Transduction — leading transformation — Issue #130
This week:
- Upcoming Events
- Systems and Complexity in Organisation
- Public Sector
- Innovation
Upcoming Events:
SE Stakeholder Engagement — Productive Conversations (0.5d)
This training programme could equally be called ‘honest conversations’, ‘difficult conversations’, ‘constructive conversations’, or ‘challenging conversations’.
Fundamental to the success and flavour of organisational life — and systems practice interventions — are the quality of conversations we are able to have. If we can develop an honest and shared attempt to get at shared understanding — shared ‘truth’ if you like — or at least to fully appreciate each others’ understanding — then we can make true progress.
This interactive session will:
- Discuss different types of feedback / difficult conversation
- Understand how the brain rationalises and protect us
- Increase awareness of our own habits and perceptions
- Prepare and plan for a difficult conversation
- Have effective performance conversations
- Learn how to respond / look after yourself in the moment
And help you to have productive conversations even when it seems most unlikely. You will need to bring a record of an ‘unproductive’ conversation you have had, or fear having, and be prepared to work with others around it and other examples. You will end the session with the ability to surface more productive conversations even when it is difficult.
Trainer
These courses are delivered by Benjamin P Taylor, an expert in systems, cybernetics, and complexity in service transformation.
Pricing Info
£250 +VAT
To enquire please go on this link: https://www.systemspractice.org/courses/ise-stakeholder-engagement-productive-conversations-05d
ILG Large Group Interventions (1.0d)
In a classic 2005 article, ‘Techniques to Match our Values’, Weisbord set out the ‘learning curve’, with a movement from ‘experts solve problems’ to ‘’everybody’ solves problems’ to ‘experts improve whole systems’ to ‘’everybody’ improves whole systems’. Inherent in the development of systems practice from the start has been recognition of ‘the whole’, which comes in various forms from group dynamics to organisational viability.
This programme will give an overview of intervention approaches which ‘bring whole systems into the room’ rather than have a few experts work on individual issues. We will look at some of the history and the wide range of interventions that have been developed, and provide an overview of some of the most interesting.
We will compare and contrast these approaches and provide ‘ways in’ to consider when, and which, large group intervention might be an appropriate part of a systems practice intervention.
Trainer
These courses are delivered by Benjamin P Taylor, an expert in systems, cybernetics, and complexity in service transformation.
Pricing Info
£500 +VAT
To enquire please go on this link: https://www.systemspractice.org/courses/ilg-large-group-interventions-10d
ICS3 Workshop Design (0.5d)
This module provides learners with an understanding of the design of workshops and relevant considerations, taking into account the potentially very different contexts and definitions of what a ‘workshop’ is. It introduces a range of tools and approaches for workshop design, building on the facilitation module. It gives tools to consider evaluation and learning about workshop design, and compares various approaches, enabling learners to better select and apply appropriate workshop design approaches to their context.
A workshop can be distinguished from a meeting (though the boundaries may be blurry at times), by some of the following indicators:
- intensive discussion and activity, designed to progress thinking and planning
- intentionally designed activities (rather than simply an agenda), or flow
- an impact focus, usually above and beyond just a discussion or decision — some kind of output taking an intervention or initiative forward
An alternative use of the work, to workshop (something), refers to taking a product or idea into a period of intense focused experimentation and development, often bringing in fresh or different perspectives than the original developers of the product or idea. This is of course closely related, but implies some partly-developed ‘content’ as the workshop focus, as opposed to simply a product or idea. In either case, some input is expected to a workshop, whether process, content, or both.
The learning will cover:
- What a workshop is
- Where and when we might use a workshop
- A range of tools and approaches
- How to appropriately select an approach, and design a workshop to fit the requirements in context
- The importance of reflection and how to evaluate and build a learning loop
- Workshop design tools, core and conceptual
This is a very practical, hands-on course based on you creating an initial workshop design from your context, using sources offered, and sharing and discussing it in the session.
This course complements the course on Facilitation for systems practice interventions, though they can be done independently or in any order.
Trainer
These courses are delivered by Benjamin P Taylor, an expert in systems, cybernetics, and complexity in service transformation.
Pricing Info
£250 +VAT
To enquire please go on this link: https://www.systemspractice.org/courses/ics3-workshop-design-05d
ICS2 Facilitation Skills for Systems Practice Interventions (0.5d)
This course provides learners with an understanding of the facilitation relationship in the context of systems intervention itself, and of the challenges it brings. It introduces a range of tools and practices for facilitation and provides guidance on workshop planning. Finally, it compares various approaches to facilitation, enabling learners to develop a stronger sense of the kind of facilitator they want to be.
