My earlier use of ‘reblog’ in WordPress didn’t make it clear that this blog is from a valued colleague, not myself. I will be more careful in future. The link does go to Belinda’s blog: https://bit.ly/3kMyGov
A short reflection on the relevance of cancer to systems thinking
Since I was diagnosed with cancer 9 weeks ago I’ve thought a lot about what my experience can teach me about complexity and systems. Not every day. Some days I’ve curled up into a small ball, and wished cancer – and the diabetes that it caused, and the chemo that accompanies it, and the existential questions about life, death and the pursuit of happiness – would all just go away. But I was a systems thinker before I was a cancer patient. I see connections everywhere. I work with people trying to develop systems leadership approaches, explore systems thinking and gather evidence about how it is to work in uncertain, complex and volatile contexts.
Much of what I’m going through has relevance for systems work.
#1: Complex Identities
Taking up a systems leadership role isn’t a binary choice. Leaders…
Technology has no Curriculum (How to teach fish about water)
If there is a central tension in the wrestling match between technology/digitalization and Universities, it is that the curriculum is the central pillar of educational organisation, and the web organises itself quite differently. The online world is the epitome of self-organisation – it is no accident that the systems theorists whose work gave rise to the technology also produced the constructivist epistemology which described how natural systems needed no rigid blueprint for their development.
Understanding Systems – a very short introduction. Part 2 ’Seeking insight; Tools, Techniques, Methods, and Methodologies.’ This is designed for colleagues new to systems as well as those wanting to renew their knowledge.
Following the great success of the first workshop we are pleased to announce a further series for next year, our speakers will be:Dr Christine Welch – January 2022 Pavla Kramarova – April 2022 Dr Shavindrie Cooray – May 2022 Please look out for further notices.
The field of Leadership and Organisation Development is nearly entirely based currently on Technical or Psychological principles. Our Leadership and HR Development programs are captivated with this. I am an adult educator and psychologist so of course I think this has a place, but currently it’s too all consuming. We need to carve out space for Ecological principles.
In a recent workshop I was running for HR Executives on Systems Thinking and Complexity all the members of the team said this was the first time they had been introduced to this thinking in the context of organisations and their role of HR. They had learnt a lot about HR systems, people and people management, but not much, if anything about complexity principles, networks and ecosystems and how they function. Organisations are networks in ecosystems and so this is a BIG blind spot for the field – no?
Organisational Psychology is well established, AND now we need to develop a new field of Organisational Ecology? Grow Organisational Ecologists? Not necessarily as jobs people have, but as roles people can take up, or could it be a profession?
Joan Lurie, Founder and CEO of Orgonomix will be presenting her hypothesis on this at this live webinar.
The webinar is free but if you would like to make a donation to reforestnow.org.au when you register ($5 equals one tree planted), we will pass that onto them with joy for the good of our whole ecology.
Established in 2020, the Global Sustainable Futures: Progress through Partnerships Network (GSFN) materialised out of the need to connect Global South with Global North and co-address the pressing challenges to sustainable futures through constructive partnerships.
The network is looking forward to full-fledged collaborative and interactive activities and co-creation of knowledge and practices beyond national borders and academic disciplines, contributing to achieving and realising the SDGs Agenda 2030 and beyond. The network is committed to creating collaboration/partnerships across the low-, middle- and high-income countries, reaching out through its coordinators to secure globally sustainable futures that are urgent and important.
The network has planned an engaging, interactive, inclusive, and enthusiastic networking and capacity development programme, starting from the first day of 2021.
Currently, the network comprises 700 coordinators from 101 countries. The group is inclusive and accessible for academics, scholars, like-minded, system thinkers, innovation practitioners, change-makers, and creative voices, from all disciplines who want to enable sustainable transitions for future generations in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The network aims to forge connections outside of academia through institutionalising university partnerships with governments and communities in addressing pressing challenges and transforming societies.
WATCH MID-YEAR CONFERENCE (12 JUNE 2021) RECORDING:
Open Philosophy is an international Open Access, peer-reviewed academic journal covering all areas of philosophy. The objective of Open Philosophy is to foster free exchange of ideas and provide an appropriate platform for presenting, discussing and disseminating new concepts, current trends, theoretical developments and research findings related to the broadest philosophical spectrum. The journal does not favour any particular philosophical school, perspective or methodology.
Kant’s Transcendental Dialectic: A Re-Evaluation, edited by Michael Lewin (Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University, Kaliningrad) and Rudolf Meer (University of Graz) – deadline for submissions: October 31, 2021.
(Neo)Cybernetic Paths for an Epistemology of Digital Cultures, edited by Arantzazu Saratxaga Arregi (University of Applied Arts Vienna, Austria) and Deniz Yenimazman (University of Bayreuth, Germany) – deadline for submissions: December 31, 2021.
Harish’s Notebook – My notes… Lean, Cybernetics, Quality & Data Science.
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The Reality of Informationally Closed Entities:
How do you pratically launch & scale your entrepreneurial ecoystem?
Ecosystem mapping, Storytelling, Complex systems, Agent interactions. So many things to consider. Here is a framework and processes for Leaders who want to bring their local entreprenurial ecosystem to life.
Conversation between Bobby Fishkin of CrowdDoing & Open Innovation Brazil
How Service Learning and Skilled Volunteering can Bridge Skill Gaps & Social Innovation Gaps to Achieve Sustainable Development Goals A working paper by Bobby Fishkin & CrowdDoing, July 19 th 2019
Systems thinking is the ability to see the whole before the parts, and it’s fundamental to the Disruptive Design Method.
We believe 110% that thinking in systems is the tool to help make a positive impact on the world around you.
The world is full of big messy complex social, political, and environmental problems. which are all part of bigger systems at play. In order to help disrupt the underlying issues, we need to first understood what is going on.
From climate change to the rise in racism, homelessness, child exploitation, global politics and ocean plastic waste, these problems are all part of complex interconnected systems.
By taking a systems approach, it enables you to develop a more dynamic and intimate understanding of the elements and agents at play within the problem area, so you can identify opportunities for intervention.
This is our simple 6-step flow to making change from a systems standpoint
This is what has led to the exploitative economy. In order to get to a circular economy, we need systems thinking.
”Problems are just unaddressed opportunities waiting for a creative minds to tackle them”. ~ Leyla Acaroglu
By taking a systems approach, we can each undo the linear and rigid mindsets that helped create the problems to begin with.
Thankfully, humans naturally have a curious and intuitive understanding of complex, dynamic, and interconnected systems. So, it’s really not that hard to rewire our thinking systems from linear to expanded, from 1-dimensional to 3-dimensional thinking.
UnSchool Workshop participants engage in a systems mapping exercise during one of their sessions
Our Systems Thinking course is one of our most popular classes for a reason: systems thinking is a superpower that anyone can access to make change.
If you’ve already taken our Systems Thinking course, or have expertise in this area, then take a look at our advanced Systems Interventions course to learn to see critical relationships, understand feedback loops, and conduct consequence analyses. You will also establish causal relationships and gain radical insights into systems dynamics.
More importantly, the book shows, in the true spirit of science, that all assumptions,explicit or otherwise, must be made accountable in engineering. The turning point in the book is where Tsien goes beyond the model-based theory of servomechanisms and argues for the necessity of a new design principle for a general type of system where the properties and characteristics of the controlled system are largely unknown.
Online workshop – 15th September 2021 at 2.00 pm
Systems Community of Inquiry 
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