antlerboy - Benjamin P Taylor 8:43 am on May 13, 2019

Annual Conference – The OR Society – 3-5 September 2019, University of Kent – with Systems Thinking stream

following the success of the systems thinking stream at last year’s OR conference (the largest ever stream in the history of the OR Society!), this year there is a full named stream, not capped as last year at three parallel sessions. Gerald Midgley is quite inspiring in his enthusiasm for this! Abstract submissions deadline is 31 May.

And Canterbury, with its beautiful cathedral, is a notable international draw.

Info on the systems thinking at bottom and this and other relevant streams in the link.

key dates: https://www.theorsociety.com/what-we-do/events-conferences/annual-conference/or61-key-dates/

Source: Annual Conference – The OR Society

OR61: Annual Conference

3-5 September 2019

University of Kent
Sibson Building, Park Wood Rd, Canterbury CT2 7FS

SUBMIT ABSTRACTS

Now in its 61st year, the conference picks up momentum from the 2018 diamond anniversary which saw a record number of delegates in attendance. Whether you work as a practitioner or an academic, OR61 is the place to come and learn about how OR and analytics are transforming the workplace through delivering productivity improvements.

This must-attend conference also promotes debate and future thinking to focus the OR profession on how it needs to evolve to deliver benefits to business, the economy and wider society. OR61 is co-chaired by Professor Said Salhi and Dr Kathy Kotiadis from the University of Kent and will feature three prominent plenary speakers:

Professor Erhan Erkut, Vice Rector, MEF University, Istanbul, Turkey
Professor Grazia Speranza, IFORS President and former EURO president. Professor of OR, University of Brescia, Italy
Professor Panos Pardalos, Distinguished Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering, University of Florida, USA

The University of Kent is one of the country’s leading academic institutions producing world-class research, rated internationally excellent and leading the way in many fields of study. It is a forward-thinking research institution, committed to the transformative power of education and research and to the development and support of our students and staff.

Systems Thinking stream

Many OR and Systems practitioners share a common interest in systemic intervention to address highly complex organizational, social and environmental problems. This stream provides a fantastic opportunity to bring people from both the OR and Systems communities together to learn from one another, so both can be enriched. We welcome the widest possible diversity of practitioners and academics, whichever tradition of systems thinking or systemic OR you come from. We encourage the submission of abstracts discussing applications of systems thinking; methodological innovations; theoretical contributions; thoughts on the diversity, impacts and ethics of systemic OR practice; and reflections on the past, present and future of the relationship between Systems Thinking and OR.

Organisers

Gerald Midgley – G.R.Midgley@hull.ac.uk
Giles Hindle – giles.hindle@hull.ac.uk
Angela Espinosa – A.Espinosa@hull.ac.uk

antlerboy - Benjamin P Taylor 4:31 pm on May 12, 2019

Four quadrants of systems thinking threats revisited (and complexity)

Some time ago I published here (https://stream.syscoi.com/2018/06/20/four-quadrants-of-systems-thinking-threats/) a four quadrant model of how we might ‘go wrong’ with systems thinking – with each corner creating problems for the field – but contributing something too – and corrective to bring them back to the middle. It is, of course, all dependent on perspective and boundaries and views.

Anyway, in light of the various recent ‘systems thinking is old and bad and complexity is new and good’ discussions, I am sharing a newer version which I’ve renamed the systems thinking and complexity minefield.

Left side errs towards ‘power to’ change the world and idealism, right side ‘power over’ and money, intellectual property etc.

Top errs towards the many and populism, but is likely to lose interest and move on / bottom to the personal, the few.

So top says ‘our tools are right’ (often not knowing there are other approaches), bottom is focused on ‘your tools are wrong’.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/q8rq14u4j91uipu/2019-04-15%20four%20quadrants%20of%20systems%20thinking%20threats%20v2.1BT.pdf?dl=0

Thus we find in the top left the naive enthusiast who thinks whatever they’ve found will change the world. Their path to learning might be to realise the limits of their knowledge and see the bigger, tougher challenge ahead.

