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Systems Applications in Business and Industry (Part 2)
ISSS Meeting at Asilomar, June 28-July 2, 1999
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Paper session, June 30, 1999, 3:45 p.m., hosted by Enrique Herrscher
These participant's notes were created
in real-time during the meeting, based on the speaker's presentation(s)
and comments from the audience. These should not be viewed as official
transcripts of the meeting, but only as an interpretation by a single individual.
Lapses, grammatical errors, and typing mistakes may not have been corrected.
Questions about content should be directed to the originator. These notes
have been contributed by David Ing (http://coevolving.com) at the IBM AdvancedBusiness Institute ( http://www.ibm.com/abi ).
(Continuation from previous session)
Want to get to conclusions, in three categories:
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What can / should be done:
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Us (each), corporation, ISSS
In management, enable people, at the lowest level.
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Allow problems to be solved at the lowest level, which will require training.
Revisit question: What can be done about what?
What can be do to improve corporations, and their impact on society,
and to their own constituents.
Should the ISSS have a journal for management?
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Would some other members object?
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Alternative view: should the ISSS write something, should it be a journal,
should it be for management.
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The journal could be on the web.
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Need to be able to engage with management, which means that they need to
have to use their language.
Myth of leadership: 60 years of research, lots of journal, none statistically
significant.
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Can someone talk about management in a different discourse?
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To have an influence, need a very clear message, which is simple and strong.
However, simple and strong messages probably won't solve the issue.
Do these types of conversations help?
The issue is one of engagement. To explain adaptive enterprise, which
is based in systems theory, do you need to explain systems theory?
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Teach responsible leaders now, without using systems concepts.
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Managers that don't ask why anymore, just what.
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Senge is well cited. Maybe we should invite Senge to an ISSS conference.
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Popularizers are often shunned by the institution.
We're in an age like Renaissance, where we need a patron.
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Don't necessarily want an hierarchical approach, in this social network
age.
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Hard to provoke a change without an hierarchical leader.
Management education working with different types of people. There are
some insecure people, who need power. Have program trying to get rational
managers to move forward, but personalities get in the way.
With whom to we need to engage? in what way? with what means?
Should ISSS have a voice? These meetings are not even a voice. There
are no journalists here.
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Development of the web page?
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The ones who get to the web and download are already converted. It doesn't
necessarily get to the people who are already sold.
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Public relations: First we need to sell the ISSS, and then sell the content.
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Other means: Instead of journals, more widespread press.
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Why was it that although last year's conference was in Atlanta, there was
no contact with Ted Turner.
ISSS should be more Sense-and-Respond: who are the customers?
Can have an organization that has a strong voice, but not as itself:
instead as the individuals. Then need to put tasks on individuals to be
influential, and then come back and converse with each other.
Two web pages: one for the general public, and one for the members.
Should the voices be organizations within the ISSS (i.e. SIGs).
ISSS contributes mostly knowledge and epistemology.
Need the ISSS as a mythical beast: one body, multiple heads.
An academic journal is the way the people keep themselves informed,
enabling everyone to listen to each other.
A crazy idea: We should seed the principle starting with kids. When
we were young, we remember comics.
Need a champion.
Ask people to post examples of systemic behaviours which children exhibit,
on the web.
Could look at the Long Now foundation.
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Will build a clock that will last 10,000 years.
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Will also create a library of long-term thinking.
Do people today have excessive expectations which systems can't solve in
the short term?
What should we do? ISSS can't exist only once per year, and we come
back once per year to improve mankind.
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Need a team
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Like an onion: 2 or 3 at the core, 10 who meet frequently, and more that
meet just annually.
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Who would like to meet electronically?
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Inner circle: 1/2 hour once per week.
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Outer circle: 1/2 hour once per month.
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What should the electronic content be?
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We can elaborate on the ideas which we started today.
Comparison about books were interesting; reviews of books were helpful.
Australia / New Zealand system conference: chairs summarized papers,
and the authors didn't present. The authors then replied.
How strict should we be with themes? Experience show us that authors
write on what they want to write. Current thinking is to accept everything.
Would like to be able to couple papers together.
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Could consider having integrated papers and standalone papers.
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Should a SIG consider it a failure if we can't integrate a paper?
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