Topics covered include:
- The facilitraining rainbow — where do you stand?
- Divergence, emergence, convergence;
- Differentiation and integration method;
- Adaptive change;
- Facilitation for ‘robust systems’;
- Session planning and session flow;
- The perceptual positions;
- Ground rules for workshops and ways into partnership;
- Maintaining your authenticity;
- Peter Block’s ‘six conversations that matter’;
- Chris Corrigan’s ‘seven little helpers’;
- Hosting and guiding and/or customer services;
- Context cues;
- History and three futures;
- Power tools and making concrete — Naming The Thing.
Trainer
These courses are delivered by Benjamin P Taylor, an expert in systems, cybernetics, and complexity in service transformation.
Pricing Info
£250 +VAT
To enquire please go on this link: https://www.systemspractice.org/courses/ics2-facilitation-skills-systems-practice-interventions-05d
ICS1b Consulting for Systems Practice Interventions — (b) Core (0.5d)
This course provides learners with a deeper understanding of:
- Discovery and research into the client system;
- Power questions, layers of analysis, and objectifying ‘the system’;
- Research and action-based approaches;
- Third-party and whole systems approaches;
- Maintaining the balance of responsibility for deep engagement;
- Structuring analysis and feedback, developing commitment;
- Choosing dirty or clean consulting.
To maximise your chances of being effective in achieving positive change, you should combine a sound understanding of systems approaches with well-developed intervention skills.
This in turn requires a clear conception of the role of the systems practitioner as ‘consultant’, of their relationships with stakeholders, especially the ‘client’, and the nature of the practitioner’s influence on the organisations they seek to transform.
Drawing on Flawless Consulting, Barry Oshry’s Organic Systems Framework, and more, Consulting for Systems Practice Interventions emphasises a collaborative approach and equal responsibility between the intervention practitioner and the client, navigating a path between the twin traps of ‘consultant as boss’ and ‘consultant as servant’.
These courses are relevant to anyone — consultant or not! — who is engaging in organisational change.
Trainer
These courses are delivered by Benjamin P Taylor, an expert in systems, cybernetics, and complexity in service transformation.
Pricing Info
£250 +VAT
To enquire please go on this link: https://www.systemspractice.org/courses/ics1b-consulting-systems-practice-interventions-b-core-05d
ICS1a Consulting for Systems Practice Interventions — (a) Foundation (0.5d)
This course will provide learners with key principles and a structure for interventions. Topics covered include:
- The five phases of the consultative process;
- ‘Techniques are not enough’: relationships in consulting;
- Dealing with ‘the space of service’;
- Setting up a clear ‘contract’ for interventions — including triangular and rectangular contracting;
- Authenticity and setting your assumptions;
- The client behind the client and the problem behind the problem;
To maximise your chances of being effective in achieving positive change, you should combine a sound understanding of systems approaches with well-developed intervention skills.
This in turn requires a clear conception of the role of the systems practitioner as ‘consultant’, of their relationships with stakeholders, especially the ‘client’, and the nature of the practitioner’s influence on the organisations they seek to transform.
Drawing on Flawless Consulting, Barry Oshry’s Organic Systems Framework, and more, Consulting for Systems Practice Interventions emphasises a collaborative approach and equal responsibility between the intervention practitioner and the client, navigating a path between the twin traps of ‘consultant as boss’ and ‘consultant as servant’.
These courses are relevant to anyone — consultant or not! — who is engaging in organisational change.
Trainer
These courses are delivered by Benjamin P Taylor, an expert in systems, cybernetics, and complexity in service transformation.
Pricing Info
£250 +VAT
To enquire please go on this link: https://www.systemspractice.org/courses/ics1a-consulting-systems-practice-interventions-foundation-05d
Link Collection:
My Weekly Blog post:
Jim Nicholls presented me with a challenging question regarding the transformation of public services, which I’ve ruminated on for over two decades. There are two primary approaches: first, meticulously analysing citizens’ needs and crafting an adaptive organisation around them, exemplified by my experience at Hammersmith & Fulham council. Second, embracing the Vanguard model, prioritising individual citizen engagement to pull in expertise, though hindered by organisational resistance. These approaches, though effective in their own right, possess blind spots. The third approach integrates both, recognising the value of mass production for large-scale needs while prioritising human-centered partnerships for tailored solutions. Achieving this necessitates a nuanced organisational structure and mindset, acknowledging diverse needs and methodologies. While the journey towards this holistic approach is ongoing, it holds immense potential for truly citizen-centered services. Further elucidation could delve into specific implementation strategies and challenges.
