11.09, Thursday 9 Jun 2022 Link to this postIt turns out that chickens use their eyes quite differently. (I’ve been skimming paper abstracts.)The left eye distinguishes between strangers and friends – and more generally is a novelty detector.The right eye categorises and figures out what action to take.(So a chicken looking only with its right eye is poor at telling novelty.)Chickens, having eyes on the sides of their heads, look with only one eye at a time.If I wasn’t sitting here baking in the heat I would be thinking about the general lesson here – that these two ways of seeing make up the totality of how to see the world. One a process that looks for metaphors and stereotypes; the second a novelty switch. Organisations and bureaucracies need these two ways of seeing. Machines and software too.Anyway. The avian brain. Did dinosaurs specialise their eyes too?Here’s the abstract.Vallortigara, G., & Andrew, R. J. (1994). Differential involvement of right and left hemisphere in individual recognition in the domestic chick. Behavioural processes, 33(1-2), 41–57. https://doi.org/10.1016/0376-6357(94)90059-0

Idle thoughts sitting by the pool in the hot sun (Interconnected)

Growing Workforce Capacity & Capabilities for System Leadership

Growing Workforce Capacity & Capabilities for System Leadership Tickets, Tue 12 Jul 2022 at 12:00 | Eventbrite

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Growing workforce capacity and capabilities for system leadership

A webinar with our ImpACT research group.

12pm – 1pm (BST) 
Tuesday 12 July 

In this final in the series, we will draw on examples from organisation and system transformation working with National, Regional and System partners.

Hosted by Jonathan Webster, Professor of Practice Development & Co-Director ImpACT Research Group, UEA.

Featuring speakers and contributors:

• Beverly Chilson, Integrated Therapies Clinical Lead, James Paget NHS Foundation Trust
• Anna Morgan, Independent Consultant
• Saffron Rolp-Willis, Workforce Transformation Manger, HEE East of England
• Emma Wakelin, Associate Director of Workforce Transformation, Norfolk and Waveney Health and Care Partnership
• Claire Whitehouse, Senior Nurse for NMAHP Research, James Paget NHS Foundation Trust
• Maurina Barron, Caribbean Nurses & Midwives Association (UK)
• Paulette Lewis, Caribbean Nurses & Midwives Association (UK)

This event is hosted by UEA Health and Social Care Partners’ ImpACT research group, which looks at sharing best practice to reinvigorate health and social care settings, seeking to enable flourishing systems, workforce and communities.

Subscribe to the ImpACT research group’s YouTube channel, where you can catch up on the previous webinars hosted by ImpACT.
Numbers are limited, so please register here.

This event will be recorded and circulated for those unable to join.

Conversations that Challenge: Failure: Does fear hold us back from changing systems?Thursday, July 712pm – 1pm

Conversations that Challenge: Failure: Does fear hold us back from changing systems? – New System Alliance

A Time for Heretics, orginal for 1996, rejected by IIBDavid Hawk1996, Transcript of Annual Meeting of EIBA

(23) A Time for Heretics, orginal for 1996, rejected by IIB | David Hawk – Academia.edu

Twelve potluck principles for social design

Twelve potluck principles for social design | DISCERN: International Journal of Design for Social Change, Sustainable Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Twelve potluck principles for social design

Authors

• Christian NoldThe Open University
• Patrycja KaszynskaUniversity of the Arts London
• Jocelyn BaileyUniversity of the Arts London
• Lucy KimbellUniversity of the Arts London

Keywords: 

social design, design principles, manifesto, boundary objects, design research

Abstract

The term ‘social design’ is used in a variety of contexts, but—or maybe because of this—it is far from clear what it means. The starting point for this paper is that there is a need for stronger and more critical community discourse to understand and clarify what social design is and what it does. By analyzing key texts, the paper identifies commonalities, disagreements and unresolved questions in relation to social design. Drawing on the example of citizen science, the paper argues for a need to develop principles for social design for further inquiry and discipline-building for social design. The paper offers twelve principles that focus on the notion of the social in social design, its methods and practices and its normative intent, as well as its critical reflexivity. These principles are intended as a ‘potluck’ boundary object to kickstart a stronger social design community. The paper reports feedback from two workshops where these principles were discussed and tested with design academics suggesting how the principles can be applied.

The Memory of Systems April 26, 2021 Cameron D. Norman 619 Viewscense, complexity, decision making, design, developmental evaluation, evaluation, Living History, path dependence, reflective practice, systems change, systems thinking, W. Edwards DemingSystems change is so difficult because is the link between the past, present and future is tight and often invisible.The term “system(s) change” is often used without a clear sense of what it means.What is the system that needs to be changed and how is that system defined? These are two important questions that will shape the answers.Systems are also affected by history and this ‘memory’ within a system is an important, yet often neglected part of understanding change.Remembering where systems started is an important signal for where they can go.

The Memory of Systems – Censemaking

FOCUS: CONFRONTING LEGACIES OF OPPRESSIONRSD UPDATES | RSD11 PROGRAMBookmark0Confronting legacies of oppression in systemic designSystemic design is often complicit in the reproduction of oppression, contributing to structural inequities being designed into our systems. A growing group of scholars and practitioners are confronting legacies of oppression in this domain, such as through explorations into decolonizing systems thinking (Goodchild, 2021), and abolitionist design (Fathallah & Lewis, 2021), and design justice (Costanza-Chock, 2020). To grapple with the systemic nature of oppression, a greater commitment to equity, self-determination and liberation in, through and beyond systemic design is needed.

