Arun Maira | Updated on September 11, 2020 Published on September 11, 2020
Understanding the food system is a complex process – MA Sriram
The Eat Right India initiative shows how large-scale change can be facilitated by a small govt agency like FSSAI
Two Indian initiatives have found places amongst the ten best global initiatives selected by the Rockefeller Foundation for its Food Systems Vision Prize 2050. One is the Naandi Foundation’s work with tribal communities in Araku in South India. The other is ‘Eat Right India’, the countrywide movement for food systems change being shaped by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).
The capability to implement large-scale change in complex systems is the key for India to realise the benefits of any well-thought-out policy or plan. The National Education Policy is the most recent example of a far-reaching policy wherein all commentators are concerned about how it will be implemented.
Professor Tracey Osborne Taking on Complex, Grand Challenges in Climate and Social Justice
By Lorena Anderson, UC MercedSeptember 9, 2020
Professor Tracey Osborne
The world is a complex place, and humanity faces major challenges. Climate change mitigation might be the most difficult, in large part because of the interdependency of living things and their ecosystems.
How do people transform economic systems so they are also sustainable for people and the planet?
“If we don’t consider how everything connects from a systems perspective, we’re not going to solve grand challenges such as climate change,” Professor Tracey Osborne said. “Not even close.”
Part of the work of Illuminate, cultivating the field and practice of systems change.
“My Peer Input session was a highlight – it came at a time when I was second-guessing my approach to, and gut feelings about, collaboration for systems change. ”
— PARTICIPANT, COHORT 1 , IN THE THICK OF IT
What’s the deal?
Bridgers is a peer-learning cohort for people who are working to create systemic change and are working from non-dominant spaces and communities. This will be a place to share inquiry, key learning and practices, build alliances and camaraderie.
We know there are stories to be shared about what it takes to be a bridge for systems change. This will be a place to go deep, to shine light on diverse practices and different ways of knowing, so we may see collective patterns, challenges and identify the subtleties that are the opportunities for change.
Who is this for?
The Community Bridges Cohort is open to anyone working in context of non-dominant spaces, identities and communities and acts as a ‘bridge’ to places of dominant power and influence across the incumbent system.
As a practitioner you have experience code switching, translating, moving across “borders” to engage broader system actors in their work. You draw on multiple ways of knowing and practices. You are deeply in the middle of a complex project and are facing multiple challenges in doing this work.
You might be doing systems change work, but might not call it that. You have momentum and movement in your initiative. You have faced systemic obstacles and barriers that feel like ceilings, limitations and isolation.
We are open to applications from people who resonate with this call, but are not sure if they meet the criteria. Feel free to reach out.
We welcome applications from people all over the world.
What will it involve?
We convene peer learning circles in a monthly basis virtually via Zoom
Each peer session session is 1.5 hours long
1 hour buddy call with another participant between calls
Commitment to a total of 7 peer sessions and individual reflective practice & light homework
Why peer-to-peer learning?
Our experience has taught us that sitting down with colleagues and really digging into the detail of practice, what is emerging day to day, is the most valuable use of time.
You will be meeting people who implicitly understand what you’re talking about, who have ideas you can borrow and who will become a valuable network for years to come. Our role is to the create the conditions where you can connect meaningfully together, then get out of the way. This will be hosted.
What will happen on the calls?
Each session involves small group gatherings of up to 8 people with a different person sharing a challenge each month, followed by peer-to-peer coaching. Through this process we surface shared inquiry, exchange learning, resources and support.
We are joined by guest speakers and practitioners to support you in spirit, mind and body.
We will illuminate personal experiences and the connections to the systemic nature of the challenges we are aiming to shift, we will share systems change practices to help identify paths forward.
We will explore these barriers and start to think collectively about what practices are we uncovering and what are we learning about shifting outdated power structures and cultures towards new creativity, new freedom and a new way of being.
You will be in a Cohort with people who understand you and who get it. You will feel you are not alone in this. It will be inspiring, cathartic, infuriating and good fun. Join us!
