They mean Systems Engineering, I think, but anyway good

Process and Control Today | ‘Make systems thinking education mandatory’, IChemE President advises Lords committee

‘Make systems thinking education mandatory’, IChemE President advises Lords committee

17/03/2021  The Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE)

Stephen Richardson, President of the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE), recommended to a House of Lords select committee held virtually on 10 March that systems thinking skills should be mandatory in engineering education for effective risk management.

The oil and gas expert and Emeritus Professor of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London was joined by nuclear expert Dame Sue Ion – an Honorary Fellow of IChemE and Honorary President at the National Skills Academy for Nuclear. They were invited to give evidence to the Risk Assessment and Risk Planning Committee regarding the resilience and risks within these sectors, as well as the challenges in developing and implementing risk assessment processes.

Their key point was the vital need to embed a systems thinking approach to new or existing system installations throughout their entire lifecycle – from design to decommission. Both emphasised these practices should be embedded from the start, in an engineer’s education and throughout their career via continuing professional development.

When asked to suggest a policy that the committee could recommend to the government, Richardson proposed making systems thinking mandatory within engineering education. Ion was in agreement with this approach and recommended ensuring systems thinking is applied at the highest levels of UK Government, particularly for those policymakers making decisions on the infrastructure required to establish robust energy systems for achieving net zero targets by 2050.

Among many topics in the session, Richardson and Ion discussed the operational risks posed by humans and technology, the use of emerging technologies to successfully manage risk, as well as the importance of educating the public on perceived and actual risk through evidence-based promotion – particularly for nuclear radiation risk. They shared risk management lessons learned from high profile incidents, such as the Fukushima nuclear power plant failure in Japan, the Piper Alpha oil and gas platform explosion in the UK, and the Grenfell Tower fire, UK.

Richardson and Ion also explained that the critical skills and expertise of professionally qualified engineers, as well as cross-sector experience-sharing to encourage diversity of thinking and good practice, are key to managing risk and investigating incidents in these sectors.

Richardson was invited to give evidence as the committee recognised his vast experience following over 40 years’ experience in teaching and investigating safety incidents in oil and gas. Ion’s expertise was sought having spent 30 years in the nuclear sector before joining the Office for Nuclear Regulation, the body responsible for providing independent advice to the UK Government.

Following the session Richardson said:

“I felt honoured to be asked to be a witness on such a critical topic. It was particularly valuable to give evidence alongside Dame Sue Ion as we were able to compare and contrast risks in nuclear and oil and gas. A risk-based safety culture is central to the role of chemical, biochemical and process engineers, which therefore makes our profession’s skills and expertise all the more important for aiding policymakers.

“In the session we stressed that to manage risk effectively it is vital to consider the big picture and create a systems perspective from the very start – which is a fundamental element contained in all IChemE-accredited undergraduate courses. This means that risk and systems become ingrained into our natural way of thinking. I also drew distinctions with some other engineering sectors which may benefit from adopting a similar systems approach at university level and, along with the vital, inescapable need for systems thinking, made this my main recommendation to the committee for future action.”

Watch the recording of the committee session online at Parliament Live TV.

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Process and Control Today | ‘Make systems thinking education mandatory’, IChemE President advises Lords committee

Cybernetic and Systems Engineering, Hindsight, Foresight, Insight Tickets, Wed 14 Apr 2021 at 17:00 | Eventbrite

APR

14

Cybernetic and Systems Engineering, Hindsight, Foresight, Insight

by Cybernetics Society — President’s Series Following£0 – £20

Event Information

Kerry Lunney and Prof. Brian Collins explore the relationship between Systems Engineering and Cybernetics and insights for resilient systems

About this Event

Hosted by our President, Dr. John Beckford FCybS, the CybSights President’s Series is a new programme that will bring interesting people together to explore the relevance and contribution of cybernetics to addressing important challenges.

Each event will consist of contributions by two different speakers. Each will be followed by individual Q&A. These are then brought together by the President in a lively and engaging plenary discussion. Each will seek areas of convergence and divergence between the ideas explored. Speakers present their own views — not official view of the Society.

Events will be held via Zoom on the 2nd Wednesday of each month from 1700 to 1900.

Meetings are open to members of the Cybernetics Society and also the general public. Non-members are invited to join or give a donation. Booking is required.

