Making Sense Of Complexity
Continues in source: Making Sense Of Complexity – Extra Newsfeed
Category Archives: Discussion
A view or perspective on the world
FORMWELTen-Institute for renewing systemic research | Larnaca Conferences – 28 May, 10am, Larnaca
Larnaca Conferences
- Meeting in Larnaca, Cyprus on Monday 28 May.
- Starting at 10 am local time.
The meeting is an ‘ideas creation’ and brainstorming event between System Thinkers of different backgrounds.
Aims
- To discuss how a complex approach to science is needed in order to overcome some of today’s bottlenecks
- To explore transdisciplinary synergies between experts, and establish a common position statement
- To look for EU funding and/or consider a Start-up
- To set up a Think Tank and discuss how to implement our thinking in practice
Details
Information flowing in our modern complex social system (between human brains, brains to computer and computer to computer) creates new realities which have an immense impact on our society, biology and evolution as humans. A formal thematisation of systems thinking needs to be developed in order to avoid negative outcomes such as degenerative disease, conflict, lack of cooperation and bad communication.
The meeting will bring together expert system thinkers in areas such as language, communication, ageing, cognition, complex systems, resilience and mathematics.
An example where our thinking may be applied is neuro-resilience: “The inherent characteristics of the brain as a complex system, the long term and short-term adaptation strategies of the individuals, and finally the quality of management strategies of the collective and the embedded environment in steering individuals away from undesired brain’s health related outcomes such as depression, dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, and other neurodegenerative diseases” (Shima Beigi).
The multiple, complex and overlapping network transactions in a virtual or a real environment need to be studied. Another example in this respect is PolySocial Reality (PoSR) which is a “conceptual model for the global interaction context within which people experience social interactions whether immediate or mediated by technology. PoSR defines relations across the aggregate of all the experienced ‘locations’ and ‘communications’ of and between all individual people, people/machines and machines/machines in multiple networks and/or locales at the same or different times. PoSR is based upon the core concept that dynamic relational structures emerge from the aggregate of multiplexed asynchronous or synchronous data creations of all individuals within the domain of networked, non-networked, and/or local experiences” (Fisher and Applin).
How can systems theory and research create significant differences in real systems and everybody’s daily life? How can a transdisciplinary systemic discourse become of value to people, politics, economy, ecology, global solutions and integrate direct feedback from real systems and people into the discussion? Questions like these culminate in the ongoing task of a systemic language and should lead to building an exchange platform for researchers to evolve with their research and the systems they analyze, and for laymen and normal people to be systemically integrated into the discussion thus being enabled to use research and systemic concepts to keep up with the complexity of globalization and to participate actively in scientific progress.
“Systemic thinking can change the world, but how? Through people who learn how to think systemically, who learn how to interact with each other systemically and through those people who learn to act as a system in the environment of other systems.”
The discussion and exchange of ideas will continue over the course of the day. It is hoped that this meeting will become a trend-setting, yearly event.
Source: FORMWELTen-Institute for renewing systemic research | Larnaca Conferences
How To Be a Systems Thinker | Edge.org – A Conversation With Mary Catherine Bateson
How To Be a Systems Thinker
[4.13.18]
Until fairly recently, artificial intelligence didn’t learn. To create a machine that learns to think more efficiently was a big challenge. In the same sense, one of the things that I wonder about is how we’ll be able to teach a machine to know what it doesn’t know that it might need to know in order to address a particular issue productively and insightfully. This is a huge problem for human beings. It takes a while for us to learn to solve problems, and then it takes even longer for us to realize what we don’t know that we would need to know to solve a particular problem.
How do you deal with ignorance? I don’t mean how do you shut ignorance out. Rather, how do you deal with an awareness of what you don’t know, and you don’t know how to know, in dealing with a particular problem? When Gregory Bateson was arguing about human purposes, that was where he got involved in environmentalism. We were doing all sorts of things to the planet we live on without even asking what the side effects would be and the interactions, although, at that point we were thinking more about side effects than about interactions between multiple processes. Once you begin to understand the nature of side effects, you ask a different set of questions before you make decisions and projections and analyze what’s going to happen.