Proposed dates of calls
Calls will take place October 2020 – March 2021 on the last Wednesday and Thursday of each month.
FacebookTwitterLinkedInMicrosoft (Outlook)TopicInnovation Community of Practice: Systems Spectrum Sessions (a collaboration between States of Change and UNDP)DescriptionWelcome to the “Global Track” of the Ministry of Change Innovation CoP Week!
From Monday, October 5th through Friday, the 9th we have a special set of curated sessions designed to walk across a spectrum of systems change and transition practices. From field practitioner cases, to less obvious ways of approaching complex challenges, we hope you join.
The style is casual- no sage on a stage- but deeply curious as we get serious about unlearning and uncovering new ways of working and generating impact.
Here’s what we have in store for you to select as you wish. Join one or all-
Session 1, October 5 at 3:30pm ICT = Inclusive Systems Innovation: big collaborations and small circles with Kelly Ann McKercher of Beyond Sticky Notes AND Felicty Tan and Reycel Hyacenth Bendaña of wesolve.
Session 2, October 6 at 3:30pm ICT = Navigating Systems Transitions: the view from data labs with Petrarca Karetji, UN Pulse Lab – Jakarta AND Enrico Gaveglia, UNDP Philippines, Pintig Lab
Session 3, October 7 at 3:00pm ICT = Long-termism for policymaking with Ella Saltmarsh, The Long Time Project
Session 4, October 8 at 3:30pm ICT = The Learning Curve:insights from COVID to climate change with Climate KIC AND States of Change
Session 5, October at 3:30pm ICT = A letter to my younger (innovator) self with States of Change AND UNDP
Blurring the boundary between nature and humankind.
From the wildfires around the world to the compelling links between Covid-19 and climate change it feels right to ask: is the way we think of nature and culture as two separate things all wrong? Could we reimagine this divide and instead shape different possible futures, ones based on the concept that humankind and planet Earth are entirely intertwined? And if it was, so what? Might that change the way we design policies or act to decarbonise our economies, and if it could, what direction could that take us?
Join Javier Guillot in this workshop to explore how these different ways of thinking might come to define how we act in the face of climate change and the other major challenges of our time. This intimate session is capped at 20 spaces and is very much a space to pose questions.
8 October. Bogota 8am | New York 9am | London 2pm | Bangkok 8pm.Time
In the systems science group on facebook – https://www.facebook.com/groups/2391509563/permalink/10158396670634564/
Andrew Suttar asked: Does anyone know of a mind-map showing the relationships between the pioneers/founders of cybernetics? – https://www.facebook.com/groups/2391509563/permalink/10158396670634564/
This occasioned several useful links and Jerry Michalski’s ‘The Brain’ systems map: https://app.thebrain.com/brains/3d80058c-14d8-5361-0b61-a061f89baf87/thoughts/60df588b-b9fe-9c29-ee72-da8e528477dd/notes
David Rooke has been at the forefront of leadership development for over 30 years, and co-wrote (with Bill Torbert) the highly influential Harvard Business Review paper The Seven Transformations of Leadership which outlined the concept of the Leadership Development Framework.
Jennifer’s business is called Cultivating Leadership, which ‘does what it says on on the tin’. She has authored and co-authored several books, most recently Unlocking Leadership Mindtraps – How to Thrive in Complexity.
In this episode we look at some of the factors that can inhibit us from ‘thriving in complexity’, and also delve into the idea that Leadership is a journey, not a destination.https://player.captivate.fm/episode/75ccf679-19ed-466b-8465-27a1226a287a
CCSS Meeting #36: Scaling in Regulatory Networks: Basic Theory and Implications for Systemic Evolution
This lecture is an online discussion organised under our new Scaling in Complex Systems lecture series.
For the foreseeable future, lectures will remain predominantly online.
This Series: Scaling in Complex Systems
This academic year, we are introducing two series of lectures at the CCSS. Under our ‘Scaling in Complex Systems’ series, we shall hear from researchers investigating mechanisms of scaling, such as self-organized criticality, preferential processes, multiplicative processes and sample space reducing processes.
