Books, Articles and Newsletters

The meeting is held in Dutch: SCIO-NL meeting in September 2020, in which we talked about the housing situation in the Netherlands. We explored ways in which we could use systemic models and reasoning to get a grip on some of the unwanted effects we see. We talked about causal loops, shared a VSM-like perspective regarding different recursive levels that play a role (from national government to...

This topic is aimed at taking stock of members’ experiences with using the VSM explicitly in combination with other methods. What went well? What did not? I will introduce the topic with a (very) short introduction of my own experiences (including causal loop diagrams, Deming and Cybernetic Big 5 Theory)

Global economy putting pressure to digitalise at day to day interactions and business (micro) level. Digitalisation will transform not only the way we make business, but the way people interact, live in our cities and communities, commute and travel, and consume. It is difficult to appreciate the depth and consequences of this transformation and, I think, ST could make a difference.

The Covid-19 crisis is a cataclysmic event and caught us all by surprise. It is considered a health and economic crisis, but at the same time and rarely discussed, it also reveals the weaknesses in the systemic processes in our society and organizations. The Viable System Model (VSM) by Stafford Beer allows us to structure the various weaknesses and to put them into a coherent framework. The VSM...

...The Hyperobjective Media and Agency in Co-creative Design Processes: The session by Marie Davidova will focus on Systemic Approach to Architectural Performance (SAAP) design field and hyperobjectivity of its prototypes. The field discusses the question of cities’ adaptation to climate change and biodiversity loss. Current environmental ecology research shows that species that have adapted to...

... - the high and low co-operate in the general system of unavoidable concatenation: People I talk to often seem a little wary of the term “systems thinking” – a bit abstract, perhaps, and far too intellectual. On other hand, anyone who can appreciate complex drama, from Shakespeare to modern TV shows like The Wire, is arguably already doing it, that is thinking, to some degree, systemically...

The presentation is in Dutch: SCIO-NL meeting in July 2020, in which Joost van der Leij explains the VSM in a simple way from a top-down perspective. He emphasizes the recursion levels from a management perspective, distinguishing between senior and junior management.

RRP: 35 € Paperback : 360 pages ISBN : 978-3658292461 Publisher : Springer Gabler; 1. Aufl. 2020 edition (10 Jun. 2020) Language: Deutsch Es ist ein offenes Geheimnis: Unsere Organisationen funktionieren mehr schlecht als recht. Darin liegt das Kernproblem und überraschenderweise zugleich die Lösung. Denn wir brauchen keine neuen Konzepte und Rahmenbedingungen, wir brauchen keine besseren...

A copy of the INCOSE UK SEASON Report 2020 that provides a baseline of the current situation with regard to the Systems Engineering profession in the UK. Please feel free to distribute this within your organisation where it can best be used.

RRP: £34.41 Paperback: ‎ 339 pp Publisher: ‎ Independently published ; ISBN 979-8649370226 This book offers a time-efficient approach for readers to acquire step-by-step knowledge in the formation and construction of dynamic models using Vensim. It addresses the challenge of working with minimal current and historical data by providing simulation models that accommodate such analyses. By...

RRP: £45 Paperback: ‎ 244 pp Publisher: ‎ Springer ISBN : ‎ 978-3030425517 This book provides senior managers, project- and program managers, team coaches and team leaders with thought and management tools for potentiating self-organization and creating collaborative intelligence in teams. Adapted and expanded from the 2018 Dynamic Collaboration: Strengthening Self-Organization and Collaborative...

RRP: £33.24 Paperback: 340 pages Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (25 Mar. 2020) ISBN: 1138493996 The Hidden Power of Systems Thinking: Governance in a Climate Emergency is a persuasive, lively book that shows how systems thinking can be harnessed to effect profound, complex change. In the age of the Anthropocene, the need for new ways of thinking and acting has become urgent. But patterns of...

RRP: £40 Paperback : 348 pages ISBN : 1447174747 Publisher : Springer; 2nd ed. 2020 Edition (20 Feb. 2020) Language: : English This biographical history of the field of systems thinking examines the work of thirty of its major thinkers. It discusses their key contributions to the subject, the way these were expressed in practice and the relationship between their lives and ideas.

RRP: £50 Paperback: 346 pages Publisher: Springer; 2nd ed. 2020 edition (19 Feb. 2020) ISBN: 1447174712 The five approaches outlined in this book offers the systems thinking practitioner a range of interchangeable tools for pro-actively making systemic improvements amidst complex situations of change and uncertainty. Practitioners from all professional domains are increasingly confronted with...

RRP: £37 Hardcover : 234 pages ISBN: 1138308242 Publisher : Routledge (6 Feb. 2020) Business transformation typically involves a wide range of visualisation techniques, from the templates and diagrams used by managers to make better strategic choices, to the experience maps used by designers to understand customer needs, the technical models used by architects to propose possible solutions, and...