What would be the perfect ‘system’ for the public sector to adopt
[Claim to fame: I did first-year economics tutorials with Josh Ryan-Collins. At the time, we were both very frustrated by it and possibly very bad at it. He, unlike me, persisted… (while also rising to prominence in sociology)]
Authored by Lydia Marsden, Josh Ryan-Collins, Jesse Abrams and Timothy Lenton
UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP) policy report no. 2024/03
Authors:
- Lydia Marsden | Research Fellow in Sustainable Finance | UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose
- Josh-Ryan Collins | Associate Professor in Economics and Finance | UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose
- Jesse Abrams | Senior Research Impact Fellow | Global Systems Institute, University of Exeter
- Timothy Lenton | Chair in Climate Change and Earth System Science | Global Systems Institute, University of Exeter
Summary:
Stable natural ecosystems underpin all economic activity. Ecosystems provide the natural resources needed for production; regulate climate change and global rainfall patters; and provide resilience against natural disasters and the extremes brought on by global warming.
Pressures on nature from human activity — such as land use change and pollution, as well as climate change — are increasing the risk of terrestrial ‘ecosystem tipping points’ (ETPs): non-linear, self-amplifying and irreversible changes in ecosystem states that can occur rapidly and on a large scale.
Losing these critical ecosystems will severely impact the economy through reduced food and energy security; damages to assets such as real estate; croplands and infrastructure; and health risks that impair household productivity. The direct impacts of ETPs can reverberate globally and extend far beyond the regions where these ecosystems are located, not least through the amplifying effect that ETPs would have on climate change.
This means ETPs are highly relevant for central banks and financial supervisors’ understanding of how nature loss can affect the economy and financial system. The scale of environmental breakdown posed by ETPs necessitates a precautionary approach. This must focus on rapidly eliminating negative drivers to prevent thresholds being crossed ex ante, including exploring the role of the financial sector in facilitating these drivers (known as “double materiality”). Improved modelling can and should play a role, but the fundamental uncertainty associated with ETPs means these exercises are more suited for exploring risks rather than managing then.
Ultimately, this approach will need to be led by governments, and requires central banks and financial supervisors to coordinate with policymakers in ministries of finance, industry and environment to fulfil their primary mandates of price and financial stability.
This report can be referenced as follows: Marsden, L., Ryan-Collins, J., Abrams, J., and Lenton, T. (2024). Ecosystem tipping points: Understanding risks to the economy and financial system. UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose, Policy Report 2024/03.
Ecosystem tipping points: Understanding the risks to the economy and the financial systemAuthored by Lydia Marsden, Josh Ryan-Collins, Jesse Abrams and Timothy Lenton25 April 2024Download the reportUCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP) policy report no. 2024/03Authors: Lydia Marsden | Research Fellow in Sustainable Finance | UCL Institute for Innovation and Public PurposeJosh-Ryan Collins | Associate Professor in Economics and Finance | UCL Institute for Innovation and Public PurposeJesse Abrams | Senior Research Impact Fellow | Global Systems Institute, University of ExeterTimothy Lenton | Chair in Climate Change and Earth System Science | Global Systems Institute, University of ExeterSummary:Stable natural ecosystems underpin all economic activity. Ecosystems provide the natural resources needed for production; regulate climate change and global rainfall patters; and provide resilience against natural disasters and the extremes brought on by global warming. Pressures on nature from human activity — such as land use change and pollution, as well as climate change — are increasing the risk of terrestrial ‘ecosystem tipping points’ (ETPs): non-linear, self-amplifying and irreversible changes in ecosystem states that can occur rapidly and on a large scale. Losing these critical ecosystems will severely impact the economy through reduced food and energy security; damages to assets such as real estate; croplands and infrastructure; and health risks that impair household productivity. The direct impacts of ETPs can reverberate globally and extend far beyond the regions where these ecosystems are located, not least through the amplifying effect that ETPs would have on climate change. This means ETPs are highly relevant for central banks and financial supervisors’ understanding of how nature loss can affect the economy and financial system. The scale of environmental breakdown posed by ETPs necessitates a precautionary approach. This must focus on rapidly eliminating negative drivers to prevent thresholds being crossed ex ante, including exploring the role of the financial sector in facilitating these drivers (known as “double materiality”). Improved modelling can and should play a role, but the fundamental uncertainty associated with ETPs means these exercises are more suited for exploring risks rather than managing then. Ultimately, this approach will need to be led by governments, and requires central banks and financial supervisors to coordinate with policymakers in ministries of finance, industry and environment to fulfil their primary mandates of price and financial stability.Reference:This report can be referenced as follows:Marsden, L., Ryan-Collins, J., Abrams, J., and Lenton, T. (2024). Ecosystem tipping points: Understanding risks to the economy and financial system. UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose, Policy Report 2024/03. Available at:
Untangling Complexity — Peace Building Engineering — Navarra Forero (2023, book)
Systems Thinking & Complexity Management to Support Community Development
Overview
Authors:
- Camilo Andrés Navarro Forero
- Describes possible combinations of processes and methodologies to address the complex problems
- Focuses on the value of systemic thinking and complexity management for decision makers
- Demonstrates methods of addressing complexities in private, public and mixed companies and vulnerable
Part of the book series: Synthesis Lectures on Engineers, Technology, & Society (SLETS, volume 29)
IDEO University — Human-Centered Systems Thinking (paid course)
[There seems to be precious little systems thinking in this, judging from the syllabus — ‘mapping the system’, ‘the iceberg model’, stakeholder interviewing, some visioning… and the old canard of ‘complexity’ and ‘root causes’… I dunno]
A holistic approach to problem solving starts with people
DOWNLOAD SYLLABUS
Course Outcomes
- Gain techniques for mapping complex systems and identifying the root causes of a problem.
- Establish a shared view of the system and reframe problems from different perspectives to uncover new solutions.
- Find the right problems to solve and pick the best solutions to experiment with.
- Deepen your understanding of your organizational systems by taking an iterative approach to testing solutions and gaining insights.
Part of Certificate Programs
Course themes
Decision Making Collaboration Systems Thinking
About the Course:
People are at the heart of every complex human system–but they’re often the most overlooked. Effective problem solvers today know how to visualize the larger dynamics of the system while staying grounded in the needs of people. In this course, you’ll learn to combine the analytical tools of systems thinking with the creative mindsets of human-centered design to make sense of complex systems challenges. Explore mapping tools to identify the right places to focus, surface insights about your stakeholders, and pick the most impactful solutions to experiment with so you can go beyond the obvious and design lasting solutions.
Communications Biology volume 7, Article number: 378 (2024) Cite this article
- 24k Accesses
- 228 Altmetric
- Metricsdetails
Abstract:
A defining feature of biology is the use of a multiscale architecture, ranging from molecular networks to cells, tissues, organs, whole bodies, and swarms. Crucially however, biology is not only nested structurally, but also functionally: each level is able to solve problems in distinct problem spaces, such as physiological, morphological, and behavioral state space. Percolating adaptive functionality from one level of competent subunits to a higher functional level of organization requires collective dynamics: multiple components must work together to achieve specific outcomes. Here we overview a number of biological examples at different scales which highlight the ability of cellular material to make decisions that implement cooperation toward specific homeodynamic endpoints, and implement collective intelligence by solving problems at the cell, tissue, and whole-organism levels. We explore the hypothesis that collective intelligence is not only the province of groups of animals, and that an important symmetry exists between the behavioral science of swarms and the competencies of cells and other biological systems at different scales. We then briefly outline the implications of this approach, and the possible impact of tools from the field of diverse intelligence for regenerative medicine and synthetic bioengineering.
The Big Ambition for a Better World | Children’s Commissioner for England
Procurement: an ambition for impact? — We Are C.Co
New development: Relational public services — reform and research agenda https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10
Modes: What are they and how do I use them?
“Looks like the first month of not allowing dependents basically stopped any care workers coming (83% drop in health and care visas). Seriously worrying re the ability of care homes to function given we already have a recruitment crisis. https://twitter.com/Samfr/status/1785561697693929520"
Hailed as a hero and then sacked: the carer’s allowance whistleblower
King Prince Charles looked for heroes to honour — and picked William, Kate and Camilla. Laugh? Cry? You choose | Norman Baker
Rather wonderfully, in Serbo-Croat, Medium Density Fibreboard (or MDF) is known as ‘mediyapan’ — because the first supplies they got were stamped… ‘made in Japan’.
