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Roelien Goede: Exploring the ISSS purpose using Critical Systems Heuristics  

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Link to the zoom link: https://www.isss.org/members-mini-symposiums/  

 

The purpose of the sessions of May is to showcase our systems practice in a way that makes the different methodologies we use more comparable. We invite contributions on any topic concerning any aspect that will benefit the ISSS as society to demonstrate the practical application of your selected process / methodology. In order to open the discussions in comparing different methodologies we invited speakers to: (a) explain the aim and purpose of your specific initiative;  (b) briefly explain their methodological approach and the science and practice behind it;  (c) explore similarities, differences, and possible complementarities between their methodology and others.  Please contact president@isss.org if you want to take part in this initiative.   On Saturday 6 May Roelien Goede will provide a demonstration of this initiative with a talk according to the structure provided above on the application of Critical Systems Heuristics as methodology for practicing Critical Systems Thinking. The application area of the ISSS she will focus on is the purpose stated on the website: The initial purpose of the society was "to encourage the development of theoretical systems which are applicable to more than one of the traditional departments of knowledge," with the following principal aims: to investigate the isomorphy of concepts, laws, and models in various fields, and to help in useful transfers from one field to another;  to encourage the development of adequate theoretical models in areas which lack them;  to eliminate the duplication of theoretical efforts in different fields; and  to promote the unity of science through improving the communication among specialists.

Biographical information:

 

 

 

     

 

Roelien Goede is Professor and Research Director of the Unit for Data Science and Computing, North-West University, South Africa. Her research interest is in Critical Systems Thinking applied to Business Intelligence and Programming Education. She has a keen interest in research paradigms focusing on the application of Action Research in Information Systems Research. She received distinguished teaching awards for her teaching of Computer Programming. She has published in journals such as Systemic Practice and Action research, Systems Research and Behavioural Science (SRBS), Journal of Transdisciplinary Studies and Communications of Computer and Information Science. She holds a PhD in Information Technology from the University of Pretoria, South Africa. Her PhD, awarded in 2005, was on Systems Thinking in Decision Support Systems. She has supervised 7 PhD students and 16 Master’s students to completion. She holds a C2 rating from the National Research Foundation of South Africa. She is the current president of the International Society for Systems Sciences.  

 

Time Slot on a Saturday in May:

San Francisco:    7 AM on a Saturday

New York:          10  AM on a Saturday

London, UK:        3 PM on a Saturday

Central Europe:   4  PM on a Saturday

South Africa:       4  PM on  a Saturday

Sydney:              Midnight on Sunday 7th    

20 May: Jessie Henshaw
The Hidden Worlds of Context Blindness.
 

 
Calendar link

Link: https://www.isss.org/members-mini-symposiums/
 
On Saturday 20 May Jessie Henshaw will attempt to expose how useful it is to have ways to discover one's blind spots, and because that is central to the world's predicament. 
The basic science behind her approach is that systems that develop by growth are animated from the inside and build an inside world with outside connections. That seems to be the universal model of natural systems; they have lives and build homes with connections. So from anyone's view, both the contexts inside other homes and the contexts of their connections are initially detached from one's view and experience. We sometimes notice coming across them or having regular practices for respecting personal space while learning what they're about. So part of any workshop time would be sharing our ways of noticing the hidden contexts in one's near and distant territories.
Jessie's methodological approach and practice expands on simple examples, noting situations where universal patterns (like the common S curve or changes of state) or where relationships form and respond in unique ways - It's part of a 50 year study  of how nature works by itself, tragically misrepresented as following numerical relationships with no scale or limits, when growth is an organizational process with definite scale and limits, and early warnings of what to do for which there are myriad familiar examples of things starting with growing their power than change to living by collaboration, the two halves of the S curve.   
The main way in which Jessie proposes to explore similarities, differences, and possible complementarities between your practice and others, is by asking people how their practice would respond to the questions her's raises
 

 
 
Jessie is an environmental and human systems scientist who has been doing advanced research on emergent organization in nature for over 30 years. Her innovative work produced a practical new general scientific method for studying uncontrolled systems and led to numerous important findings.
One of those is the remarkable finding that the standard sustainability metrics used around the world are very unscientifically defined. They generally count the impacts we can trace and quite ignore the ones we can’t. It’s as if, culturally, we were all thinking “out of sight, out of mind”, as if that would work in nature! We can joke, but it also implies major changes in what we do, that the community is largely in denial of..
Her subjects include all kinds of lively complex systems such as, organisms, ecologies, cultures, communities, languages, technologies, weather, etc. Such systems generally originate with an initial seed of local organization and a process of accumulative development, forming a cell of organization by growth in an open environment. Jessie’s methods are based on using physics principles as diagnostic tools. She does not use physics to represent environmental systems with equations, but for investigating them, considered as self-defined objects of the environment. The method relies on data for displaying authentic images and behaviors of nature with "fidelity", not for making equations. The technique allows one to historically reconstruct the flow of innovation within a system’s own internal development, and then to anticipate the succession of other developments that are likely, or certain, in its future.
 