Speaker Overview
Rudolf Hanel (Medical University of Vienna & Complexity Science Hub Vienna) has been working with the Complex Systems Research Group of CSH since 2007. Rudolf finished his PhD in 1999 in theoretical physics, which was followed by work in medical physics, alongside publishing extensively on a range of topics including statistical physics, robotics, medical imaging , complex systems and evolution. Rudolf (AKA Rudi) is currently interested in understanding non-equilibrium processes, their thermodynamic properties and associated phase transitions.
Abstract
Emergent features of steadily driven non-equilibrium processes (e.g. cells, ecosystems, etc.) are not mutually independent. At coarse grained levels of description they can often be understood as regulatory networks that represent systems of typically non-linear dependencies. Ignorance on details of complex regulatory systems typically prevents us to fully specify such networks and reduces the direct predictive value of such models, particularly if some system components are themselves `anticipating subprocess’. However, even simple models can still generically inform us about dynamical properties we may expect from sufficiently large heterogenous regulatory networks. We use a most primitive `almost linear’ network model suffices to gain insight into how considered state variables, such as the abundance or activity of system features, all non-negative quantities, implement non-linear constraints on the system, causing it to exhibit large numbers of attractors corresponding to limit cycles or fixed points, and with some noise added, multistabie dynamics (i.e. punctuated equilibria) can be observed. More interestingly, there exits an extended range in the parameter-space of such systems where the system is very likely to operate `sustainably’ in a stable, or meta-stable way. Outside this range the system almost certainly becomes unstable (fully chaotic or exponential runaway dynamics). If we postulate that the overall stability of regulatory systems plays a role in systemic selection, or the evolution of system parameters, such models may explain emergent modularity and maybe also predominance of suppression mechanisms in regulatory systems as they increase in their diversity of features.Emergent features of steadily driven non-equilibrium processes (e.g. cells, ecosystems, etc.) are not mutually independent. At coarse grained levels of description they can often be understood as regulatory networks that represent systems of typically non-linear dependencies. Ignorance on details of complex regulatory systems typically prevents us to fully specify such networks and reduces the direct predictive value of such models, particularly if some system components are themselves `anticipating subprocess’. However, even simple models can still generically inform us about dynamical properties we may expect from sufficiently large heterogenous regulatory networks. We use a most primitive `almost linear’ network model suffices to gain insight into how considered state variables, such as the abundance or activity of system features, all non-negative quantities, implement non-linear constraints on the system, causing it to exhibit large numbers of attractors corresponding to limit cycles or fixed points, and with some noise added, multistabie dynamics (i.e. punctuated equilibria) can be observed. More interestingly, there exits an extended range in the parameter-space of such systems where the system is very likely to operate `sustainably’ in a stable, or meta-stable way. Outside this range the system almost certainly becomes unstable (fully chaotic or exponential runaway dynamics). If we postulate that the overall stability of regulatory systems plays a role in systemic selection, or the evolution of system parameters, such models may explain emergent modularity and maybe also predominance of suppression mechanisms in regulatory systems as they increase in their diversity of features.
Meeting Details
There will be 45-min lecture from the speaker, followed by a 45-min Question & Answer session.
To attend the lecture, please click this link (link to be provided) at 15:00 on Thursday 12th November 2020.
You are free to join the event without a Microsoft Teams account, the link above will direct you to open Teams on the web or download the program, and you can easily join the event as a guest in Teams.
CCSS Meeting #35: Scaling, Complexity and High Level Laws in Weather, Macroweather and the Climate
On Monday 28th September we will be holding our CCSS Meeting #35 on Zoom.
We will continue to use our virtual Centre for Complex Systems Studies external link environment on Microsoft Teams to post upcoming events. You are also welcome to use the environment to meet and engage with other complexity researchers, alongside staying up-to-date on our online activities.
This lecture is an online discussion organised under our new Scaling in Complex Systems lecture series.