Top right is the populariser, who is buying a following at the cost of nuance. They can be confronted with ‘the robust old stuff’, the unsexy 20th Century approaches which are incredibly valuable, and have trodden the same ground before, to better effect.

Bottom right is the gooroo – they can be dragged into the swampy lowlands of actual practice.

And bottom left is the Systems Curmudgeon (TM), who needs to be led into application and acceptance of adopting practices that fit the actual context.

Which are you? Which am I? 😉

None of this is perfect and nobody really wants to be in the game of correcting stuff. I don’t like to be called a ‘gatekeeper’ on twitter (as when someone defined organisational development as ‘the practice of service design applied to organisations’), nor accused of having ad hominem attacks as my go-to along with straw man attacks (especially when they might be right). There’s a case for just making the case you believe to be intellectually honest (‘bearing witness’, I suppose) and ignoring those who seem off or just wrong… But it does muddy the waters awfully, some of the things people say in this field!

antlerboy - Benjamin P Taylor 2:39 pm on May 12, 2019

Soft systems methodology revisited

CSL4D

Combining Checkland and Churchman for systems learning

Systems concepts baffling Over the past years I have been trying to get a better understanding of the workings of a systems approach described in a workbook that I am co-writer of. Wicked Solutions, as it is called, uses three operable systems concepts to explain systems thinking in a nutshell and get learners to apply them directly on a ‘wicked’ problem of their own so as to gain a direct, hands-on experience of their usefulness. The three concepts are: inter-relationships, perspectives, and boundaries (as in ‘boundary critique’), see also here. It may seem silly that I don’t understand the workings of a systems approach that I have used and written about myself, but I may well be in very good company.

John Poulter …., in his talk about a closely related systems approach, explains that “what I realized was that I…

View original post 1,100 more words

antlerboy - Benjamin P Taylor 2:34 am on May 10, 2019

Systems Innovation London – conference, 7-8 September 2019

Source: Systems Innovation London – Systems Innovation

Systems Innovation London

SEE TEASER

BOOK TICKETS

Overview

Systems Innovation is a conference on applying systems and complexity thinking towards innovating new solutions to complex challenges. This will be the second in this series of events and will take place in London on the weekend of the 7-8th of September. This is an open forum for those organizations and individuals applying complexity and systems thinking in various areas of economy, society, technology or environment towards enabling systems innovation and whole systems change; it is for anyone who feels that complexity theory or systems thinking is central to what they do – or wishes to learn how to apply these new ideas – and is interested in engaging with peer organizations and individuals in open discussion and ideas exchange.

The event will bring together up to 10-15 organizations and some 100-200 individual participants, for an active two days of presentations, workshops and brainstorming sessions on applying the ideas of complexity and systems thinking. The forum will be an opportunity to meet and exchange ideas and perspectives with others in an open space, to foster collaboration and awareness across the community, to hear from our speakers and brainstorm on specific issues of interest to participants. Whether you are a seasoned complexity thinker or new to the area this is a place to connect, learn and see what is happening when it comes to the application of these exciting new ideas to tackling some of today’s most complex challenges across many domains.

Basic Info

What

This will be a weekend conference of presentations, brainstorming and open discussion sessions

When

The dates are set for a two full-day event on the weekend of the 7 – 8th of September

Who

This is for those interested in applying complexity thinking to tackling real-world issues and enabling systems change.

Where

Location is yet to be confirmed but the event will take place in the center of London UK

Activities

Keynotes

Keynote speakers that will present a broad overview to the topics of systems/complexity thinking and systems change/innovation

Presentations

This format is for sharing real-world experience and applied knowledge, presentations are focused on specific domains, eg health, finance, energy etc.

