy2020, 22(10), 1163; https://doi.org/10.3390/e22101163Received: 27 September 2020 / Revised: 3 October 2020 / Accepted: 12 October 2020 / Published: 16 October 2020(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Advances in Biocomplexity)View Full-TextDownload PDFReview ReportsCite This Paper
Abstract
Since early cybernetics studies by Wiener, Pask, and Ashby, the properties of living systems are subject to deep investigations. The goals of this endeavour are both understanding and building: abstract models and general principles are sought for describing organisms, their dynamics and their ability to produce adaptive behavior. This research has achieved prominent results in fields such as artificial intelligence and artificial life. For example, today we have robots capable of exploring hostile environments with high level of self-sufficiency, planning capabilities and able to learn. Nevertheless, the discrepancy between the emergence and evolution of life and artificial systems is still huge. In this paper, we identify the fundamental elements that characterize the evolution of the biosphere and open-ended evolution, and we illustrate their implications for the evolution of artificial systems. Subsequently, we discuss the most relevant issues and questions that this viewpoint poses both for biological and artificial systems. View Full-Text
Online Hacks for the Systems Thinking Playbook Games: A Community Conversation Thursday, November 12, 11 am New York, 4 pm London Friday, November 13th, 12 am Beijing
Linda Booth Sweeney, co-author of The Systems Thinking Playbook and The Climate Change Playbook, will share ways to adapt short gaming exercises that illustrate the subtleties of systems thinking to a new online world. Participants are encouraged to share their methods for bringing these games and others online.Corporate consultants, K–12 teachers, non-profit leaders, and university faculty have widely used the more than thirty games classified by these areas of learning: Systems Thinking, Mental Models, Team Learning, Shared Vision, and Personal Mastery. This seminar is intended as an opportunity to convene the community of ST Playbook users to share innovative ideas, best practices, and questions. Special guests to be announced the first week of November.
FREE for members, and just $25 for non-members! Save your seat. Spaces are limited.
SCiO – systems and complexity in organisation – is the international systems practitioner body.
All our events are listed at www.systemspractice.org/events
We are running regular virtual networking and social events along with our open events (excellent systems speakers at a low fee), and our development events (members only but membership only £30 per year – open agendas for shared systems learning). The events include community building and open-space Zoom room discussions.
Nov 23, 2020 06:30-08:30PM London
register
http://bit.ly/sciosocialnov20
Jan 25, 2021 06:30 PM London
register
http://bit.ly/sciosocialjan25
We also have a SCiO Slack channel (open, unlike our members-only LinkedIn group) – join at https://bit.ly/SCIOSLACK
The Story of Requisite Variety for Reflective Practitioners
It is a real pity that the idea of Requisite Variety is almost unknown. From my perspective, it is astonishing that almost no one with a degree in business has heard about it, not to talk about many Agile or Lean folks. It is insofar unbelievable, as the whole concept of Requisite Variety offers fundamental insights about systems and how „goal achievement“ can be understood. Actually, it should be part of every human being’s repertoire that is involved in an organization (so basically everyone). The whole idea of Requisite Variety could be compared to the insights of the Laws of Motion from Isaac Newton. Therefore I dare to claim that the knowledge of Ashby’s Law of Requisite Variety is for a business person of the same importance as Newton’s insights about Gravity for a physics researcher. I still do not understand why this relatively simple concept is not part of every business or economics school in the world – from Harvard to Frankfurt?!
First things first, therefore, let us start with an examination, what variety means. After this introduction, I’ll dive into the concept of Requisite Variety.
Virtual meeting (zoom) where we each time zoom in on one topic brought by an inspiring speech and zoom in from an in-depth dialogue.
About this Event
SCiO Belgium – Virtual Meeting – October 2020
Virtual meeting (zoom) where we zoom in on one topic brought by an inspiring speaker, after which we hold an in-depth dialogue.
SCiO is a network of professionals in organizational development and organization design, both within and outside the corporate world. The central objectives are (1) developing system practices, (2) sharing and scaling knowledge, (3) providing support.
This meeting will take place from 7 to 9.30 pm. Details for this meeting will be shared shortly before the event upon registration.
The program of October 28, 2020
19:00 Welcome & introduction
19:20 Network moment SCiO style
19:30 ‘Patterns of Strategy’ – Patrick Hoverstadt – Fractal Consulting/ President SCiO (Eng)
20:30 In-depth dialogue
21:15 Conclusions & word of thanks
The Belgian network is a Dutch-speaking network, this meeting will take place in English given the speaker.
Patrick will introduce us to how the strategic fit between organizations drives their strategic direction. His work, which he developed together with Lucy Loh, is the first significant new approach to strategy in a long time. He unfolds a vital perspective for those who wish to understand how to maneuver their organization to change its strategic fit to their advantage.
The framework allows one to examine both your own and your competitor’s strategy and explore different patterns, allowing you to adapt successfully in your changing business environment.
After registration, we will provide you with supporting documentation
Those who have followed this podcast in the past, and those who follow developments in cybernetics in the present, will be no strangers to the name Ranulph Glanville. This brilliant, multiple-PhD holding polymath who co-mingled cybernetics with ethics, pedagogy, and, above all, design, has, through his voluminous body of ground-breaking papers, had a greater influence upon the field than, arguably, any scholar since Heinz von Foerster.
At the 2015 Conference of the International Society for the Systems Sciences in Berlin, a group of self-proclaimed “Glanvillians” made up largely of former students and collaborators of Glanville, and a few interlopers like myself, met over a breakfast table at the Scandic Hotel, Potzdammer Platz, Berlin and, at the prompting of Thomas Fischer and Candy Herr, committed themselves to consolidating Glanville’s legacy and pointing the way to future extensions and investigations of his central claim that design is the practice of cybernetics and cybernetics is theory for design.
