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About this newsletter
Since several people have recently joined this mailing list, I'll review how the newsletter works. The "global network of systems thinkers" is a community. Some time ago we attempted to name the group, but that didn't happen, perhaps for good reasons. The point of the newsletter, for now, is to keep a channel open among individual members. If you want to announce something to the community, please submit the material to me and I will pass it on. There is no schedule, though I hope to issue it more regularly.
But who are we? Most members of the community (but not all) have some prior relationship with Russell Ackoff or the style of systems thinking he is associated with. Depending on how you interpret that statement, the shared interests of the group are either broad or narrow. All I ask is that people stay on the list and see how it goes. If you are a systems thinker, things may come up that interest you.
Inaugural meeting of Ackoff Center for Advanced Systems Approaches
David Ing has written an excellent, comprehensive set of meeting minutes. It includes the names of speakers and details from Anand's slides. Those of you who did not attend can, with a little imagination, experience the meeting. David's notes are posted on this network's web site in the "files" section, at www.egroups.com/files/systems-all. [This URL works only if you have signed on at some point in the past. It is simple to sign on: go to egroups.com, enter the email address where you receive this letter, and figure out the rest. Once you sign on, a cookie will be placed on your machine that lets you enter via bookmark without signing on again. There is a help system. Please figure this out, since we would like to use more features of the egroups service.]
I have comments on two topics that generated some heat: community, and the relation of systems thinking to technology.
The final section in David's notes is titled "Questions". His single entry is this: "[David stopped taking notes, and started participating!]". David reinforced Russ Ackoff's recommendation that the Center be a community, meaning an organization whose purpose is that of its individual members. David suggested that we be guided by Etienne Wegner's work on 'communities of practice', especially Wegner's discussion of "legitimate peripheral participation". [See it on Amazon] Several others were eloquent in support, most notably Bill Smith and Geoff Hoare. Anand (A-CASA's director) registered the group's sentiment and noted that the Well and other net-centric communities are powerful examples worth emulating, but he also remarked that the Center, because of its university affiliation, may end up being more community-oriented than community-based.
Some of you may wonder why I consider technology a major theme. Wasn't that topic effectively squelched? Maybe so, but that's a problem, if only because the Center, which is associated with the systems engineering department at Penn, is going to deal with technology one way or another. We heard that unlearning is a big part of learning, and that change of the "I" is crucial. The painful combination of "I unlearn" may be needed.
Iraj Zandi challenged the group, and Russ in particular, to talk about something that would be interesting to engineers. One of his examples was implementation tools. Russ answered with the following hypothetical: If you need an emergency appendectomy, and you have a choice between an auto mechanic who has a full set of surgeon's tools, or a surgeon with just a pen knife, which one would you choose to perform the operation? Russ's point is that a deficiency of tools can be overcome, whereas a deficiency of knowledge cannot. Systems thinking is focused on the knowledge deficiency.
Iraj, unsatisfied with this dismissal, asked systems thinkers to get off their high horse and, like engineers, learn how to do something with tools. After all, if there were a scalpel available to both a systems thinker and a surgeon, who would you ask to solve your appendix problem? Russ insisted on a reply. He said that he would indeed give the problem to the systems thinker, who would turn to the surgeon to perform the operation. Very clever! It is a self-imposed constraint to assume that the systems thinker, if asked, must himself perform the operation. The very definition of a systems thinker is one who exercises choice, uses available resources, and does the right thing.
Let's try again. What about modeling tools? Iraj said that simulations, such as Holland's genetic algorithm, are systemic and might interest everyone. There was no response in the meeting, but at dinner the night before I was reminded of the stock answer. Simulations, such as business games, do not aid systems learning because they lack the complexity of reality, and there is a right answer embedded in the program. Students simply match wits with the programmer and scenario writer, rather than learn about reality.
Meanwhile, three of our S3 colleagues are working at Strategic Management Group, making a success of simulation-based executive training. SMG is fully aware of the critique, yet they find a way around it. (Check Roger Schank's new book, Coloring Outside the Lines. Amazon He argues passionately for learning and against schools, and agrees that most simulations are anti-learning tools. Yet he gives criteria for good simulations, and he is building some.)