Workshops

This event will include educational presentations, workshops and training seasons, both in the theory of systems and its applications

Panel Discussions

Panel discussions focused on specific themes with 3-4 guests and open to audience engagement

Open Spaces

Participant-driven “open spaces” for focusing on specific, important questions and challenges

Networking

This event will be optimized for networking; for you to find the right people and make the right connections

SI London will be the second in our series of SI events, see the first one in Barcelona

SEE VIDEO

Confirmed Speakers So Far

We are currently confirming speakers and will update this list of participants over the coming weeks.

Nabeel Goheer

Assistant Secretary-General at the Commonwealth Secretariat

Nabeel will talk on his experiences in transforming large bureaucratic systems in the Pakistani Government and the United Nations

Katie Boswell

Systems Change Lead
at NPC

Katie will present on NPC’s insightful research on “Thinking big: How to use theory of change for systems change”

Martin Sandbrook

Leads Systems Learning at
Schumacher Institute

As an overview to his Schumacher Institute’s course, Martin takes us deep into systems thinking as a “world view”

Sanne Pelgröm

Senior service systems designer at Livework Studio

Designer by heart, systems thinker by head, Sanne will take us into the world of designing integrated service systems

Benjamin Taylor

Chief Executive Public Service Transformation Academy

Benjamin will present on the Viable Systems Model and how it relates to his work in public sector transformation

Francesco Filia

CEO Fasanara Capital alternative asset management company

An expert in systemic risk Francesco will illustrate how complexity theory applies to understand nonlinearity in capital markets

Cassie Robinson

Strategic Design Director at Doteveryone

Cassie will present on the theme of “Beyond human-centred design” talking about the emergence of a new kind of system-level design approach

James Greyson

Founder and CEO of BlindSpot
Think Tank

James will be talking on global system change and methods to map & expand the imaginative space for solutions through “blindspotting” and leverage points

Deon Cloete

Research Associate CST, Principal Consultant Transformability

Based upon his PhD research Deon will run a workshop on change agents; how different actors take different roles in trying to change a system

Plus 9 more
speakers to be
confirmed soon

Why Attend

SI events are more than just a gathering, we are working to co-create the agenda when it comes to applying systems thinking, guiding the development of the global systems innovation movements and work to set future visions and directions for this burgeoning area.

NETWORKING

The applied systems and complexity community is hugely dispersed consisting of many small organizations spread around the world, we design the SI events as physical connectors, as places to get offline and make those lasting face to face connections.

LEARNING

We know that not everyone is an expert in these ideas so we work to bring in not just great thinkers but also great educators making this a place to learn about systems and complexity thinking, both the abstract ideas but also how they apply within specific context.

DISCUSSION

This is a place to join the discussion on how to move forward with the application of systems thinking and systems change, both generally and within specific areas of interest; it is a place to get diverse and fresh perspectives that challenge your narrative.

INSPIRATION

More than just a platform for networking and learning this is a unique place to synthesize different perspectives, spark new ideas and get re-energized. You are sure to come away with new insights and motivation.

antlerboy - Benjamin P Taylor 1:29 am on May 10, 2019

One more time – is #systemsthinking meaningfully distinct from #complexitytheory

It’s my opinion that some old canards about a distinction between systems thinking and complexity theory do the rounds – and they are deeply troubling and motivated by some ‘complexity theorists’ intentionally misinterpreting the roots of systems thinking in order to privilege their own work. A recent exchange on twitter – linked below – exemplifies this.

I agree that some ‘systems practice’ is done in a deeply mechanistic way (Nora Bateson has a great line in ‘small arcs of larger circles’ about the dominant mechanistic mindset and ‘no wonder that new thinking is interpreted through the dominant paradigm’). And there are some useful tools and approaches and complexity science is a serious and meaningful endeavour. But the idea that ‘this does this’ and ‘that does that’ is unworthy of us (and as soon as I try to address the distinction, it being a distinction, I inevitably fall foul of it as well), and I think we can do better by addressing the fact that there’s a range of theory, a range of practice, and a range of people – all drawing (whatever the complexity ‘map’ says) on the same roots and all seeking for comparable things – and we need to appreciate them as theory and seek to think about how to use them in positive and constructive ways – and that’s it!