For the foreseeable future, lectures will remain predominantly online.
This Series: Scaling in Complex Systems
This academic year, we are introducing two series of lectures at the CCSS. Under our ‘Scaling in Complex Systems’ series, we shall hear from researchers investigating mechanisms of scaling, such as self-organized criticality, preferential processes, multiplicative processes and sample space reducing processes.
Speaker Overview
Shaun Lovejoy external linkis Professor of Physics at McGill University, where he also earned his PhD. He has been on the faculty of McGill since 1985. He received his B.A. and M.S. in theoretical physics from Trinity College, Cambridge. Shaun has greatly contributed to the field of nonlinear geophysics, with some important advancements including multifractal cascades, generalized (anisotropic) scale invariance and (causal) space-time multifractal modeling of geofields. In 2013, Lovejoy showed that the conventional weather – climate dichotomy underestimated atmospheric variability, and argued for the replacement of the dichotomy by the trichotomy of weather – macroweather – climate. In 2016, he was named Fessenden professor at McGill University. In 2019 he was awarded the EGU’s Richardson medal.
Abstract
Macroscopic bodies are complex, involving huge numbers of molecules, yet for most purposes, the micro-details are irrelevant. Weather models are based on thermodynamics and continuum mechanics and are successful because they retain only the relevant variables: they don’t even acknowledge the existence of atoms. Similarly, the number of atmospheric degrees of the atmosphere – the weather “details” – is ≈ 1027. Starting with Richardson in the 1920’s, this has motivated the development of turbulence laws that ignore irrelevant aspects of the jumble of vortices. These laws are based on the physical principle of scaling; for realism, they have been generalized to anisotropic (especially stratified) multifractal processes. In the last decades, such processes have been identified in numerous geo and other complex systems.
Beyond about 10 days – the deterministic predictability limit, the macroweather regime – standard weather models become stochastic and to tame this complexity, new high level laws are needed. I describe several (high level) macroweather and climate models based on energy balance and scaling. I argue that they already make optimal monthly and seasonal forecasts as well as improved multidecadal climate projections.
Meeting Details
There will be 45-min lecture from the speaker, followed by a 45-min Question & Answer session.
To attend the lecture, please click this link external link at 15:30 on Monday 28th September 2020.S
De vereniging Systeemdenken voor doelgerichte mensen
HOME
De afgelopen jaren is de aandacht naar de wijze waarop we organisaties anders kunnen vormgeven enorm toegenomen. Het is een zoektocht naar meer flexibele organisatievormen, waarbij men put uit een waaier van nieuwe benaderingen (Holacracy, Agile, Spotify, Lean, Sociocracy 3.0, Liquid O, Semco, Socio-technical approach,…). Ze delen eenzelfde bedoeling, namelijk beter overleven in een omgeving die voortdurend verandert.
De centrale vraag in deze naar de wijze waarop je de samenhang van het geheel in een verregaande decentralisatie kan waarborgen. De Viable Systems benadering geeft hier een coherent antwoord op. Het is een benadering die in de jaren zeventig en tachtig van vorige eeuw is ontwikkeld door Stafford Beer en die veelvuldig wordt gebruikt bij het begrijpen van organisaties en het opnieuw ontwerpen ervan.
In de UK groepeert de Systems and Complexity in Organizations (http://www.scio.org.uk/) een zeer uitgebreid netwerk van top managers en bedrijfskundigen die systeembenaderingen toepassen in de manier waarop ze hun organisatie laten evolueren.https://www.youtube.com/embed/Sjz6MLbtEZA?feature=oembed
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SCiO-NL De vereniging Systeemdenken voor doelgerichte mensen
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SCiO-NL De vereniging Systeemdenken voor doelgerichte mensen
In March 2016 we hosted, Knowing Systems Thinking in Manchester. The event provided an introduction to systems theory and an understanding of its practical applications in a living system. Access all our resources from the day and listen to our special edition of the DoODcast which goes behind the scenes of the event and also shares the challenges OD leads working on ‘Devo Manc’ are facing as they support the merger of health and social care for 2.7m people.