Focus: Confronting legacies of oppression

The riddle of emergence – where do novel things come from?By Kevin Mitchell – May 23, 2022It’s not true, that there’s nothing new under the sun. The universe is producing novelty all the time. Galaxies, stars, and planets, where none existed before. New elements, new molecules – life itself, with the explosion of new species, and eventually new minds, capable of new thoughts. New types of things at new levels of existence – discrete entities composed of smaller entities, arranged in specific ways. New systems with new properties and new causal powers, governed by new principles. So where does all this novelty come from?

The riddle of emergence – where do novel things come from?

Connecting lived experiences of systems conveners in governancewith Paula Chies Schommer and Rachel Gondo

Connecting lived experiences of systems conveners in governance | by Florencia Guerzovich | Jun, 2022 | Medium

COMMENTARYNervous System: Cybernetics and the Birth of Computer EthicsThe origin of the idea of ‘cyber’ wasn’t just about security, but rather ethics and psychology. This month’s history of cybersecurity examines the work of American mathematician and physicist Norbert Wiener and the beginnings of ‘cybernetics.’June 08, 2022 at 10:00 AM 6 minute readInnovationBy David Kalat, BRG

Nervous System: Cybernetics and the Birth of Computer Ethics | Legaltech News

A really nice little article that it is worthing signing up to get past the sign-in wall (free) to read.

Systems Approaches to Child ProtectionWed, Jun 22, 2022 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM BST

Registration

On Facebook, Gerald Midgley says:

The Centre for Systems Studies at the University of Hull (UK) is hosting a seminar with two presenters at 3-5pm (UK time) on Wednesday 22 June. The focus will be ‘SYSTEMS APPROACHES TO CHILD PROTECTION’. Details of the two talks are below. Please register for the event at this web site: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/regi…/1237358922890229259

‘TRANSFORMING THE RUNAWAY CHILD PROTECTION SYSTEM’, by Andy Bilson (University of Central Lancashire).

The child protection system in England is in runaway mode. Child protection investigations have tripled, whilst the number of child deaths and children found to have been physically or sexually abused is little changed. The system impacts on a considerable proportion of children, and has become increasingly investigative and focused on parental shortcomings (what has been termed ‘institutionalized parental blame’). The number of children separated from families has increased dramatically, and the costs of placement are soaring, so no funds remain to offer help to families. Can a systems approach to the use of research, especially one that makes oppressed groups visible, reverse these trends? Andy Bilson will present his work so far, and open a conversation about the way forward.

‘THE CREATIVE AND FLEXIBLE APPLICATION OF SYSTEMS METHODOLOGIES FOR CHILD PROTECTION: A CASE STUDY FROM INDIA’, by Rajneesh Chowdhury (University of Hull).

Although at the policy level, India is committed to providing a safe, just and equitable environment for children, there is little evidence that such commitments have effectively trickled down to having real, on-the-ground impacts. Several organizational, administrative and competency-related issues pose serious impediments to the operation of the institutional structures that protect and uphold children’s rights and child protection in India. Poverty and lack of awareness are significant factors that lead to violations of children’s rights. This presentation will explore the application of systems methodologies in a creative and flexible manner to design an intervention for children’s rights and child protection in India. A case-study with the Universal Team for Social Action and Health (UTSAH), a non-governmental organization (NGO) specializing in child protection, will be discussed. The intervention was designed around the deployment of Critical Systems Heuristics (CSH), which helped in unfolding and increasing understanding of tensions in the system; gaps between what ought to happen and what actually happens; the challenges of social inclusion and exclusion; and the lack of clarity about the stakes that stakeholders have, and what their issues are. The intervention design involved the application of CSH with two tools: CATWOE (a mnemonic for Customers, Actors, Transformation, Worldview, Owners and Environment) from Soft Systems Methodology, and an assumption-surfacing tool from Strategic Assumption Surfacing and Testing. A program of action was designed through this intervention, which will be presented in two phases: the first phase has already been implemented, and covers children’s rights and child protection case management, police reforms and community sensitization; the second phase is planned to begin soon, and covers a visionary fellowship program for senior-level police officers and managers to address system change. A reflection on the case will be provided in light of Holistic Flexibility, a conceptual lens in systems thinking that calls for greater creativity and flexibility in systems thinking and practice.

Once again, here is the link for registering for the event: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/regi…/1237358922890229259

JUNE 21 EVENT

We invite you to come reflect, connect, celebrate (y)our wins, set intentions, and honor the solstice together. There will be time to learn more about Illuminate and network collaborations and what’s on the horizon for our collective work towards systems change for a just, equitable and regenerative future for all. Hear from some of your network comrades about their involvement and vision for this workConnect and reflect with others working to transform some of today’s most complex challengesLearn about existing and emerging opportunities to deepen our collective (un)learning and actionWe will be offering the Soirée on two different days and times to accommodate multiple time zones. Speakers and content may vary. You are welcome to attend both!

*Note that the event on the 21st and 22nd have unique registration links*

Link June 21 Solstice Soirée — Illuminate Systems (and 22 June link is available there too) – explore if you want to joint the Illuminate systems change community (it’s free)