Anyway, have a look at the discussion on twitter below.

Great, but then you need to stop advocating systems thinking and start focusing on complexity theory/science. Stop mixing the two

— D! (@_n_action) May 6, 2019

I’d say the most important points are:
1) The ontological difference. ST focus on certainty and order (causality – cause and effect relationships) while CT focus on unorder/change and uncertainty (causality can only be inferred in retrospect,

— D! (@_n_action) May 10, 2019

antlerboy - Benjamin P Taylor 9:07 am on May 9, 2019

Become a system change agent | Forum for the Future

Source: Become a system change agent | Forum for the Future

Become a system change agent

Join the School of System Change

Applications are now open for Basecamp #7 UK.

You can also express your interest for other upcoming programmes in Europe, the Americas and Asia through this form here.

FAQs

Is this for me?

For each programme we are looking for inspired and intrepid individuals from business, not-for-profits, public sector organisations and other enablers of change to form a strong cohort of twenty participants.

The network you plug into (participants, workshop facilitators and the organizers) is incredible! Gina LaMotte, Ecorise

What will I learn?

Basecamp will help you navigate five core capabilities for system change, introducing you to a variety of tools and methods to lead ambitious initiatives and engage others. You will learn with a dozen high-level system change thinkers and practitioners pioneering this field across the world.

Many of the tools introduced have been great organizing tools even if we take them out of the framework of “systems change” so I have been able to apply my learnings to my work in many ways. Eddie Junsay, Power Shift Network

This is an applied learning programme, where you will first have the opportunity to try out new skills on a complex Fieldwork project we source with our partners, and then embed new practices in your own work.

It was really unique to acquire skills to enable change and build consensus, not technical sustainability knowledge which goes out of date. Elizabeth Howarth, Transport for London

What is the structure of the course?

A six month learning journey
Two in-person sessions at the beginning and in the middle
A collaborative team Fieldwork project after the first in-person session, lasting six weeks
Online learning with peer coaching and support from the School of System Change team

The School provided a constant prompt to put theory into practice and learn from it. Rachel Jetel, We Mean Business

How much does it cost?

Corporate: £7,500 or $9000
NGO / social enterprise / public sector: £5,250 or $6300
Small organisation / freelance / individual: £3,750 or $4500

30% discount for members and partners of Forum for the Future.

VAT does not apply

Find out more about Basecamp #7 UK

antlerboy - Benjamin P Taylor 9:24 am on May 7, 2019

Social alliances improve rank and fitness in convention-based societies

Complexity Digest

What forces produce and maintain social inequality, and why do society members tolerate this inequality? The “One Percent” clearly benefit from having high status, but low-status individuals have strong incentive to challenge the established pecking order and try to improve their position. This conundrum is particularly striking in the societies of many primates and spotted hyenas, where females who are born to low-status mothers rarely manage to improve their position. Here we find that females who are strongly allied with their group-mates are more likely to improve their status, and that upward social mobility is often achieved with support from their closest allies. This suggests that, much like some animals compete physically for status, these species compete through social alliances.

Social alliances improve rank and fitness in convention-based societies

Eli D. Strauss and Kay E. Holekamp
PNAS April 30, 2019 116 (18) 8919-8924

Source: www.pnas.org

View original post

antlerboy - Benjamin P Taylor 4:52 pm on May 5, 2019

Origins Of Life – Complexity Explorer course from the Santa Fe Institute, starts 14 June 2019 (free)

Source: Complexity Explorer

COMPLEXITYEXPLORER

SANTA FE INSTITUTE

THIS COURSE STARTS ON 14 JUN 2019 8AM UTC

Enroll

Origins Of Life

Lead instructor: Sarah Maurer and Chris Kempes

About the Course:

This course aims to push the field of Origins of Life research forward by bringing new and synthetic thinking to the question of how life emerged from an abiotic world.