The Cybernetics Society has been hosting conversations and lectures since the late 1960s.

#PS7 : April 14th 10 2021:

This event continues the exploration of the relevance of cybernetics to the contemporary world with contributions both theoretically practical and practically theoretical. The purpose of this series is not just to provide answers but to test whether the right questions are being asked.

FIRST SPEAKER: Kerry Lunney, President INCOSE

Exploring the Future Marriage between Cybernetics and Systems Engineering

Synopsis:

Working under a changing global environment in the age of the 4th Industrial Revolution, the velocity in technology changes and disruptors is ever increasing. Likewise, the introduction of new technologies such as AI and autonomy and the increasing prevalence of inter-connectedness can make cybernetic solutions complex systems. Thus it is key that the practice of Systems Engineering continues to evolve and support the demands of increasing system complexity. In this presentation, I will present possible pathways for collaboration and support in applying a systems approach to Cybernetics.

Kerry Lunney

Kerry Lunney is Country Engineering Director and Chief Engineer in Thales Australia. She is also the President of the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE), and holds the Expert Systems Engineering Professional (ESEP) qualification.

Kerry has extensive experience developing and delivering large system solutions. She has worked in various industries including ICT, Gaming, Financial, Transport, Aerospace and Defence, in Australia, Asia and USA. The systems delivered include combat systems, mission systems, communication systems, road and rail ITSs, flight simulators, security systems, vehicle electronic systems, gaming systems and ICT foundation systems.

She is also a Fellow Member of Engineers Australia with the status of Engineering Executive and Chartered Professional Engineer and is a member of IEEE.

Followed by brief Q & A

SECOND SPEAKER: Prof. Brian Collins CB, FREng, Hon F.CybS

Insight, Foresight and Hindsight: A Provocation on Resilience

Synopsis:

It is said that generals fight each new war with the knowledge and technology developed for its predecessor. In this session Brian Collins will think about the need for the development of resilient societies and systems and explore ways of balancing the tension between the use of hindsight and foresight in order to generate useful insights that might achieve progress.

Prof Brian Collins

Prof. Brian Collins, CB, FREng is an Honorary Fellow of the Cybernetics Society. A physicist by background, Brian has a long and distinguished career primarily as a government scientist including being the Chief Scientist at GCHQ at the end of the Cold War, Chief Scientific Adviser to the Departments for Transport and what is now called BEIS. Upon completion of this period as CSA, Brian was appointed Professor of Engineering Policy and founded the Department of Science, Technology, Engineering and Public Policy (STEaPP) at University College London. He was instrumental in establishing national and international research into the future of National and City Infrastructures through ICIF and, more recently UKCRIC, a multi-university research collaboratorium (the operating model of which was explicitly developed using cybernetic insights)

Followed by brief Q & A

Plenary Discussion

The aim of this session, moderated by John Beckford, is to draw out the complementary and competing ideas emerging from the two sessions. Speakers present their own views.

£20 Annual membership required

APR 14 Cybernetic and Systems Engineering, Hindsight, Foresight, Insight by Cybernetics Society — President’s Series

Cybernetic and Systems Engineering, Hindsight, Foresight, Insight Tickets, Wed 14 Apr 2021 at 17:00 | Eventbrite

membership (£20 for the year) required

CybSights Insights: Putting on CyBeer Goggles (in public administration) Tickets, Tue 23 Mar 2021 at 18:00 | Eventbrite

MAR

23

CybSights Insights: Putting on CyBeer Goggles (in public administration)

by CybSights: The Insights Series 

Event Information

View the world as a cybernetician. Tim Falkiner explores POSIWID, isomorphism, & variety balance rooted in town planning & law.

About this Event

The Insights Series is an eclectic and learned collection of monthly events on the 4th Tuesday of each month hosted by Cybernetics Society. There will be lectures, seminars, conversations, debates, participation, all advancing our knowledge of cybernetics and related disciplines and their applications to real world needs. Speakers present their own views, without formal endorsement.

Cybernetics is the science of achievement, the great meta-discipline of our time.

The CybSights Insights series is normally curated and hosted by the Secretary, Angus Jenkinson, FCybS. Attendance is free. Non-members are invited to make an optional donation or to Join.

In this session we welcome an Australian.