Since Iraj's questions were getting nowhere, he decided to take a bigger bite. He said that he had exposed himself to systems thinking for many years, and had learned a lot, but that when he works in his areas of competence in engineering, he finds that systems thinking offers no help and has had no influence. In other words, once we decide to build a bridge, systems thinking ends.Jamshid agreed that the systems thinker should know how to do something, but his answer was that systems methodology should be more specific and proven. Chris Argyris pointed out that Iraj and Jamshid were not connecting. Each was espousing openness without achieving it. Continuation of this same kind of discussion would not be productive, and untangling it would take a lot of effort.
I have no answer to Iraj's challenge, but I suspect that unlearing is required on both sides. We might investigate the issue within some natural laboratories. There are large technological projects, run by engineering project managers, who have social systems tasks forced on them by worried clients. The clients are worried because failures are frequent and often spectacular. Engineers will always claim that they did their job, yet relations among components and environments fall apart. Many engineers who fail will just try harder, but some reconsider and ask for help. At our previous conference, ERP software vendors ran a session and asked whether we could help them. Our response was something like this: we aren't sure what you are doing, but we might call on you after we redesign. Meanwhile, billions continue to be spent on long-term, engineer-staffed ERP projects that corporations think of as their redesign projects. The tasks that are most often mangled include: needs analysis, work process redesign, change management, user evaluation, risk management, issue management, project integration, and customer relationship management. That sounds like an opportunity for collaboration.
Many thanks to John Pourdehnad for bringing the Center so far so fast.
Özbekhan meeting
Oguz Babüroglu, along with Aleco Christakis and Ali Geranmayeh, plan to hold a symposium to honor Hasan Özbekhan. They would like to hold the meeting at Sabanci University in Istanbul, in late Spring 2001. Please support this if you can. Contact Oguz at baburoglu@....
Connections
Steve Freeman, who attended S3 in 1985-6, is a visiting professor at Wharton. He would like to connect with network members in Philadephia. Contact him at sf@....
Geoff Hoare writes: "Chris Cornforth was in the S-cubed program in the late '70s. While he ultimately decided to complete a degree elsewhere and then teach at the Open University, he was one of the clearer thinkers I met in the program. I searched him out at the Open University web site having seen his web page, complete with picture, some years ago. His address is, c.j.cornforth@.... Syncronistically to the A-CASA discussion about community, he has continued an interest many of us had in S-cubed in co-ops, which can be though of as a economic structure that tries to support the relationships within a community."
Readings
Check out a book written by one of our close associates, which uses some of Bill Smith's work: Rafael Ramirez, Prime Movers: Define Your Business or Have Someone Define it Against You See Amazon
The Strategy & Business journal often has interesting articles. Here is one that says we might profit from another look at futurist literature: http://www.strategy-business.com/books/00310/page1.html There is also an article by Art Kleiner in the 3rdQ00 issue about "Revisiting Engineering," but the free link is broken. Darn!
Chris Cornforth forwarded information on a new book that looks interesting: Gerald Midgley, Systemic Intervention: Philosophy, Methodology and Practice Amazon
Midgley is Director, Centre for Systems Studies, Business School, University of Hull, Hull, England. He sent the following notes on his program: "Our staff conduct research into the methodology and practice of systemic intervention (holistic planning, evaluation, problem-solving and action research). We are particularly interested in issues surrounding sustainable community development; making value and boundary judgements in decision making; handling diverse stakeholder viewpoints; social inclusion/exclusion; power relations; and methodological pluralism. We apply our ideas in a wide variety of community interventions. We also have a vibrant Ph.D. student community (currently more than 20 students in the systems area), and run a Masters degree in Management Systems. We publish a newsletter called SYSTEMS PROSPECTS which is mailed out free of charge. If you would like to be put on the mailing list for this, just send your name and postal address to our Secretary, Robert Clarke, at r.clarke@... . If you want to find out more about the Centre for Systems Studies before deciding whether or not to go on our mailing list, you can visit our web site. It is still in a relatively early stage of construction, but should give you more of an indication of what we do than this short e-mail. The latest issue of SYSTEMS PROSPECTS is on our web site too. Go to:http://www.hull.ac.uk/hubs/css/.
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