The talk will look at the underlying concepts, design and practice of War Rooms as decision environments for dealing with complex and fast moving situations. Starting with Blackett’s invention of the War Room, through Beer’s Cybersyn to the work we are currently engaged on and its use with client in tackling complex strategic issues. We’ll talk through the difference current technology offers and...

The Viable System Model is one of the key capabilities that SCiO has focused on. It’s an implementation of cybernetics. “Viable system” suggests living system — and vibrant systems feel alive. Are they? Can organisations be organisms? And what difference would that make? This questions our questions and stimulates provocations. At a time when science is regenerating, does management need to as the...

In common with all living human systems, organisations need differences to develop and transform. And yet, in organisations, as in all living human systems, we often dismiss, attack or try to convert differences. Indeed, we are primed neurologically to do this – our Flight, Fight, Freeze responses. Agazarian’s systems-centered method of functional subgrouping offers a way to lower our reactivity...

RRP: £19.95 Paperback: 179 pages Publisher: SCiO (10 Jan. 2020) ISBN: 1708360085 “Reframing ITIL" provides a gentle introduction to the Viable System Model as a tool to managing and operating successfully within any organisation. It combines this with a refreshing review of ITIL processes - operating dynamically via feedback loops rather than as a set of activities being conducted in series with...

PROJECT Using conversation mapping to surface undiscussables PRACTITIONER Benjamin Taylor APPROX. DATE 2019–2021 SITUATION AND CONTEXT Organisations often struggle to talk about the real issues—especially where there are tensions or taboos. SYSTEM OF INTEREST The informal communication patterns within teams and organisations – case study was a large County Council. APPROACH TAKEN Applied tools...

PROJECT Organisation design for an island government PRACTITIONER Benjamin Taylor, RedQuadrant APPROX. DATE Various interventions, 2016–2020 SITUATION AND CONTEXT Guernsey’s government sought to its internal structures and governance, taking an approach that was more joined-up and more focused on a ‘commissioning’ approach Political and service leaders wanted a coherent, effective centre—but didn...

RRP: £40.75 Hardcover: 376 pages Publisher: Springer; 1st ed. 2020 edition (25 Nov. 2019) ISBN: 303025853X The design process for organizational structures sometimes resembles a random walk, especially when it is embedded in an arena of competing personal interests and power games. Many organizations still lack clear guidance and are therefore seeking a rigorous, nuanced, and impartial methodology...

This session will show how John Dewey's general theory of inquiry (1938) can be used to understand the inquiry system of Peter Checkland's Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) and will suggest some practical opportunities that might flow from this for systems thinking practitioners. It will also show how Dewey's theory of inquiry helps to clarify the essential difference between 'hard' and 'soft'...

In this highly interactive session, participants will get to experience the five behavioural axioms for a successful co-operative system. The method is that of heuristic learning as the exercise comprises 10 rounds of decision-making in small teams. The decisions made by any team affect every team and the levels of trust. The experience will illustrate the five axioms below are necessary: 1. Be...

The theory of Constructed Development (as per Stevens’ 2019 PhD thesis) is a measure of a person’s awareness of their constructed intentions in the moment; this measure is time and context-specific and determines how much of their thinking is at choice. This choice leads to a number of possible responses in the moment. The individual’s capacity to choose their response in the moment informs...

Training is an investment, much like introducing new technologies or processes, that organisations make in order to improve their performance. However, it is harder to evaluate the success of training than of 'hard' changes like technology or process. Since the 1970s the training profession has largely drawn on variants of the so-called 'Kirkpatrick framework' to evaluate training, even though...

Presentation during the SCiO DACH Camp in Aalen Germany about the application of System Thinking methods for the management of megaprojects with a special view on the pathological archetypes which were given in using the viable system model for the diagnosis of systems.

The Psychology of Education Review Volume 44 Number 3, Special Issue 44pp - In this paper, problems with the philosophy and research relating to various interpretations of ‘closing the gap’ are used to open up a discussion of, and illustrate, the process whereby a narrow interpretation of ‘science’ and neglect of systems thinking result in the generation of huge amounts of dangerous and misleading...

An introduction to the Patterns of Strategy approach

RRP: £58.22 Hardcover: 282 pages Publisher: Springer; 1st ed. 2019 edition (31 July 2019) ISBN: 3030164721 Organizations are complex social systems, and dysfunctionalities can settle in very quickly and almost unnoticed, costing valuable time and resources. In a highly volatile and complex world where mistakes are virtually unforgivable, the ability to rapidly and accurately diagnose...

PROJECT Turning round an investment company in trouble PRACTITIONER Kim Warren, Strategy Dynamics Ltd. APPROX DATE Summer 2019. SITUATION AND CONTEXT A large company providing pensions and other investment products to high-net-worth individuals had grown strongly during some years of good economic and stock market conditions. However, an economic downturn and collapse of global markets had seen...