MARY CATHERINE BATESON is a writer and cultural anthropologist. In 2004 she retired from her position as Clarence J. Robinson Professor in Anthropology and English at George Mason University, and is now Professor Emerita. Mary Catherine Bateson’s Edge Bio
HOW TO BE A SYSTEMS THINKER
At the moment, I’m asking myself how people think about complex wholes like the ecology of the planet, or the climate, or large populations of human beings that have evolved for many years in separate locations and are now re-integrating. To think about these things, I find that you need something like systems theory. So, I went back to thinking about systems theory two or three years ago, which I hadn’t for quite a long time.
…continues in source, and concludes rather wonderfully with:
The tragedy of the cybernetic revolution, which had two phases, the computer science side and the systems theory side, has been the neglect of the systems theory side of it. We chose marketable gadgets in preference to a deeper understanding of the world we live in.
The Systems Studio newsletter 16 April 2018 – loads of events, links
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The Thoughts of a Spiderweb | Quanta Magazine
The Thoughts of a Spiderweb
Millions of years ago, a few spiders abandoned the kind of round webs that the word “spiderweb” calls to mind and started to focus on a new strategy. Before, they would wait for prey to become ensnared in their webs and then walk out to retrieve it. Then they began building horizontal nets to use as a fishing platform. Now their modern descendants, the cobweb spiders, dangle sticky threads below, wait until insects walk by and get snagged, and reel their unlucky victims in.
In 2008, the researcher Hilton Japyassú prompted 12 species of orb spiders collected from all over Brazil to go through this transition again. He waited until the spiders wove an ordinary web. Then he snipped its threads so that the silk drooped to where crickets wandered below. When a cricket got hooked, not all the orb spiders could fully pull it up, as a cobweb spider does. But some could, and all at least began to reel it in with their two front legs.
continued in source: The Thoughts of a Spiderweb | Quanta Magazine
Keys to Unlocking Systems-Level Change – Susan Misra and Jamaica Maxwell (anticlickbait: systems mindset, tools, understanding of human dynamics)
Three Keys to Unlocking Systems-Level Change
Developing a systems mindset, identifying the right tool for the job, and paying attention to human dynamics can help leaders move from theory to action when facing complex social problems.
- By Susan Misra & Jamaica Maxwell Apr. 29, 2016
The first step to solving an intractable social problem is to understand the system in which it sits. If you don’t, you might find yourself investing in a solution that is ineffective, takes more time or resources to implement, or even makes a problem worse. To reduce the global incidence of HIV, for example, global health leaders must look beyond developing treatments for symptoms; they must address patients’ access to health services, and how culture, economics, and politics affects who benefits in the current system. Taking in the bigger picture—what many of us in the social sector call systems thinking—requires that we understand a system’s many stakeholders, how they interact, and what influences them. Systems thinking means understanding the web of interrelations that create complex problems and rethinking assumptions about how change happens.
This approach isn’t new. Much has been written on thinking systemically, leading systemically, and collaborating systemically. Yet the social sector leaders and grantmakers who are actively integrating the tools and practices of systems thinking into their day-to-day work are few and far between.
So what does it take to move from theory to practice when working on systems?
The David & Lucile Packard Foundation and Management Assistance Group, a nonprofit that supports movement building, partnered together to answer this question. Given our organizations’ history of influencing systems and commitment to impact, we embarked on a project to understand and overcome the barriers to creating system-level change that grantmakers and others in the social sector face. We reviewed more than 175 websites, articles, books, and videos; conducted more than 30 interviews with systems experts and philanthropic leaders; and ultimately identified three ingredients necessary for overcoming common barriers and positively influencing systems:
1. A systems mindset
2. The right tool for the job
3. An understanding of human dynamics
Full details in source: Three Keys to Unlocking Systems-Level Change
Redesigning Freedom : Metaphorum 2018 Tickets, Fri, Nov 2, 2018 at 4:00 PM
NOV 02
Redesigning Freedom : Metaphorum 2018
£99 – £149
Event Information
An experimental, self-organising conference, exploring liberating new forms of social organisation.
