Sean Manion

Mar 08, 2024

https://seanmanion.substack.com/p/machine-intelligence-is-not-artificial-956

They say:

Anyone who’s tried to unravel and address problems in the agri-food system will know how complex it is: Agri-food researchers, stakeholders and professionals working towards net zero also have to account for other economic, health, social and environmental issues, which are often multiple, interlinked and overlapping. If this sounds familiar, so will the below characteristics of highly complex problems (sometimes called ‘wicked problems’ by policy makers): · Interlinked issues, where trying to address one in isolation worsens the others. · Multiple perspectives and conflict on which issues matter most, and therefore what action should be taken. · Power relations making change difficult, and · Pervasive uncertainty While traditional scientific, policy and management approaches can make useful contributions, we need something in addition if we want to address more of the complexity and conflict associated with these kinds of complex problems. Systems thinking can help. In this talk, Prof Gerald Midgley will introduce a framework of systems thinking skills, plus a variety of systems ideas and methods, that can help people put these skills into practice. He will illustrate the use of the methods with examples from food system, natural resource management, social policy and community development projects undertaken over the last thirty years in the UK, New Zealand and Nigeria. Some of these projects involved working with agri-food companies and their stakeholders, while others focused on intransigent social issues. Through these examples, Gerald will show how we can begin to get a better handle on highly complex problems. About Gerald: Prof Gerald Midgley is a foremost authority on the theory and practice of systems thinking and systemic leadership, and has been researching it for 40 years. His work is transdisciplinary and he has worked across public health, health and social service design, natural resource management, community development, public sector management and technology foresight. He is currently researching how to integrate neuroscience and cognitive psychology into systemic leadership and systems thinking, to address some of the most challenging local-to-global issues of our time. He is an emeritus professor at the University of Hull, and a visiting professor at the Birmingham Leadership Institute at the University of Birmingham. To download Gerald’s presentation slides, go here https://www.agrifood4netzero.net/uplo…. These should obviously be credited appropriately to him if used in any way. About the webinar series: The webinar is chaired by Jez Fredenburgh, Knowledge Exchange Fellow for the AFN Network+, and agri-food journalist. Jez is based at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at the University of East Anglia. This webinar is part of a series run by AFN Network+ which explores net zero in the UK agri-food system with leading movers and shakers. Expect deep and varied insight from across the sector, including farmers, scientists, policy analysts, community leaders, retailers, politicians, businesses and health professionals. The series is put together by Jez and Prof Neil Ward, also based at the University of East Anglia, and a co-lead of AFN Network+. Watch past webinars here –    / @afn-network-plus   Follow AFN Network+ on Twitter/X https://x.com/AFNnetwork and LinkedIn   / agrifood4netzero   Join our growing network of 1,600+ people across UK agri-food working on food system transformation, from academics to farmers, food companies, NGOs, policy makers and citizens https://www.agrifood4netzero.net/join The AFN Network+ is funded by UKRI https://www.ukri.org/

Link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GMXXkinHp0

Every now and again I look at the stats for this site. It’s a useful little reality check for what people actually look for when they land here.’ (The stats I think only pick up web visitors; my suspicion is that a bunch of people look just at the emails).

If you’re new: this site is a public commonplace book, or what used to be called a ‘weblog’ – ostensibly an attempt to share all the systems | complexity |cybernetics links I come across, partly an Electric Monk, resource-based, a compost heap towards a curriculum.

The top clicks tell a clear story. People keep coming for foundations, for sources, and for practical bridges between ‘systems’ as an idea and systems as work.

McLuhan consistently sits at the top. That always makes me smile, because his point is basically what this site is for. Tools are extensions, and therefore amputations. If you extend your memory into a notebook, you also stop rehearsing. If you extend your judgement into a dashboard, you also numb your situational sense. Pretending otherwise is how we end up surprised by our own inventions.

Then comes the pragmatic end of the field, if we squint: poka-yoke, homeostasis, STAMP, promise-based management. The appeal here is not ‘be cleverer’, it’s ‘design so normal humans can succeed without heroics’. A cybernetic idea: shift the work from willpower to feedback.