Many organisations are preoccupied with Strategic Planning and the use of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) with a clear desire to ‘get to where they want to go’. On this journey, many fall foul of ‘The Tyranny of Meaningless Metrics’ (songs of the Sirens) Worst still, if they do reach the destination, they may discover where they wanted to get to wasn’t the destination actually required to grow...

Alan is a leadership performance coach, working with people handling the complexities of technology, people and business in our hyperconnected world. He was around when the first computers hit the workplace, and his consulting career began when ideas like systems thinking, complexity, change management and transformation started to appear. A few years ago, frustrated that most of the advice was...

Systems thinking is a large field with different approaches. These approaches share a common system theoretical basis, but the specific interpretation is always different. System thinkers often dare to overlook the fact that their developmental stage determines their interpretation. People evolve (as individuals) differently, but according to predictable patterns. In this evolution, one gradually...

Causal Loop Diagrams (CLDs) are a useful tool in the kitbag of any systems practiotioner. They are used to make our mental models explicit so they can be shared, challenged and understood. CLDs enable us to capture the parts, connections and feedback in a system. They can be used to build consensus, agree definitions, identify leverage points and explore consequences of potential interventions...

RRP: £65.64 Paperback: ‎ 549 pp: Publisher: ‎ Springer; 1st ed. 2019 edition; ISBN: 978-9811385322 This book discusses how systems thinking and approaches can aid management consultants in navigating the complexities of client advisory in current realities. It thereby brings to the forefront aspects of holism, flexibility and responsibility - the keys to success in today’s world. Management...

`Smart cities', urban development projects that design computational systems and sensory technology to monitor activity and regulate energy consumption and resource distribution, are a frontier for the prospective deployment of ICTs for sustainability. Often reduced to technological problems of optimization, these projects have implications far beyond narrow environmental and consumptive frames of...

RRP: £36.83 Hardcover: 258 pages Publisher: Springer; 1st ed. 2019 edition (3 Jun. 2019) ISBN: 3030120139 Today’s complexity, speed, and need for adaptation are putting organizations under stress. Understanding how organizations function and truly come alive has become a critical competency. And yet, organizations still seem to lack a solid understanding of what constitutes meaningful, viable, and...

PROJECT Place-based systems work with Save the Children PRACTITIONER Benjamin Taylor, RedQuadrant APPROX. DATE 2019 SITUATION AND CONTEXT Save the Children UK wanted to shift from direct service delivery to enabling local systems change in deprived communities. The challenge was how to work with complexity, rather than delivering simple programmes. SYSTEM OF INTEREST Local systems of support for...

Abstract: This note brings together a number of problems that are usually considered separately but which seem to have a common root in neglect of, or avoidance of, systems thinking. The note begins by reviewing a number of studies from which seriously misleading conclusions have been drawn because they uncritically adopted the perspective of reductionist science and failed to document outcomes to...

Three Horizons is a simple and intuitive tool for thinking about the future. It grew out of a wealth of experience in future thinking, notably in strategic scenario thinking. It is an easy to use but potent way of thinking about working towards the future in the present, including maintaining the best of the present system. It helps groups explore systemic patterns to identify which of the...

This talk examines System Thinking by exploring the following themes: 1. System Thinking is embedded within a philosophical framework which is totally different from that of so-called “standard thinking” found in what may be called the Newtonian sciences, such as classical physics, DNA/ molecular biology, the monogenic conception of disease in Biomedicine, and so on. 2. Modern science beginning in...

Claims are frequently made about changing THE system. Many talk about Whole System change. Then there is systematic change as well as systemic change. What do practitioners do when they engage, or claim that they engage, with these types of change? What are the elements of systemic praxis (theory informed practical action)? What are the implications for the use of methods and methodologies? And...

If your occupational health and safety policy states a commitment to providing a safe workplace, reporting accidents, continual improvement etc. have you considered this from a cybernetic viewpoint? Most organisations govern their safety management by trying to achieve Zero Harm through implementing corporate risk assessments, but accidents still happen, and management hunts down someone to blame...

RRP: £54.76 Hardcover: 728 pages Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell (22 Mar. 2019) ISBN: 1119118379 The world has become increasingly networked and unpredictable. Decision makers at all levels are required to manage the consequences of complexity every day. They must deal with problems that arise unexpectedly, generate uncertainty, are characterised by interconnectivity and spread across traditional...

SITUATION AND CONTEXT UKRI (UK Research and Innovation) were moving from 9 to 21 Industrial Challenges in their £9 billion Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF). Each challenge was a major programme involving multiple projects and in some cases hundreds of organisations. The problem was how to govern such a large and diverse set of initiatives whilst balancing the concerns of BEIS and HM...