While there are many innovative proposals on new forms of organisation that could potentially support a great societal transformation, few of us have had the opportunity of experiencing and replicating the experience. In this conference we will explore again Stafford Beer’s cybernetic theories to “design freedom” in organisations, communities, regions and nations. We are inviting examples of radical and innovative organisational and societal transformation based on non-hierarchical, adaptive, self organising structures.
Programme
Day 1, Friday 02.11.2018
4:00 p.m. Pre-Opening & Reception at the Co-Working location super7000 “A Cybernetic Impromptu Networking Session, Drinks & Snacks”
End. 8 p.m.
Day 2, Saturday 03.11.
8.30 a.m Check-in & Open Doors and a Breakfast Buffet
9:30 a.m. Start, welcome, guided tour through sipgate – and how they redesigned their freedom.
10:15 First curated impulse / “Day Starter” incl. Q&A (no ranks, no titles, no Keynote Speakers), tbd.
11:00 Barcamp – Explanation of the Rules of the Game, Session Planning for the whole day, per Slot 45 minutes in max. 4 rooms/areas (more infos about the nature and purpose of a Barcamp: http://barcamp.org/w/page/405173/TheRulesOfBarCamp)
11:30 Start of the first round of parallel sessions
12:15 Lunch break for one hour
1:15 p.m. Barcamp Sessions – Continue Parallel Sessions 2, 3
2:45 p.m. Coffee Break, 15 Minutes
3:00 p.m. Barcamp Sessions – Continue Parallel Sessions 4, 5
4:30 p.m. Coffee Break, 15 Minutes
5:15 p.m 124ALL – “What should be the guiding question for tomorrow?” & “9x Why?”
5:45 p.m End of the sessions
6:00 p.m. Second curated impulse, perhaps a”cybernetic nano concert” incl. Q&A ->
6:30 p.m Start of the Get together, finger food, drinks, music & communication
Closing around 22.00/23.00 o’clock
Day 3, Sunday 04.11.
09:00 Breakfast
09:30 Start, short welcome
09:35 Taste of Team Syntegrity: A hacked version of the original Syntegration protocol, with all the participants of the Metaphorum
12:30 Lunch Break
1:30 p.m Planning Session for the next metaphorum (format and interaction structure tbd).
From 2:30 p.m. Closing, Farewell & Official End
KPIs Measurement via lines/strokes on a flipchart (scale from 1 to 5):
Time well invested?
Gained an understanding on how to redesign freedom?
The Barcamp & Syntegration were engaging?
3:30 p.m. Leaving time
Price
Included in the price of £149.-
(Early Bird £99.-, if you buy a ticket before 31.07.2018):
Conference Fee, Breakfast, Lunch and a lot of exchange.
Travel
Düsseldorf (DUS) has an international airport with many direct connections within Europe and also some flights from overseas.
Airport Info:
From the airport we recommend the following connections to the city (the ride takes about 15-20 minutes):
Bus 721 (Terminal A/B/C), Single Ticket EUR 2,70
Official website of the Rheinbahn (public transportation service):
http://www.rheinbahn.com/Seiten/default.aspx
Taxi, one ride about EUR 20.-
You will find the cabs right in front of the entrance (just follow the signs in the airport)
Accommodation
The following hotels and hostels are close to the main venue (Saturday and Sunday):
This hostel is cheap, even though it takes 15 minutes with the bus to get to sipgate and 25
Minutes by feet.
http://www.backpackers-duesseldorf.de/en/
Source: Redesigning Freedom : Metaphorum 2018 Tickets, Fri, Nov 2, 2018 at 4:00 PM | Eventbrite
Pervasives and the VSM algedonic link – Tom Graves / Tetradian
To me, one of the keys here is the perhaps least-known part of the Viable System Model (VSM) – the algedonic link.
‘Algedonic’ literally means ‘of pain/pleasure’, and, as the Wikipedia entry for VSM explains:
Algedonic alerts … are alarms and rewards that escalate through the levels of recursion when actual performance fails or exceeds capability, typically after a timeout.
In classic VSM, examples might include a ‘stop-the-line’ signal on an assembly-line, or an error-message percolating up the code-hierarchy within a computer-application.