Reading lists feature heavily too, which is both flattering and slightly alarming. A reading list is an honest artefact: it admits you don’t have the map. It also changes you as you build it. You notice what you keep omitting. You start to see the field as much as being a set of disagreements as a set of answers. Which is why debates like ‘systems thinking and complexity’ keep drawing attention. We want a tidy resolution, rarely get one, but sometimes get better questions.

And people really do care about attribution. The Kurt Lewin quote post keeps getting read. Good. There is far too much ‘systems’ talk built on lines no-one can trace. A misattributed quote can still be helpful, but it’s a different kind of helpful – dodgy authority rather than lineage.

A few other regular visitors show up in the stats: Bateson, Menzies Lyth, Joanna Macy. That’s the moral and emotional dimension of systems work. Organisations are not just information processing. They are also anxiety processing. If you don’t deal with that, you get defences that pretend to be structure.

And there’s a pleasing concentration of systems practice in the mix – SysPrac25, the upcoming Hull conference, and the OR Society: events, newsletters, debates. Systems | complexity | cybernetics stays alive when people meet, argue, teach, and keep the conversation going in actual places, not just on platforms. And this is in a year where I have substantially failed the core task and lost track of brilliant events from ISSS, CybSoc, ASC, Metaphorum, even SCiO.  But I think that the field also stays alive when someone bothers to ask ‘who are our fellow travellers?’.

Anyway, for what it’s worth, here’s the current ‘most read’ list. If it looks like a slightly eccentric syllabus, well, there y’go!

Media, attention, and extensions

• Marshall McLuhan – extensions and amputations: every tool gives you reach, and steals a sense https://stream.syscoi.com/2019/05/30/marshall-mcluhan-extensions-and-amputations/
• Ackoff’s lift and Rory Sutherland’s fantasy: why optimisation can be a kind of organised stupidity https://stream.syscoi.com/2020/05/28/ackoffs-lift-and-rory-sutherlands-fantasy/
• Simon’s ant and system complexity: behaviour that looks clever can be the environment doing the steering https://stream.syscoi.com/2020/03/22/simons-ant-system-complexity-the-seemingly-unrelated/
• Elon Musk’s ‘giant cybernetic collectives’: techno-utopia as feedback myth https://stream.syscoi.com/2019/04/07/elon-musks-giant-cybernetic-collectives-jennifer-sensiba-cleantechnica/
• Jakob Nielsen’s 90-9-1 rule: participation inequality is structural, not a personal failing https://stream.syscoi.com/2018/12/10/the-90-9-1-rule-for-participation-inequality-jakob-nielsen-2006/
• Charles Handy’s sigmoid curve: success contains the seed of its own decline unless you start the next curve early https://stream.syscoi.com/2020/05/25/charles-handys-sigmoid-curve/

Cybernetics, quality, and the craft of organising

• Where poka-yoke and cybernetics meet: error-proofing is feedback design, not magic https://stream.syscoi.com/2019/10/29/where-poka-yoke-and-cybernetics-meet-quality-digest-harish-jose/
• Bateson on conscious purpose versus nature: the world fights back when you push one variable too hard https://stream.syscoi.com/2018/09/22/conscious-purpose-versus-nature-gregory-bateson/
• Commitment-based or promise-based management: coordination is not control, it’s making and keeping commitments https://stream.syscoi.com/2018/08/17/commitment-based-or-promise-based-management-flores-and-winograd-plus-vision-consulting-glennon-and-spinosa-later/
• Living systems (James Grier Miller): systems as living organisation, not metaphor https://stream.syscoi.com/2018/07/09/living-systems-james-grier-miller-1978/
• Homeostasis (Bernard, Cannon, Barcroft): regulation is an achievement, not a default https://stream.syscoi.com/2019/06/10/homeostasis-bernard-1865-cannon-1926-barcroft-1932/
• Isabel Menzies Lyth and the functioning of social systems as a defence against anxiety: why ‘rational’ structures often aren’t https://stream.syscoi.com/2021/02/07/isabel-menzies-lyth-and-the-functioning-of-social-systems-as-a-defence-against-anxiety/
• Lawrence and Lorsch, contingency theory: fit the organisation to the situation, not the other way round https://stream.syscoi.com/2020/06/24/lawrence-lorsch-contingency-theory-1967/
• STAMP in Google SRE: resilience as constraint, feedback, and learning, not just ‘more reliability’ https://stream.syscoi.com/2025/01/01/the-evolution-of-sre-at-google-using-stamp-to-improve-resilience-in-google-production-systems-falzone-and-sloss-2024/