This course begins by examining the chemical, geological, physical, and biological principles that give us insight into origins of life research. We look at the chemical and geological environment of early Earth from the perspective of likely environments for life to originate.

Taking a look at modern life we ask what it can tell us about the origin of life by winding the clock backwards. We explore what elements of modern life are absolutely essential for life, and ask what is arbitrary? We ponder how life arose from the huge chemical space and what this early ‘living chemistry’may have looked like.

We examine phenomena, that may seem particularly life like, but are in fact likely to arise given physical dynamics alone. We analyze what physical concepts and laws bound the possibilities for life and its formation.

Insights gained from modern evolutionary theory will be applied to proto-life. Once life emerges, we consider how living systems impact the geosphere and evolve complexity.

The study of Origins of Life is highly interdisciplinary – touching on concepts and principles from earth science, biology, chemistry, and physics. With this we hope that the course can bring students interested in a broad range of fields to explore how life originated.

The course will make use of basic algebra, chemistry, and biology but potentially difficult topics will be reviewed, and help is available in the course discussion forum and instructor email. There will be pointers to additional resources for those who want to dig deeper.

This course is Complexity Explorer’s first Frontiers Course. A Frontiers Course gives students a tour of an active interdisciplinary research area.The goals of a Frontiers Course are to share the excitement and uncertainty of a scientific area, inspire curiosity, and possibly draw new people into the research community who can help this research area take shape!

About the Instructor(s):

Dr. Sarah Maurer

Dr. Maurer is interested in the abiogenesis from both the origins-of-life and artificial life perspectives. She builds model cells from amphiphiles, and examines possible life-like properties, such as metabolism or growth and division. Her current projects include: the ability of cells to survive in the absence of reproduction, artificial photosynthesis under prebiotic conditions, and studying the behavior of biomolecules and their analogues in less polar solvents to inform our search for life in the solar system and beyond.

Dr. Chris Kempes

Dr. Kempes works at the intersection of physics, biology, and ecology. Using mathematical and computational techniques, he studies how simple theoretical principles inform a variety of phenomena ranging from major evolutionary transitions, to the biogeography of plant traits, to the organization of bacterial communities. He is particularly interested in biological architecture as a mediator between physiology and the local environment, and in developing general perspectives of life that can be applied in astrobiological contexts.

This course is funded through Research Coordination Network (RCN) funded by a National Science Foundation grant (NSF Grant No. 1745355) on which Chris Kempes (SFI Faculty) and SFI President David Krakauer are co-principal investigators.

Disclaimer. The grantee is responsible for assuring that every publication of material (including web pages) based on or developed under an NSF award, except scientific articles or papers appearing in scientific, technical or professional journals, contains a disclaimer that specifies that the opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Class Introduction:Class Introduction

How to use Complexity Explorer:How to use Complexity Explorer

Participant map: View Participant Map
Course dates:14 Jun 2019 8am UTC to
02 Sep 2019 7am UTC

Prerequisites:None (useful to have Algebra, Introductory Chemistry and Biology)

Like this course? Donate to help fund more like it

Syllabus

Introduction
Chemical Origins
Chemical Comminalities
Early Life
Evolution
Astrobiology & General Outlook

antlerboy - Benjamin P Taylor 3:29 pm on May 5, 2019

How to stop climate change: six ways to make the world a better place (with systems change) – the Conversation

Source: How to stop climate change: six ways to make the world a better place

How to stop climate change: six ways to make the world a better place

May 1, 2019 11.32am BST

Authors

Rick Stafford
Professor of Marine Biology and Conservation, Bournemouth University
Peter JS Jones
Reader in Environmental Governance, UCL

Disclosure statement

Rick Stafford is a member of the Labour party

Peter JS Jones does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Partners

University College Londonprovides funding as a founding partner of The Conversation UK.