We are particularly delighted to be able to welcome Tim Falkiner with his experience in town planning, law, and legilstion with ‘homeskooled’ cybernetics.

Putting on our CyBeer Goggles

The underlying object of this discussion is to have the participants exercise their ability to think in cybernetic terms. To put on “cybeer” goggles and view the world as a cyberneticist. Cybernetics is a large field, but Tim has selected three cybernetic topics to explore. In three 25 minute segments, Tim will (i) explain what he understands of each topic; (ii) give some applications of that law or technique and (iii) invite the participants to give examples of how they apply the laws and techniques in their own professions or lives.

POSIWID The purpose of a system is what it does. Our purpose often defines the extent of the system or systems. It is helpful, in considering the purpose of a system from an objective, scientific, cybernetic viewpoint; to use Stafford Beer’s concept of POSIWID.

Isomorphism – The control system is isomorphic with the system under control. The town planner, J. Brian McLoughlin, writing about urban and regional planning systems, makes the point that control systems must have the same form and operation as the systems which they control —an application of the Conant-Ashby theorem:

“… the control devices for any system have to be isomorphic with the system to be controlled, that is, they have to be of similar form. This enables us to say that the planning process must have a similar ‘shape’ to the human ecosystem.”

Balancing variety – Given the control system must be isomorphic with the system under control, and given the infinite variety involved in real-world systems, a regulator must balance the resources available to it with the system to be controlled. Problems of increasing, decreasing, and balancing variety in time are considered.

Tim Falkiner – Crown solicitor, town planner, barrister, legislator

Tim lives in Melbourne, Australia with a career blending law and town planning. This gives experience in law as a regulator, system design and the science of cybernetics. As town planner, legal officer in the Victorian Ministry for Planning and Environment and the Crown Solicitor’s Office of Victoria in the Constitution, Legislation and Advisings section, he gained wide experience of land use planning and environmental legislation. He wrote the specification for the first computerised tribunal registry system in Victoria. Tim has practised as a barrister and is a life member of the Victorian Planning and Environmental Law Association. He learned cybernetic controls systems theory in 1976 and found other parallels (e.g. between Garth Thornton’s book “Legislative Drafting” and Frederick Brook’s book on the development of the IBM System 360 and OS/360, its operating system). He is the author (1982) of “Scientific Legislation – The Use of Cybernetics and Software Engineering Knowledge to Explain What Legislation Is, How it Behaves and How It should be Designed, Maintained and Replaced” influenced by Stafford Beer’s cybernetics. He is now revisiting it to reconcile Beer’s definition of planning as a continuous process of making and discarding plans, with the difficulties, so clearly outlined by software engineers of maintaining legislation in the face of continuous change towards a future more dynamically adaptive legislative style based on cybernetic principles.

Join us, and engage in the dynamics of these key concepts

The sessions are designed for audience participation!

Cybernetics Society – a learned society developing the science of design and contextual responsiveness.

MAR 23 CybSights Insights: Putting on CyBeer Goggles (in public administration) by CybSights: The Insights Series

CybSights Insights: Putting on CyBeer Goggles (in public administration) Tickets, Tue 23 Mar 2021 at 18:00 | Eventbrite

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ASC Speaker Series #4: Leonard and Richards on Stafford Beer Tickets, Sun, Mar 21, 2021 at 9:00 AM | Eventbrite

MAR 21

ASC Speaker Series #4: Leonard and Richards on Stafford Beer

by American Society for Cybernetics Free

Register

Event Information

Models are not good or bad, right or wrong, only more or less useful in a given context. — Stafford Beer

About this Event

ASC Speakers Series: Cybernetics and humans’ knowing

Abstract

During this ASC Series event Jude Lombardi will facilitate a conversation between two long-term members and past-presidents of the ASC, Allenna Leonard and Larry Richards, about the life and work of Stafford Beer (1926-2002).

As many might know, Beer was a prolific producer of many things — in a variety of domains. He was, according to Leonard, a “polymath—a scientist who painted, wrote poetry, taught yoga and cooked a delicious Yorkshire pudding.”

During our 50-minute interview, the two presenters will share their professional and personal thoughts on Stafford Beer as well as share their thoughts on two – of the many – models Stafford Beer created during his career as a cybernetician.