How we know, what we can cite, and what we should read next

• Updated rough draft systems, complexity, cybernetics reading list: a live boundary object, not a finished map https://stream.syscoi.com/2024/10/01/updated-rough-draft-systems-complexity-cybernetics-reading-list/
• Is there an actual source for the Kurt Lewin quote ‘you cannot understand a system until you try to change it’? – vibes are not references https://stream.syscoi.com/2021/11/22/is-there-an-actual-source-for-the-kurt-lewin-quote-you-cannot-understand-a-system-until-you-try-to-change-it/
• Implementation of systems thinking in public policy (Nguyen et al, 2023): what the evidence says, not what we wish it said https://stream.syscoi.com/2023/02/27/implementation-of-systems-thinking-in-public-policy-a-systematic-review-nguyen-et-al-2023/
• A very rough and partial draft systems thinking reading list: the earlier compost layer https://stream.syscoi.com/2020/05/06/a-very-rough-and-partial-draft-systems-thinking-reading-list/
• Kerwin’s map of ignorance: taxonomies of the unknown, and the humility they force https://stream.syscoi.com/2019/04/21/taxonomies-of-the-unknown-kerwins-map-of-ignorance-1983/
• John Vervaeke’s transjectivity: the awkward middle ground between ‘objective’ and ‘made up’ https://stream.syscoi.com/2020/05/11/john-vervaekes-transjectivity-andrew-sweeny-medium/
• Moon and Blackman on ontology and epistemology: you can’t do interdisciplinary work without arguing about ‘what counts’ https://stream.syscoi.com/2021/04/06/a-guide-to-ontology-epistemology-and-philosophical-perspectives-for-interdisciplinary-researchers-integration-and-implementation-insights-moon-and-blackman-drawing-on-their-2014-article/

People, communities, and places where the field stays alive

• Nick Kimber asking for a short history of relational practice: the hunger for lineage, not just slogans https://stream.syscoi.com/2025/10/24/nick-kimber-on-linkedin-hello-can-anybody-point-me-to-a-decent-accessible-history-of-relational-practice-thinking-leadership-ideally-short-form/
• Systems thinking and complexity – incompatible or what? Jackson and Boulton debate: a useful argument to have properly https://stream.syscoi.com/2025/01/30/systems-thinking-and-complexity-incompatible-or-what-mike-jackson-and-jean-boulton-debate-26-february-2025-1800-uk-time-free-thanks-to-the-or-society/
• Systems thinking and systems practice, 24-26 March 2026 at the University of Hull, UK: convening still matters https://stream.syscoi.com/2025/07/25/%f0%9d%97%a6%f0%9d%98%86%f0%9d%98%80%f0%9d%98%81%f0%9d%97%b2%f0%9d%97%ba%f0%9d%98%80-%f0%9d%97%a7%f0%9d%97%b5%f0%9d%97%b6%f0%9d%97%bb%f0%9d%97%b8%f0%9d%97%b6%f0%9d%97%bb%f0%9d%97%b4-%f0%9d%97%ae/
• Who are our fellow travellers? – systems work as a community of practice, not a lone genius act https://stream.syscoi.com/2020/10/08/who-are-our-fellow-travellers/
• Berkana’s theory of change: networks, emergence, and the long game of culture https://stream.syscoi.com/2018/02/28/our-theory-of-change-the-berkana-institute/
• Gregory Bateson and the counter-culture: the politics and spirituality that shaped the ideas [one of several pieces in this list I don’t personally endorse] https://stream.syscoi.com/2019/04/08/gregory-bateson-and-the-counter-culture/
• Centre for systems studies, University of Hull newsletter: signals from an actual institutional home https://stream.syscoi.com/2025/02/20/newsletter-centre-for-systems-studies-university-of-hull/
• RIP Joanna Macy: systems thinking with grief, courage, and practice https://stream.syscoi.com/2025/07/20/rip-joanna-macy/
• About: what this stream is, and what it isn’t https://stream.syscoi.com/about/