 
Time Slot on a Saturday in May:
San Francisco:    7 AM on a Saturday
New York:          10  AM on a Saturday
London, UK:        3 PM on a Saturday
Central Europe:   4  PM on a Saturday
South Africa:       4  PM on  a Saturday
Sydney:              Midnight on Saturday/Sunday 
 

Jamie Rose: The future of GST

 

Google definition:  "A heuristic technique, is any approach to problem solving or self-discovery that employs a practical method that is not guaranteed to be optimal, perfect, or rational, but is nevertheless sufficient for reaching an immediate, short-term goal or approximation. Where finding an optimal solution is impossible or impractical, heuristic methods can be used to speed up the process of finding a satisfactory solution".

 

As documented in ISSS's 1980 "Behavioral Journal" the editors .. Miller, Rapoport, Laszlo, et al.  understood that "comparing" different disciplines terms and concepts was getting no where.  They attempted a new policy for papers ... Every author had to explicitly define their fundamental terms of scientific measurements.   They thought by accumulating a taxonomy of words and concepts .. as shared simplified~unified dictionary usable for General Systems purpose could be developed.   The effort failed.  

 

43 years later General Theory of Systems has progressed no further.   Today's 30 minute "elevator pitch presentation" will disturb the majority of ISSS members, but Jamie Rose will identify that current general systems thinkers globally are undereducated in the spectrum of systems the universe is built of, let alone have any true inkling of the foundational qualities and relations involved.   Even the notion of "isomorphs" is an error developed concept.  

 

Total revampings of Gen Sys concepts and terms are required.   This held for Jamie Rose himself over the years. It is time to take ourselves "back to school" .. and dismantle - remantle foundational General Systems observations, recognitions and concepts about this Universe ... built from less than a half dozen rules of existence and performance.

 

 

Q matrix: Checking ISSS System Transformative Identity

Paradigms emerge and govern human-systems. Analyzing paradigms in organizations, social-systems and individuals leads to the conclusions that five archetypal paradigms characterize human-systems. Observed paradigm shifts through these five paradigms produce typical sequences of transformative patterns. The Q matrix is based on these transformative patterns and uses the specific paradigm-shifts triggers, related to each paradigm, to facilitate system's transformative processes and ontogenesis, by aligning mental models of stakeholders on system's ontological properties.

Methodological approach and practice
Formulate a question you would like to answer and identify the system to which the question relates.
1. Define the basics of the System of Interest (SOI) (parts, ideal model of the whole, general purpose)
2. Identify key issues to address in the SOI, at stakeholders level, the society and the world
3. Identify stakeholders needs (engagement in system)
4. Identify and align on system's regulating principles (roles, rules, values)
5. Identify and align on system's learning mechanisms (performance optimization)
6. Identify system's impact, intent, and purposefulness

The answer to the question emerges through the process...

Plan on how to explore similarities, differences, and possible complementarities between own practice and others:
The Q matrix is apparently extremely holistic. I could demonstrate that it embeds other frameworks like AIC, DSRP/VMCL, AQAL, IKIGAI, Panarchy, some laws of the TAO, etc., providing an extra perspective on the dynamics of these frameworks when applied to human systems. The framework of the Relational Holon Theory by John Kineman gives a similar dynamics perspective but apparently different in sequence. This relationship requires further analysis.

 

 

 

Gianni Di Marco is a Systems Change Facilitator, Independent Consultant, Coach, and Trainer from Switzerland. In 2021, Gianni completed a Certificate of Advanced Studies in Change Management and Leadership from the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. Since then, he has been engaged in R&D on systemic resistance to change in human social systems and systems change management. He holds certifications as a Trainer in Systems Thinking, Mapping, and Leadership from Cabrera Research Lab and as a Coach in Vertical Leadership Development from Global Leadership Associates. Gianni holds a PhD in Geology, which he completed in 1994. He worked in the Oil and Gas industry for a few years before moving from interpreting geosystems to managing human systems. Gianni spent 25 years in sales and marketing, market development, and business development. He has a successful track record in problem-solving, innovation, and driving positive change in the organizations he worked for, and he has always been a changemaker. Gianni has managed projects in various fields, from pharmaceuticals to tourism to innovation technologies. He was the Founder and CEO of his own startup in the 2000s, in the field of B2B and B2C services for outdoor activities. His last assignment was in an organization providing management and development services to corporations. Gianni is a member of ISSS since 2021.

 

Shann Turnbull is Principal at the International Institute for Self-Governance, Founding member of the Sustainable Money Working Group in the UK, and his slogan is “ Identifying how to obtain agreement on what constitutes sound governance in any type of organisation in the private, public or non profit sectors.Pioneering research into how the decision making and communication architecture of organisations in the public, private and non-profit sectors affects the wellbeing of individuals and that of their organisation.Investigating how the OECD metrics for measuring individual wellbeing may also provide a basis for evaluating toxic or sound governance of organisations and the quality of democracy. ”