The result is Design Cybernetics: Navigating the New (Springer) edited by Fischer and Herr. Featuring an eclectic blend of mid-career and senior scholars, the assembled chapters probe the vital relationship between conversation and design, the commitments of a radical constructivist epistemology, the virtues of being “out of control”, the embracing of error, and the seemingly paradoxical notion of getting “lost with rigour” across a wide array of artistic and scientific domains.
As both the interviewer and a contributor to the book, I have, in the sprit of “walking our talk”, eschewed the erasure of error by editing and left, in full view, the meandering trail of a wandering and, at times, stumbling conversational journey featuring prolonged gaps in thinking, confusion between different articles by the same author, technical miscues, and even a pitched battle between my two cats, in order to model our commitment to process over perfection and personify Glanville’s favourite Samuel Beckett quote: “Try again, fail again, fail better.” I hope you find the stops along the way of this meandering journey as stimulating as I did.
Thomas Fischer is a design researcher, epistemologist and cybernetician. He is a Professor and Director of Research at the Department of Architecture at XJTLU in Suzhou, China. Thomas is also a Visiting Associate Professor at the School of Design at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
Christiane M. Herr is an architectural researcher and educator focusing on the areas of structural design, digitally supported design, radical constructivism, design pedagogy and traditional Chinese approaches to creative thinking. Christiane is a Senior Associate Professor at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University in China, where she directs the Master of Architectural Design as well as the Bachelor of Architectural Engineering programmes.
Alexander Bogdanov is usually referred to, in the systems community, as someone who anticipated von Bertalanffy’s development of general system theory. With his rehabilitation in Russia, the opening of the Soviet archives, and the translation of more of his writings into English, the time is right for a fuller appraisal of the range of his contributions. This preliminary review outlines some avenues that such a reappraisal might explore. In particular: – The impact of his work at the time of the Russian revolution – The philosophy behind and the systems ideas expressed in his greatest work, Tektology – His science fiction writings describing the functioning of a fully fledged communist society situated on Mars – The similarities between his ideas and those of later systems thinkers, particularly Stafford Beer and his work in Chile Michael C. Jackson is Emeritus Professor at the University of Hull, editor-in-chief of Systems Research and Behavioral Science, and MD of Systems Research Ltd. He graduated from Oxford University, gained an MA from Lancaster University and a PhD from Hull, and has worked in the civil service, in academia and as a consultant. Between 1999 and 2011, Mike was Dean of Hull University Business School, leading it to triple-crown accreditation. Mike has been President of the International Federation for Systems Research and the International Society for the Systems Sciences. He is a Companion of the Association of Business Schools, a Chartered IT Professional, and a Fellow of the British Computer Society, the Cybernetics Society, the Chartered Management Institute, the Operational Research Society and the International Academy for Systems and Cybernetic Sciences. Mike has received many awards, two honorary degrees, and has been a visiting professor at numerous international universities. In 2011 he was awarded an OBE for services to higher education and business.
Toward a theory of schizophrenia Gregory Bateson Don D. Jackson Jay Haley John Weakland First published: 1956
https://doi.org/10.1002/bs.3830010402Citations: 1,420 PDFTOOLS SHARE Abstract Schizophrenia—its nature, etiology, and the kind of therapy to use for it—remains one of the most puzzling of the mental illnesses. The theory of schizophrenia presented here is based on communications analysis, and specifically on the Theory of Logical Types. From this theory and from observations of schizophrenic patients is derived a description, and the necessary conditions for, a situation called the “double bind”—a situation in which no matter what a person does, he “can’t win.” It is hypothesized that a person caught in the double bind may develop schizophrenic symptoms. How and why the double bind may arise in a family situation is discussed, together with illustrations from clinical and experimental dat
“Sure there’s a catch”, Doc Daneeka replied. “Catch-22. Anyone who wants to get out of combat duty isn’t really crazy.”
There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one’s own safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions…” Joseph Heller, Catch-22
Step into System Innovation A festival of ideas and insights
November 9th – 13th, 2020 // Online & Free
Join us for a festival of inspiration and insights into the practicalities of what it takes to change a system from the inside out. We have brought together some of the boldest social innovators from around the world. With them we will dive into the work of transforming systems to tackle deep social challenges. We will share a simple framework to help anyone step into system innovation, from public sector innovators, foundations and NGOs to social entrepreneurs and mission-driven businesses.Join for free
A five-week online course that will make you a better problem solver and improve the performance of your projects by teaching you to apply system thinking in technical environments.
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BECOME A VITAL PART OF YOUR ORGANIZATION’S FUTURE
We are surrounded by systems. The products, processes, and projects that we work on are increasingly complex and interrelated systems. Organizations are calling on you, their technical professionals, to drive and optimize complex projects under high-pressure conditions.
Through this online course, MIT faculty will teach you how to think of things as systems — the process of understanding how entities influence one another within a whole. You’ll be able to then communicate that gaining insight and apply new methods, techniques, and vocabulary to your projects and processes. System thinking (or “systems thinking”) helps organizations examine complexity and simplify it; recognize patterns, and create effective solutions to challenges. Understanding and approaching problems from a systems perspective in technical environments is an essential skill for your career.
Apply systems thinking to improve the performance of your projects. Understand how systems thinking is used in diverse areas such as logistics & transportation, project management, and computation. Participate in a project management simulation to apply the concepts learned, and engage in activities to contextualize each concept.
Systems Community of Inquiry 
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