See also

Not available except behind paywall from main link, but fully readable if not downloadable on Scribd:

William M. Fox

The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science Volume 26, Issue 2

https://doi.org/10.1177/0021886390262014

Abstract

William M. Fox interviews Eric Trist, eminent scholar and social scientist, who was a founder and chairman of the Tavistock Institute in London. Trist recounts the foundation of the institute as an outpatient clinic and its evolution into a leading center of action research and applied behavioral science. He discusses his work in the British coal mining industry, from which he developed the concept of the sociotechnical system. Descriptions of his work and experiences with the British Army during World War II and of the various projects he undertook with multinational firms and smaller companies illustrate the resistance, suspicion, and other obstacles that he and his colleagues often encountered while working to implement new systems. Finally, Trist describes his sociotechnical systems work in the ailing industrial town of Jamestown, New York, and on the Ten recommendations.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0021886390262014

[Includes my short reflections on the SysPrac25 conference – longer version will be published here eventually, if I haven’t already done that!]

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ifsr-quarterly-42025-window-mirror-3vnff/

Louis Klein introduced it thusly:

#quarterly International Federation for Systems Research (IFSR) with musings by Ray Ison, a generated reflection on hashtag#sysprac25 by Benjamin P. Taylor, a link by Dr. Louis Klein, a (one more thing …) contribution by Philippe Vandenbroeck and the attention of Rika Preiser Pamela Buckle Dr. Nam Nguyen as well as in gratitude to the numerous contributors for a series of hashtag#calls Angela Espinosa Cathal Brugha Martin Reynolds Sven-Volker Rehm (…) into the cybersystemic community – enjoy reading, and sharing!

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ifsr-quarterly-42025-window-mirror-3vnff/

[Interesting to see how the story is told]

@RedHotWorld

It has been called “the most prophetic work of humanity”. In 1971, it told us why collapse is coming and how to avoid it. It was denounced by almost every leading economist – but it was right. This is the story of The Limits To Growth.

[I don’t usually share papers you can’t download without a paywall but you can get this – or a version of it, or the thinking behind it – in this book by the same author

https://ia902902.us.archive.org/13/items/foundationsforascienceofpersonality/Foundations%20For%20A%20Science%20Of%20Personality_text.pdf

…shared here obviously as early thinking on wholism, connection to gestalt, precursor to systems thinking etc. See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andras_Angyal ]

Andras Angyal

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Extract

In attempting to clarify the problem of personality integration the writer gained the impression that the difficulty of such a task does does not lie alone in the paucity of usable factual data but it is due, even to a greater extent, to the inadequacy of our logical tools. Such a handicap is felt not only in the study of personality, but in the study of wholes in general. Here the attempt will be made to develop some concepts which may be useful for the understanding of the structure of wholes.

You can see the beautiful classic type here

https://www.jstor.org/stable/184329

Another link if you have academic access:

‘People used to say that just as the twentieth century had been the century of physics, the twenty-first century would be the century of biology…  We would gradually move into a world whose prevailing paradigm was one of complexity, and whose techniques sought the co-adapted harmony of hundreds or thousands of variables.  This would, inevitably, involve new technique, new vision, new models of thought, and new models of action.  I believe that such a transformation is starting to occur…. To be well, we must set our sights on such a future.’

  –  Christopher Alexander, The Nature of Order

http://www.katarxis3.com/Introduction.htm

Find the right tool

Use the search to find the tools you need.

The EPC’s Complex Systems Toolkit provides accessible, practical resources for embedding complex systems concepts into engineering education. The Complex Systems Toolkit is supported by Quanser.