Bournemouth University provides funding as a member of The Conversation UK.

The Conversation UK receives funding from these organisations

Nobel Peace Prize nominee Greta Thunberg claims we need system change to save the planet, and the majority of experts, from the IPCC, through to our own research, would certainly agree with this.

But for most people, it often isn’t clear what changes actually need to be made to address environmental problems. And ideas that are presented can be seem as extreme to some. This is despite the fact that many experts agree that to really tackle climate change, the focus needs to be on changing the capitalist system to make it more environment-friendly.

System change can sound scary, but as the current system drives social injustice and environmental destruction, a new approach to address bothi s called for. These are some suggestions to help build that new system which also aim to improve people’s lives in the process.

Continues in source How to stop climate change: six ways to make the world a better place

antlerboy - Benjamin P Taylor 12:37 pm on May 2, 2019

LINKAGE PROPOSITIONS BETWEEN FIFTY PRINCIPAL SYSTEMS CONCEPTS L. Raphael Troncale (1978)

Institute for Advanced Systems Studies
California State Polytechnic University
Pomona, California, U.S.A.

1.0 INTRODUCTION: THE NEED FOR LINKAGES BETWEEN GENERAL SYSTEMS

CONCEPTS
Ackoff states that “the concepts and terms comonly used to
talk about systems have not themselves been organized into a system [1].” Margaret Mead can be heard meeting after meeting criticizing the field she helped popularize for not applying the
“systems approach” to itself. The comparatively slow development
of a paradigm in general systems theory [compare with fields described in (2) and especially (3)] is characterized by endless redefining of the same few terms followed by the rediscovery, and
often rewording of the most comon of these terms in each new
discipline as it “popularizes” the systems level for itself. The
result has been confusion in terminology, a highly fractured and
“fuzzy” paradigm, and a set of introductory texts [4, 5, 6, 7]
none of which can be expected to cover more than a part of the
whole set of concepts available. The fragmentation of concepts
between disciplines and approaches has stifled the widespread
awareness of the consistent set of linkages that potentially exist
among the concepts.

(pdf)

Click to access Original-SoSPT-Paper-NATO-1978.pdf

antlerboy - Benjamin P Taylor 4:23 am on May 2, 2019
Tags: cybernetics ( 35 ), CyberSyn, DankAudioStash

Designing Freedom: Stafford Beer – full book free (and more) on archive.org

Source: Designing Freedom : Stafford Beer : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Designing Freedom

by Stafford Beer

Publication date1974-01-01

Also – for example:

On The Design Of Stable Systems
by gerald weinberg, daniela weinberg

An Approach To Cybernetics
by gordon pask

Engineeringn Cybernetics
by robert glorioso

The Structure Of Awareness
by vladimir lefebvre

#cybernetics, #cybersyn, #dankaudiostash

antlerboy - Benjamin P Taylor 1:37 am on May 1, 2019

Two more interesting pdfs on Gregory Bateson

Stephen Nachmanovitch – Gregory Bateson – Old Men Ought to be Explorers (1981)

Click to access stephen_nachmanovitch_about_bateson.pdf

Daniel Matthew Blaeuer – An Ecology of Performance: Gregory Bateson’s Cybernetic Performance – PhD submission, 2010

https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=4705&context=etd

antlerboy - Benjamin P Taylor 1:33 am on May 1, 2019

Gregory Bateson – Mind and Nature (replaced)

Removed link as other full Bateson book linked from here was apparently a pirated copy so I assume this was too 😦

REPLACE link as it was sent out by Cognitive Edge after the Nora Bateson/Snowden talk so if Nora doesn’t mind!

