Transduction — leading transformation — Issue #62

Benjamin P. Taylor
9 min readSep 25, 2022

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So, it looks like I’m switching to fortnightly :-)

Last week I flew in to London Luton airport, late (the stewardess said, to another passenger ‘oh, 90 minutes is nothing these days’), and missed my ‘wizz bus’ and they didn’t sell tickets on the National Express bus but at the machines inside, and two out of three were broken. The only working one was being used by someone who said he was a refugee from Syria, who already had a train ticket and was at the wrong machine. I tried to help him (and think I did).

I still can’t shake that all the way through the arrivals hall, there were signed and even a stand welcoming refugees from Ukraine, in English and both their languages — as there should be. But I never saw anything like this for people from Syria, Iraq, or even from Yugoslavia. It really bothers me.

It has helped my mental health to be outside the UK regularly recently, and I found the first twitter thread linked below particularly useful. I keep repeating a think I heard in a tweet in 2020 — ‘this is the year the US finds out what it’s like to be invaded by the Americans, the the UK finds out what it’s like to be colonised by the English’.

What hurts is the destruction, the loss, of hard-won progress. I wrote about this in https://www.linkedin.com/posts/antlerboy_why-do-they-say-my-country-doesnt-exist-activity-6800678055540092928-Kzsr. But there is always a next step, always something to ‘build back better’. On Twitter this week, someone said ‘the UK is like one of those football clubs being trashed by their owners. Does this end with the fans having to buy the club back and start again in the Conference League?’ They didn’t mean it positively, but that did make me a bit more cheerful.

Images this week are mostly from Midjourney — a fascinating thing.

James Plunkett on Twittertwitter.com

Oof, the doom-scroll is especially doomy today. Three thoughts on staying positive. 🧵

sandy denny — who knows where the time goeswww.youtube.com
In memory of a beautiful woman singing a beautiful song. Unbelievably it has been over thirty years, I don’t know where the time goes, do you?This is an extr…

“It’s a merger, not a takeover”chosen-path.org
How many times have you heard this? What was it that showed you that this was absolutely, definitely, not true? Join the discussion at https://www.linkedin.com/posts/antlerboy_its-a-merger-not-a-takeover-activity-6978252491230466048-RmH5 “It’s a merger, not a takeover” How many times has the combination of terrible symbolism and justified cynicism undermine two organisations or groups trying to come together? I’ve been through it … Continue reading “It’s a merger, not a takeover” →

Who are you at work?chosen-path.org
I would like to declare today Bring Yourself to Work Day. It’s actually not a significant holiday or holy day or anything anywhere in the world that I can find! It is the beginning of the Orthodox Church Year, and around the ‘start of term’ in many places, so it feels appropriate 🙂 What do I … Continue reading Who are you at work? →

Eligibility criteria — what if we just turned them off? Changing Futures, Northumbria

www.publicservicetransformation.org

Eligibility criteria are one of the most damaging features of the current design of public services, argue ‘Changing Futures Northumbria’ . Eligibility criteria create more demand, introduce waste/non-value work and stymie creativity. Read more here.

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Novi Milenkovic — Organizations and Subjectivism Pt. 1 | LinkedInstream.syscoi.com
Organizations and Subjectivism Pt. 1Published on September 14, 2022https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabula_RogerianaNovi MilenkovicNavigating Complexity5 articles FollowingPrefaceOrganization is a human way of dealing with the complexity of the world(1). When I say organization, I don’t mean strictly an enterprise, but any kind of formal or informal organization that brings people together under shared purpose or a promise of an […]

Citizen future: Why we need a new story of self and society. BBC Future.www.publicservicetransformation.org

Are you a ‘subject’, a ‘consumer’… or a ‘citizen’? The authors Jon Alexander and Ariane Conrad argue that our societies need a new narrative, and it starts by ditching the stories sold by authoritarianism and consumerism. Read more at BBC Future.

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Social impact bonds: what have we learned from a 10-year experiment? Pioneers Post.

www.publicservicetransformation.org

Too complex and prone to manipulation? Or a brilliant way to tackle thorny social issues? A decade on from the very first social impact bond, opinions remain deeply divided. The UK’s Government Outcomes Lab has spent six years studying the evidence. Read more here.

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11 November, iNetwork Annual Conference 2022: People, Place & Partnerships

www.publicservicetransformation.org

Manchester, 11 November, 2022 This well-established conference is the best opportunity in the North of England this year to learn, and be inspired by, ground-breaking projects which deliver value for the people and communities we serve. RedQuadrant has been supporting iNetwork’s highly innovative SAVVI project since June this year with Andrew Humphreys, one of our […]

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Upcoming events from Better Waywww.publicservicetransformation.org

The Better Way network is continuing to grow at pace and has recently reached 1,000 members. Below you’ll find an invitation to Better way’s autumn programme of online events, including their Annual Gathering on December 1st. Fortnightly drop in events, every second Wednesday on zoom, 9–10am. Next on, 21st September. Thursday 22nd Sept, 3.00–4.30pm, online. […]

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10 Step Introduction to Commissioning — new dates announced for Police and OPCCs (Offices of Police and Crime Commissioners).

www.publicservicetransformation.org

We will be running a new cohort of our Commissioning: A 10 Step Introduction programme. It will be offered in partnership with APAC2E (Association of Policing and Crime Chief Executives). The course will be offered in October. To book your place, please contact Sarah.Johnston@publicservicetransformation.org, or +44 7701 049 836 To find out more, see the flyer below.