Models are not good or bad, right or wrong, only more or less useful in a given context. — Stafford Beer

Leonard will briefly discuss the Viable Systems Model, VSM (1975) — an organizational structure made up of viable autonomous systems that are designed to survive the requirements of any dynamic environment. While Richards will briefly discuss the Team Syntegrity a process based non-hierarchical structure geared toward problem solving with a group of 10 to 42 participants.

The core of this conversation will focus on the cybernetic concepts and premises related to the models presented as identified in the attached papers. We will also explore possible similarities and differences between the two models as well as how they might complement one another.

We will then spend the last 40 minutes of this event in dialogue with attendees based on their questions and comments.

More information on each model:

• Viable Systems Model and its Application to Complex Organizations — Memorial Lecture by Allenna Leonard, 2007
• 4min video (see below)
• Team Syntegrity — Education as a subversive activity: a proposal by Larry Richards, 2014

book in source:

ASC Speaker Series #4: Leonard and Richards on Stafford Beer Tickets, Sun, Mar 21, 2021 at 9:00 AM | Eventbrite

The Viable System Model and its Application to Complex Organizations The First Stafford Beer Memorial Lecture July 8, 2007 Allenna Leonard, Ph.D.

VSM and its Application to Complex Organizations – Memorial Lecture _Leonard _2007.pdf – Google Drive

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(DOC) Education as a subversive activity: a proposal | Larry Richards – Academia.edu

Education as a subversive activity: a proposal

Larry RichardsKybernetes78 Views8 Pages1 File ▾Cybernetics,Participatory Democracy,Second-Order Cybernetics,Social transformation,Art and Social Transformation, Theory and PraxisShow less ▴Publication Name: Kybernetes

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(DOC) Education as a subversive activity: a proposal | Larry Richards – Academia.edu

good to see the book continue to get attention

The Hidden Power of Systems Thinking, book review: Reinventing governance | ZDNet

The Hidden Power of Systems Thinking, book review: Reinventing governance

Tackling the climate emergency requires a fundamental change in the way governments think and operate, argue Ray Ison and Ed Straw.

By Wendy M Grossman for ZDNet UK Book Reviews | March 17, 2021 — 08:21 GMT (01:21 PDT) | Topic: Government

The difficulty of pulling the world together to react collaboratively in the face of an urgent existential threat has been thoroughly demonstrated over the past year. The coronavirus pandemic has made it clear, even in countries not struggling with Brexit-related upheaval, just how hard it is to overcome the instinct to embrace nationalism when it comes to controlling outbreaks and sharing vaccines. 

The bigger problem we must tackle as part of post-pandemic recovery is climate change, which will require all that elusive collaboration, and more. Yet numerous countries’ governments not only fail to collaborate with each other, but they also fail to respond to their own citizens’ needs. 

The need for broad-picture thinking to address these gaps is the central thesis of two Open University academics — professor of systems Ray Ison and visiting fellow Ed Straw — in The Hidden Power of Systems Thinking: Governance in a Climate Emergency. 

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The Hidden Power of Systems Thinking, book review: Reinventing governance | ZDNet

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Overview of Personal Construct Theory

Personal Construct Theory Overview

By Kendra Cherry  Fact checked by Emily Swaim Updated on September 20, 2020

Table of Contents

• Personal Construct Theory
• How We Use Constructs
• Observations

Personal construct theory suggests that people develop personal constructs about how the world works. People then use these constructs to make sense of their observations and experiences.

The world we live in is the same for all of us, but the way we experience it is different for each individual. For example, imagine that you and your friend are going for a walk in the park and you spot a large brown dog. You immediately see a graceful and adorable animal that you would like to pet.

Your friend, on the other hand, sees a threatening animal that she wants to avoid. How can two people have such a different interpretation of the same event?

According to psychologist George Kelly, personality is composed of the various mental constructs through which each person views reality. Kelly believed that each person was much like a scientist. Just like scientists, we want to understand the world around us, make predictions about what will happen next, and create theories to explain events.