Isabel Bramsen^*, Ole Wæver

This article presents a Luhmann-inspired theory of conflictualization, that is, how objects, relations, and societies come to be defined by the logic of conflict. This article presents a Galtung- and Luhmann-inspired theory of conflictualization, that is, how objects, relations, and societies come to be defined by the logic of conflict. The article conceptualizes conflictualization as a threefold process of (1) forming social relationships, (2) displacing the focus toward “winning” the conflict, and (3) making an increasing number of issues into objects of contestation. It positions the concept of conflictualization in relation to contemporary (Nordic) peace research, securitization, politicization, and polarization, showing the added value of the theory in terms of teasing out how conflict “does something” and should therefore not be reduced to its causes or effects, but understood distinctly as conflict. To illustrate this, the article discusses three examples of how a society, a relationship, and an issue, respectively, are conflictualized: (1) how the Danish-Greenlandic relationship has been conflictualized, (2) how the war in Gaza has shaped social relations and conflictualized other issues like climate activism and LGBTQ+ rights across the Nordic countries, and (3) conflictualization of the Colombian society post-accord. Moreover, we discuss how conflictualization relates to agency and change, that is, the degree to which conflictualization can be seen as a deliberate process and calls for strategies of conflictualizing and de-conflictualizing issues.

25 Oct 2022|Strategy

It’s not about you. In a volatile market, brands should move away from focusing on individual product excellence alone – and instead adopt a broader framework going beyond individual offerings. By factoring in the larger network effect and needs of customers, society, ambitious partners and competitors, ecosystem thinking helps to consider broader possibilities, paving the way to a more resilient business and increased impact.

https://www.futurice.com/blog/ecosystem-thinking-value-proposition

🎥 Here’s what Linda Booth Sweeney of Toggle Labs has to say about how storytelling can nurture children to become systems thinkers. 🙌🏻

Linda is internationally recognized for her efforts to make systems thinking actionable by a wide range of audiences. She is co-author of The Systems Thinking Playbook, The Climate Change Playbook, and numerous other books and journal articles.

🔗 Learn more about Toggle Lab of Kids: https://ow.ly/hqK350XwNGK
👥 Join our global community: https://ow.ly/lVeU50XwNup

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/system-dynamics-society-inc_systemdynamics-systemsthinking-activity-7399507337813684224-Zzaj

Join us for an insightful presentation based on recent research into systems use in the public sector. We will delve into current use of systems thinking, setting out what we’ve learned about the where, when, what and how, in this fascinating and powerful area. We’ll explore practices, enablers and blockers identified, as well as different approaches across the public sector, which will allow us to reflect constructively on lessons and implications for our own practice.

This presentation will also set the stage for an open discussion on the enablers and obstacles to the broader adoption of systems thinking. We invite you to share your experiences, insights, and ideas on how we can collectively overcome challenges and unlock new opportunities.

Here are some questions to think about ahead of the discussion:

1. What barriers do you see in applying systems thinking in the public sector?
2. What opportunities do you see in applying systems thinking in the public sector?

About the Speakers: 

Martin Fletcher – HM Revenue and Customs 

Martin has a decade of experience in strategy and policy in HMRC and the wider government and now focuses on innovation and emerging technology policy/strategy. He recently completed a research project looking at current practices, uses, enablers and blockers to systems thinking within a public sector context. 

CPD Hours: 1 Hour

When

09/12/2025 12:30 – 13:30
GMT Standard Time

Where

Online

Ray Ison, Pamela Buckle, Nam Nguyen, Rika Preiser, Philippe Vandenbroeck, Louis Klein

First published: 13 October 2025

Citations: 1

Funding: The authors received no specific funding for this work.

ABSTRACT

This paper reimagines the future of systems research as an enacted cybersystemic praxis that moves beyond traditional notions of systems thinking. We argue that systems research is best understood as a reflexive, embodied and situated practice that integrates systemic sensibilities, systems literacy and capabilities in (cyber)systemic co-inquiry. Drawing on insights from systems theory, cybernetics, complexity science and process philosophy, we critique the limitations of goal-seeking behaviours and advocate for a shift towards purposeful, co-inquiry-driven approaches to systems research. Our analysis foregrounds the role of conversation, relational agency and ethical responsibility in systems thinking, highlighting how systems research can be institutionalised as a dynamic practice that fosters transformative change within ongoing, conducive governance arrangements. Written from the perspective of the current executive committee (EC) members of the International Federation for Systems Research (IFSR), an invitation is extended via this paper to join a cybersystemic co-inquiry into the future of systems research, encouraging practitioners to engage with a meta-level praxis that enables bridging of new modes of knowing, governing and society transforming. Through this paper, we call for a renewed commitment to cybersystemic thinking that enables new forms of knowing and acting in the Anthropocene, positioning systems research as a vital practice for navigating complex global challenges.