Click to access Bateson_Gregory_Mind_and_Nature.pdf

antlerboy - Benjamin P Taylor 1:32 am on May 1, 2019

STEPS TO AN ECOLOGY OF MIND by Gregory Bateson (removed)

STEPS TO AN ECOLOGY OF MIND by Gregory Bateson

Removed link as Nora Bateson says this is an illegal pirated copy. Apologies!

antlerboy - Benjamin P Taylor 3:29 am on April 30, 2019

Nora Bateson and Gil Friend: Inner Ecology—Thinking Through the Mess – YouTube

Nora Bateson and Gil Friend: Inner Ecology—Thinking Through the Mess

Gil Friend

Published on 22 Apr 2019

Nora Bateson and Gil Friend kick off Gil’s “Conversations at the Edge of Now” series at the Commonwealth Club of California with a wide-ranging exploration that starts with a simple, provocative question: “How can we think our way out of these messes, when the way we think is part of the mess?” ———————————————————————————– The world is coming undone, all sort of chaos looms. It’s pitch dark. There’s no moon. You can’t find your map. The ground shifts beneath your feet. You grope tentatively to detect sure footing, or the edge of a precipice, and long for a hand to hold. Welcome to the Anthropocene—perhaps the most uncertain era in the human evolutionary experience. Underlying the climate crisis and other pressing dilemmas of our times is the problem of how we think, and how we encounter the world, others and ourselves. How we meet this era is critical. Are we going to soothe ourselves and pretend that business as usual is an option? No. There is no more time for trendy buzz-words or empty promises. To meet the challenges of this era is to accept that, no matter how well intended, previous approaches to sustainable and just socio-economic solutions were not sufficient to meet the systemic nature of the problems. A paradigm shift is more than an incremental adjustment of existing institutions, more than a detailed strategy for silo-ed solutions to silo-ed crises that have been bought about by silo-ed thinking. Climate, immigration, trade, innovation, wealth gap, AI, biodiversity, racism, acidification, mental health, urbanization, power, supply chains, exploitation of human beings and nature…all are connected, through similar blocks, similar blindness, and something that illuminates it all. Underlying our dilemmas is the problem of how we think—“the difference between how nature works and the way people think,” as Gregory Bateson put it—and how we encounter the world, others and ourselves. It is time to authorize another kind of description of the meta-crises we live in, another kind of response, and another kind of conversation, with each other and with ourselves—since we create worlds in these conversations, and open or close the possibilities we live into. This is a radical move, out of the standard accepted models of goals and deliverables into what it really takes to meet the trans-contextual complexity of now. Join Nora and Gil as we explore warm data, the patterns that connect, the dilemma of purpose, and the ways our words shape the worlds we inhabit, and the possibilities we generate, in each other and in ourselves. Nora Bateson is an award-winning filmmaker, writer and educator, and President of the International Bateson Institute, based in Sweden. Her work asks the question “How we can improve our perception of the complexity we live within, so we may improve our interaction with the world?” Nora wrote, directed and produced the award-winning documentary, An Ecology of Mind, a portrait of her father, Gregory Bateson. Her work brings the fields of biology, cognition, art, anthropology, psychology, and information technology together into a study of the patterns in the ecology of living systems. Her book, Small Arcs of Larger Circles, released by Triarchy Press, UK, 2016 is a revolutionary personal approach to the study of systems and complexity. Gil Friend is a strategist, author and businessman, named “one of the top ten sustainability voices in the US” by The Guardian. As CEO of Natural Logic, he has challenged and guided some of the world’s leading companies to build value and competitive advantage by applying nature’s 3.8 billion years of open source R&D to today’s biggest problems. He served as the first Chief Sustainability Officer for the City of Palo Alto, and is founder of Critical Path Capital. Gil is author of The Truth About Green Business (FT Press, 2009) and numerous articles for GreenBiz, Sustainable Brands, and the LA Times Syndicate. He began his sustainability journey at Buckminster Fuller’s “World Game” nearly 50 years ago.