For various practical reasons, descriptions of algedonic signal-channels are often absent from standard VSM reference diagrams…
Which can lead to serious gaps in system-design, or even misinterpretation of VSM as just another Taylorist top-down hierarchy. But some versions of the VSM base diagram do illustrate algedonic links, such as in this example by Nick Green
…showing ‘Algedonic Alerting’ as a black dotted-line link from VSM system-1 to systems-3, -4 and -5:
Even there, it somewhat misses the point, because algedonic signals won’t traverse solely to the ‘direction’ elements (systems-3, -4, -5) of the current recursion, but may be sourced anywhere, and likewise need to be vectored to and/or picked up anywhere. For example, if the ship is in danger, and the danger has been spotted only by the most junior-ranking crew-member, that message needs to go as quickly as possible to where it needs to go – not trickle slowly up and down the respective hierarchies.
Which, with a bit of exploration around this, kinda indicates that algedonic-signals may not only need to break the hierarchy, but may go not just upward but in any direction – up, down, sideways, round – and also may need to be
Source: Pervasives and the VSM algedonic link – Tom Graves / Tetradian
Understanding Systems Science: A Visual and Integrative Approach – Andreas Hieronymi – 2013
Abstract
Systems thinking is considered a much‐needed competence to deal better with an increasingly interlinked and complex world. The many streams within systems science have diversified perspectives, theories and methods, but have also complicated the field as a whole. This makes it difficult to understand and master the field. Short introductions to fundamental questions of systems science are rare. This paper is divided into three parts and aims to do the following: (1) to provide a broad overview of the structure and purpose of systems science; (2) to present a set of key systems principles and relate them to theoretical streams; and (3) to describe aspects of systems‐oriented methodologies within a general process cycle. Integrative visualizations have been included to highlight the relationships between concepts, perspectives and systems thinkers. Several new attempts have been made to define and organize system concepts and streams in order to provide greater overall coherence and easier understanding. © 2013 The Author. Systems Research and Behavioral Science published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
INTRODUCTION: BACKGROUND AND PROBLEM
What skills are needed for the 21st century that have been neglected in the past? It has become increasingly clear that the problems and challenges we face are highly interlinked, complex and multidisciplinary. A comparative study (Wiek et al., 2011) came to the conclusion that one of five key competencies for a sustainable future is ‘systems thinking competence’. Peter Senge, one of the key promoters of organizational learning and systems thinking in management (1990), argues that three core capabilities are necessary: We need to increase ‘collaboration across boundaries’, ‘see systems’ as a part of larger systems and learn to ‘create a desired future’ (Senge et al., 2010, p. 44). These three challenges are closely related to the three foundational aspects of systems science explored in this paper.
The goal of this paper is to make key perspectives and concepts of systems thinking and systems science more understandable to researchers and to persons involved practically in fields such as education, consulting or management. To achieve this goal in the limited space of this paper, emphasis will be on visual maps that help us to integrate systemic knowledge from diverse streams and to highlight relations. More detailed descriptions of the concepts mentioned can be obtained in the cited references. Troncale (1985, p. 30) states ‘There is a need to make general systems theory more user‐friendly’. Among other solutions, he recommends overcoming obstacles by use of graphic techniques.
Complete paper in source:Understanding Systems Science: A Visual and Integrative Approach – Hieronymi – 2013 – Systems Research and Behavioral Science – Wiley Online Library
Norbert Wiener’s 1949 Essay on Machine Age Is Found – The New York Times
The Beyond Partnership Nora Bateson – Liminal Leadership – 13 & 14 June 2018 – The Beyond Partnership
Nora Bateson – Liminal Leadership – 13 & 14 June 2018
Liminal Leadership
Early Bird Price: £395+VAT= £474 includes lunches and refreshments
(Booked and paid by 16th May 2018)
Standard Price: £435+VAT= £522
(Booked and paid after 16th May 2018)
Venue: Hilton Hotel, Bath
Join the wonderful Nora Bateson for this special two day exploration into the further reaches of a new leadership.