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Overview of Personal Construct Theory

source

Collective intelligence – Wikipedia

Collective intelligence (CI) is shared or group intelligence that emerges from the collaboration, collective efforts, and competition of many individuals and appears in consensus decision making. The term appears in sociobiology, political science and in context of mass peer review and crowdsourcing applications. It may involve consensus, social capital and formalisms such as voting systems, social media and other means of quantifying mass activity.^[1] Collective IQ is a measure of collective intelligence, although it is often used interchangeably with the term collective intelligence. Collective intelligence has also been attributed to bacteria and animals.^[2]

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Collective intelligence – Wikipedia

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What can we learn from nature’s experience of catastrophes? | Aeon Essays

Nature’s playbook

From termite queens to the carbon cycle, nature knows how to avoid network collapse. Human designers should pay heed

Photo by Kristian Bell/Getty.

Ruth DeFries

is Denning Family Professor of Sustainable Development at Columbia University in New York and a member of the US National Academy of Sciences. Her most recent book is What Would Nature Do? A Guide for Our Uncertain Times (2021). She lives in New York.

3,500 words

Edited by Sally Davies

Nature is famously, gloriously complex. But it wasn’t always so. When the Earth was young, physics ruled. Steam spewed from prodigious volcanoes and seeped through the cracked surface, transforming our planet into an ocean-covered mass, circling in the darkness. The physics that governs a phase change from steam to water in the oceans is as true today as it was 4.5 billion years ago. Gas would turn to liquid on any planet at any time, so long as the temperature and air pressure oblige. Then, as now, the laws of physics were predictable and straightforward.

But the history of life that followed from that fateful phase change didn’t proceed along such a simple trajectory. Its evolution over billions of years defies simple rules and predictable outcomes. Nature became a complex system, a tangled web of invisible connections. As nature’s intricacy ramped up, it brought with it opportunities for expansion, but also possibilities for annihilation. Fortunately, with each problem that arose, a strategy evolved to overcome it.

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What can we learn from nature’s experience of catastrophes? | Aeon Essays

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Morphogenesis – Wikipedia

Morphogenesis

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaJump to navigationJump to searchThis article is about the biological process. For the band, see Morphogenesis (band).

Morphogenesis (from the Greek morphê shape and genesis creation, literally “the generation of form”) is the biological process that causes a cell, tissue or organism to develop its shape. It is one of three fundamental aspects of developmental biology along with the control of tissue growth and patterning of cellular differentiation.

The process controls the organized spatial distribution of cells during the embryonic development of an organism. Morphogenesis can take place also in a mature organism, such as in the normal maintenance of tissue homeostasis by stem cells or in regeneration of tissues after damage. Cancer is an example of highly abnormal and pathological tissue morphogenesis. Morphogenesis also describes the development of unicellular life forms that do not have an embryonic stage in their life cycle. Morphogenesis is essential for the evolution of new forms.

Morphogenesis is a mechanical process involving forces that generate mechanical stress, strain, and movement of cells,^[1] and can be induced by genetic programs according to the spatial patterning of cells within tissues.

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Morphogenesis – Wikipedia

Interesting approach to building and transferring complicated applied knowledge at scale.

Project ECHO (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes) Project ECHO is a revolutionary guided-practice model that reduces health disparities in under-served and remote areas of the state, nation, and world. Through innovative telementoring, the ECHO model uses a hub-and-spoke knowledge-sharing approach where expert teams lead virtual clinics, amplifying the capacity for providers to deliver best-in-practice care to the underserved in their own communities.

Project ECHO

They have allied with Societal Platform:

THE ASPIRATION exponential societal change at scale We envision a future in which the solutions we have access to are always a step ahead of the problems we are trying to solve. Our goal – catalysing a societal movement for change – is audacious. But we are irrationally optimistic about the capacity of the ecosystem to achieve it. To this end, we are architects of shared spaces for actors across civil society, the government, and the market to reimagine, and co-create together.

The Aspiration – Societal Platform

ESSENTIAL BALANCES is now available in paperback. It is about how organizations work, for diagnosis and design, below and beyond models, metrics, and methodologies. It reveals the fundamental principles of organizing. Click on https://amazon.co.uk/Essential-Balances-Looking-Seeing-Organizations/dp/1838338616/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=… to get your copy.

(1) Ivo Velitchkov on Twitter: “ESSENTIAL BALANCES is now available in paperback. It is about how organizations work, for diagnosis and design, below and beyond models, metrics, and methodologies. It reveals the fundamental principles of organizing. Click on https://t.co/59jN04XB1d to get your copy. 👇” / Twitter

www.essentialbalances.com