‘Knowing’ and understanding systems thinking
To frame our event and help delegates understand systems thinking we looked at John Heron’s ‘Ways of knowing’. Heron takes the concept of knowledge beyond traditional boundaries of academic thinking and describes four ways of ‘knowing’ that together create a holistic, deep and valid way of understanding something.
One: Experiential knowing, this happens through direct face-to-face encounters with a person, place or thing. Knowing happens through the immediate experiences of perceiving something. This is the solid grounding on which presentational knowing is built.
Two: Presentational knowing takes the lived experience and translates it into an expression revealed through drawing, sound, movement and metaphor. Presentational knowing helps us make sense of our experiences. This leads us to propositional knowing, the most common and accepted way of knowing.
Three: Propositional knowing is knowing about something and expressing it in intellectual terms through ideas, theories and written statements.
Four: Practical knowing is a skill, a knack, a competence and is a result of the other three ways of knowing. We become able to do something and we know something practically.
Resources from the day
If you missed the event these resources will help you develop your knowledge and understand how the theory has been practically applied in the NHS.
Doing systems thinking Download the presentation given by Anne Benson and Coreene Archer from the Tavistock Institute. This presentation shares an overview of key systems thinking theories and models that underpin our practice.
Blog: Exploring patterns that connect Gareth Evans, senior organisational development officer at Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, illustrates how systems thinking can help us notice and understand patterns of behaviour in our organisation, drawing on an example we may be familiar with – the team member who isn’t managed.
Patterns that connect: Systems thinking in Wales Learn how senior organisational development officer, Gareth Evans used systems thinking in his trust. Download his presentation slides which covers how he applied the theory to his work
In this special edition of the DoODcast, recorded at our Manchester event, our speakers share a summary of their work, advice for practitioners and how they are applying systems thinking in their NHS trusts.
We also follow Helen Parker, Associate Director of Organisation Development at Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, as she meets with OD leads from across Greater Manchester. Helen meets with her fellow practitioners to discuss the implications of Devo Manc and how as a team they will collaboratively support the many different healthcare organisations to work together in a new and unprecedented way.
https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/262450735&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false Do OD is a leading workforce programme delivered by NHS Employers in partnership with the NHS Leadership Academy.
Lane, D. C. and M. C. Jackson (1995). “Only Connect! An annotated bibliography reflecting the breadth and diversity of systems thinking.” Systems Research (now Systems Research and Behavioral Science) 12(3): 217-228.
Free events coming up and a lot of international and online action from SCiO, the systems practitioner professional body:
all at https://systemspractice.org/events
28 September, FREE virtual networking event
19 October, members development event on Systems Laws (membership only £30/year) – https://systemspractice.org/membership
20 October, Wie sichert man die Zukunftsfähigkeit von Organisationen? (SCiO DACH – in German, paid)
28 October, SCiO Belgium, FREE – on Patterns of Strategy, with Patrick Hoverstady
16 November – FREE virtual open meeting
Systems and Complexity : nothing changed, nothing new – Gareth Evans and Introduction to Critical System Heuristics – Tony Korycki
Join us for our intimate, reflective and strategic Masterclass on Systems Practice. We will start in October. Expect practical frameworks and lots of thoughtful, focused, reflective time with a super interesting group of people working on systems change.
We have been working on the International Systems Change Field Building project Illuminate – specifically launching a new program for Bridgers, people who of the systems change world, to surface and learn together.
We have an increasing number of individual coaching sessions with women systems leaders to explore everything from transitions to strategy to equity. Reach out if you’re looking for support.
OUR THINKING Our small Cohort Masterclass on Systems Practice kicking off this October.
Must read – this is long, but brilliant Systems Change & Deep Equity. How can funders design for and measure progress on systems change? New report from Skoll, Ford and Draper Richards Kaplan Foundations, Porticus, and Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.
Systems Community of Inquiry 
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