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REVIEW: After Philosophy — Currentcurrentpub.com
Alasdair MacIntyre exposed the failings of the liberal tradition. Do we dare remember?

“White Psychodrama” and the culture wars: A self-reinforcing cycle, going nowhere | Salon.comwww.salon.com
Philosopher Liam Kofi Bright’s startling new take on the culture wars: A pointless struggle between white people

Three things I learned about fixing Whitehallapolitical.co
Improving policymakers’ policymaking

BREAKING: Off-payroll IR35 Reforms to be repealed from April 2023www.contractorcalculator.co.uk
The Chancellor has today committed to repealing the Off-payroll legislation, which were supposed to reform IR35, but instead held businesses back.

Releasing Change — by Dr Andy Bass — Changechangers.substack.com
Note from the Editor This week Dr Andy Bass, who has been with Interchange Research since 2011, contrasts popular views about how to make change happen with our notion of releasing change, and introduces seven of the cybernetic principles behind this notion in a nuanced way that makes these concepts accessible to those who are unfamiliar.

UK Risks Its Place On Anti-Corruption Body — Spend Networkspendnetwork.com
The UK has been placed ‘under review’ by the 77-country-strong Open Government Partnership (OGP) due to its failure to meet mandatory criteria for the two previous National Action Plans. These plans set out how the government will progress transparency and accountability initiatives.

Townes Van Zandt — Pancho & Lefty Lyrics | SongMeaningssongmeanings.com
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!

On doing “being ordinary” — Sacks (2010) (Chapter 16) — Structures of Social Action, Ed Maxwell Atkinsonstream.syscoi.com
16 — On doing “being ordinary”Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 May 2010ByHarvey SacksEdited byJ. Maxwell Atkinson On doing “being ordinary” (Chapter 16) — Structures of Social Action pdf

The thermodynamics of life taking shapestream.syscoi.com
The thermodynamics of life taking shapeby Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo (UTokyo-IIS) The thermodynamics of life taking shape

#NewMacy Studios @RSD11 · #NewMacystream.syscoi.com
#NewMacy Studios @RSD11 #NewMacy Studios @RSD11 · #NewMacy #NewMacy Studios @RSD11 by NewMacy 22/8/2022 Co-Leads Pille Bunnell, Carlos Castellanos, Damian Chapman, Kate Doyle, Xiao Zoe Fang, Mikal Giancola, Michael Lieber, TJ McLeish, Paul Pangaro, Eve Pinsker, Eryk Salvaggio, Larry Richards, Fred Steier, Mark Sullivan, Claudia Westermann Abstract #NewMacy emerged in March 2020 as the pandemic of […]

The Great ‘Reset’?stream.syscoi.com
Thorbjørn Mann: The ‘Great Reseat’? (A slightly revised version of an earlier FB post.) Another new, evil bugaboo if not just one more disguise or reincarnation of ‘socialist’, ‘neoliberalist’, but essentially authoritarian tyranny schemes? I happened lo listen to a lecture urging resistance against the WEF-driven ‘Great Reset’ that is using humanitarian crises like the Covid-pandemic […]

What we talk about when we talk about context | Dourish (2003)stream.syscoi.com
[I urge you to get beyond the abstract, it is worth it!] What we talk about when we talk about context What we talk about when we talk about context | SpringerLink What we talk about when we talk about context Personal and Ubiquitous Computing volume 8, pages19–30 (2004)Cite this article Abstract The emergence of ubiquitous computing as […]

Cybernetics Society Presidents Series 20 — Cybernetics and Tribal Dynamics — Omar Kharoti and James Bryant — YouTubestream.syscoi.com
Presidents Series 20 Cybernetics and Tribal Dynamics 15 Sept 20220 Omar Kharoti discusses Cybernetics and Tribal Dynamics followed by James Bryant introducing a conversation about Discovering Cybernetics (1) Presidents Series 20 Cybernetics and Tribal Dynamics — YouTube

How Claude Shannon’s Concept of Entropy Quantifies Information | Kevin Hartnett in Quanta Magazinestream.syscoi.com

dail.stoa.com — daily emails, systems thinking is one of the key topcis

stream.syscoi.com
Ashby’s Law of Requisite Variety Ashby’s Law of Requisite Variety https://daily.stoa.com/category/systems-thinking

The Complexity Lounge — NY Meetup group and videosstream.syscoi.com
The Complexity Lounge New York, NY, USA The study of complexity helps us to be open to new perspectives, consider non-linear non-causal relationships, and encourages an experimental mindset. We created the NYC Complexity Lounge to discuss Complexity Science, Complex Adaptive Systems, Organizational Change, and Agile / Adaptive approaches to work and everyday life. We share […]

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