“Whatever leadership used to be — it used to be. Now, it has to be something different. Now, we all have to be more than we were. The kind of leadership that I want to explore may not be identifiable as leadership at all. I am interested in a kind of mutually alert care and attention to the well-being of all people and ecological systems. This kind of leadership cannot be found in individuals, but rather between them. It cannot be found in organizations, nations, religions or institutions, but rather between them. I have called it Liminal Leadership to highlight the relational characteristics.”
Nora Bateson.
Liminal Leadership – The Workshop
This is the era of the in-between. In this workshop we will be attending to what keeps us stuck and trapped and what will enable us forward to fresh and more rewarding possibilities. Some of the ideas and themes we will be exploring are:
Liminal realms: the era of the in-between. We are between cultures, between the ways of living of the past, and the ways of living of the future. We have old habits that cast shadows across the visions for new becomings. Old ways of living that are premised upon exploitation of human and ecological rights are not yet gone, and new ways of living have not yet manifested. The word liminal refers to this ripe, but confusing state, mid-transformation.
What is change?: mechanistic and linear notions of change are susceptible to mechanistic and linear solutions, what other change might there be?
Symmathesy: Looking at living systems as contexts of mutual learning.
Who are we now?: Mythology of heroes, leaders and the crisis of perception. Redefining these roles for the pathways ahead.
Identity in complexity: You are an ecology of selves. Identity is at the core of our perception process. Bringing complexity to identity makes it more possible for the complexity of others to be more visible.
The Paradox of Agency: You are you, and you are your contexts.
Ecology of institutions: The institutions of our world have formed an inter-dependency that we are having difficulty extracting from. Economy, technology, medicine, education, politics, religion—these institutions are woven into each other now, and woven into our lives.
Please read this beautifully written, bold and provocative article on Liminal Leadership by Nora,
it will describe to you the territory of this workshop and the importance of this liminal approach moving forward
www.kosmosjournal.org/article/liminal-leadership
“Gregory Bateson was the great systemic thinker of the 20th Century and his daughter Nora Bateson is one of the greatest systemic thinkers of the 21st century, helping many of us to undertake the much needed shift in human consciousness. Wish I was able to come to the workshop – I will contact you if something cancels.”
Peter Hawkins, Professor of Leadership at Henley Business School
“It’s hard to know where to start in engaging with Nora Bateson’s work. But that matters not one jot, as long as we do just, actually, start. It seems practically impossible to achieve new ways of seeing and describing and enacting the connections and behaviour that will serve our emerging times. Nora is a pioneer in inviting us into this space, incorporating and moving beyond her inheritances from her father and other seminal, edge-place thinkers. But you have to be prepared to catch yourself doing what you always do, so don’t leave your sense of humour at home.”
Julie Allan
“Nora Bateson’s work needs to be experienced to even begin to integrate the richness it contains. The result is like being given a special lens which offers you the opportunity to see the world differently. It is truly an aesthetic form of wisdom.”
Penny Tompkins and James Lawley, authors of Metaphors in Mind
Booking Your Place
To book please email info@thebeyondpartnership.co.uk with your name and invoicing address.
Nora Bateson describes herself as an “interdisciplinary interloper” she travels between conversations in different fields and with different audiences bringing multiple perspectives into view to reveal larger patterns.
She teaches internationally, leading conversations and seminars. Currently she is developing her next film and has recently published a book about the practical application of systems thinking and complexity theory in everyday life entitled, “Small Arcs of Larger Circles”.
Nora is also a filmmaker, lecturer, writer, as well as director & producer of the award-winning documentary film, An Ecology of Mind, a portrait of her father Gregory Bateson’s way of thinking, follow link here.
She is the president of the International Bateson Institute,(IBI), in Stockholm Sweden. The IBI brings together the sciences, arts and vocational wisdoms, to projects from around the world, that require interdisciplinary research reaching into and beyond the academic frame.
You can view Nora’s Blog postings here, these include, Practicality in Complexity and one introducing Symmathesy.
Her previous workshops for us have focused on Symmathesy: Learning & Change. We are working with her to create a new event working with Warm Data to address ‘Wicked Problems’.
Other Comments about Nora
“Brilliant.”
“Really delightful and inspiring.”
“Exceptional, extraordinary”
“Wonderful on so many levels.”
“Thought provoking and challenging…..”
Integrated Care Systems: Finding inspiration in unexpected places. – Systems Thinkers Anonymous
This post recounts an email discussion a few of us had about an article Chris Ham of the the Kings Fund published last month on the subject of “Integrated Care Systems”, an NHS evolution of the concept of “Accountable Care Organisations”. I shared an anonymised version of the email string with a friend in the systems/complexity community, who has an interest in the topic and he suggested I post it as a blog, so here it is.
The article in question can be found here:
https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/blog/2018/02/what-does-future-hold-integrated-care-systems
It’s a good article and our critique was not of the article or the author, but rather on the approach it describes and lessons we might learn from elsewhere. As ever, the views expressed here are personal and not necessarily those of our employers, or any other organisations we’re involved with.
A conversation began
We were first made aware of the article when a group member shared it and said:
“It’s getting hard to keep up with all the changes!”
continues in source: Integrated Care Systems: Finding inspiration in unexpected places. – Systems Thinkers Anonymous
Food Systems Thinking: Dealing with Incomplete Knowledge
Food Systems Thinking: Dealing with Incomplete Knowledge
In my last blog post on food systems thinking, I highlighted three challenges that appear when we try to think about or address problems in food systems: incomplete knowledge, the limitations of human cognition, and our limited capacity to intervene. In this article, I’ll address some of the ways in which we can direct our thinking to engage more effectively in situations where our knowledge might be lacking.
When trying to consider the global food system, we’re bound to run into the issue of incomplete knowledge. As systems get larger, more complicated and complex, the less we can understand them. Moreover, what we do know is subject to greater uncertainty as we try to generalise and overextend our limited contextual knowledge into situations where it does not fit.
It’s natural to feel disheartened by this, especially given the scope and importance of problems that emerge from the different processes occurring across food systems, such as food insecurity, biodiversity loss, and all the different forms of malnutrition. However, by becoming aware of our thinking and combining this with appropriate strategies, we are able to become more effective at analysing and intervening in the types of complex problems mentioned above.
Wake up! Becoming Aware of Our Metacognition
Meta-cognition is the awareness and understanding of our own thought processes…
Continued in source: Food Systems Thinking: Dealing with Incomplete Knowledge
Learning from Nature: Kyocera’s Amoeba Management System
Credit: Farnishk, Wikipedia Images
Slime mould is a fascinating organism to study, because it has two distinctive phases in its lifecycle. When food is plentiful, in the form of bacteria, this species exists as free-living and independent amoeba. However, as soon as food becomes scarce, something quite extraordinary happens; the previously independent amoeba begin to act as a coherent whole. After an eight-hour interphase process, some of the amoeba start to aggregate around cells, which act as centres, sending out chemical signals consisting of cAMP.
There are two forms of action. In the first instance, cells which receive the signal then repeat the signal by sending it out to other cells. In the second instance, cells receiving the signal move towards the origin of the signal. This behaviour is shown in the beautiful black and white films of biology professor emeritus John Bonner, who has studied slime mould for almost…
View original post 944 more words
Elevator pitch for the systems approach | CSL4D – Sjon van ‘t Hof
Elevator pitch for the systems approach
In our working lives and beyond we are increasingly faced with ill-structured complexities that defy conventional problem solving methods. Underlying assumptions, scope, purposes, patterns, mechanisms, and their relevance or significance must be critically examined and so should the selection of people who can best contribute to this critique. A well-founded methodology for doing so is the dialectical systems approach of Churchman, an American philosopher and management scientist who lived from 1913 to 2004. A powerful step-by-step method for learning Churchman’s approach is described in “Wicked Solutions: a systems approach to complex problems.” This method provides (1) a common framework and vocabulary to (2) structure complex organizational and business problems and develop (3) innovative, effective ways to address them. It is (4) a highly generic approach suited to a broad range of team learning conditions. It also introduces learners to (5) critical and systems thinking, generally. The approach is well suited for (6) integration in secondary and tertiary curriculum. No student should leave college or university without critical working knowledge of the general characteristics of ill-structured, wicked problems and one or more generic methods to address them. (First approximation, 180 words).
Systems Community of Inquiry 