Nothing new under the sun

Sitting on the beach in Tulum reading about systems I was pleased that both books began to describe similar patterns that can be found throughout all systems. A bit more depth would have been nice, but at least the authors aren't complete idiots. Capra, again failed to impress when talking about his own ideas. I did like his description of the pattern of life as being a network capable of self organisation, but I felt he could have gone into much more depth describing the details of the network pattern and how it can be seen in the diversity of systems that we see everyday. For example, what are the different aspects of life's network and how can we distinguish one part of the pattern from another when we look so closely that the system becomes almost unrecognizable in terms of where it sits relative to the whole?

He did do a good job of continuing to describe the evolution of systems thinking. I particularly enjoyed the description of the original experiment in the 1950's that led to the discovery of self-organisation. It reminded me a lot of the Wolfram Alpha project and their efforts to discover the ultimate systemic pattern that gave rise to life, the universe, and everything in it. Hearing the story of the experiment makes me think about what could lead to self-organisation. Given the right parameters, we can get a system that unfolds in complexity on towards infinity, i.e. the universe, but what are those parameters? How did they get set initially?

I also really enjoyed the description by Meadows about some of the systems "traps and opportunities" that she has identified. I found this chapter to be particularly helpful in understanding the role of systems thinking in a leadership position. Obviously implementing solutions to systems traps is more difficult the bigger the system is, such as a national government, or else we would see far fewer systemic problems and manny more solutions being implemented successfully. It seems that implementing solutions is much more an art than a science. Perhaps at some level of understanding, one could grasp the interconnections of a system as large as our national government and know exactly, with mathematic certainty, what is needed to achieve a desired impact, but that seems likely out of the realm of the human intellect to handle. Perhaps if decision makers can raise their individual level of consciousness they could potentially make decisions that bring about the best possible outcome, but that seems a long way off. Even finding the root cause of one problem is hard enough, let alone understanding how "fixing" it will effect avery other part of the system.

surprise surprise

I really enjoyed the chapter on why systems surprise us. In particular, I enjoyed the distinction between viewing things as a series of events as opposed to patterns of behavior. I was reminded about Issac Asimov's Foundation series. In the book a new science is developed that takes systems thinking to the ultimate level and allows masters to make accurate predictions many thousands of years into the future. Of course, just as Meadows suggests, it is the nonlinear factors that trip us up. However, linearity breaks down if you go deep enough into the fabric of space. Physics suggests that our universe may not be as linear as we generally perceive it to be. Imagine being able to think and act from the level at which linearity breaks down...

I feel that the reason systems surprise us is that few understand the location of a defined set of boundaries within the larger system. If you can understand the overarching principles that gave rise to our universe, then one is better able to properly place any given system on the map and will be less prone to unexpected surprises. The problem is not that we tend to focus on events, nor that we have difficulty anticipating nonlinear factors, but that we lack the understanding of the underlying structure of all systems and the agility to know when to use each specific tool in our systems thinking tool box. Clearly psychology has a place in the tool box. How else are we to understand bounded rationality?

extrapolating fundamental patterns

I was sitting outside last night looking up at the full moon thinking about patterns. As an undergrad at the Maharishi University, we trained ourselves to recognize natures most fundamental patterns and how they build into the complex systems we see around us everyday. The movement of the planets, the dance of bees, the process of digestion, the rise and fall of the tides, all of the observable univers emerges from the same source so it is no wonder that they share common patterns. One of my favorite patterns is that of rest and activity and their relationship to growth and progress. We can see this pattern in many things. In our own breath, in our sleep cycle, in the growth of plants, in the leeps of intuition that so often drive our society forward. The best part about the fundamental patterns of nature is that we, us humans, area an integral part of nature and as such have all the patterns within us. We have only to understand our own Self to gain deeper understanding of the world around us.

For example, let's take a quick look at how we can learn from our understanding and experience of our sleeping patterns to further our understanding of the business cycle. It is fair to say that rest is the basis of activity and not the other way around. Sleep is our way of recharging our batteries and without a good charge, it's hard for any activity to occur. It is the same in business (and just about everything under the sun). What is the "battery" of business that must be maintained, what is the energy that drives business? Cash is the obvious answer, and just as humans need to stay rested to maintain their levels of energy, so to do businesses need to maintain their cash flows to have enough "energy" to remain sustainable over time. Taking out a business loan is like staying up to late. We can do it, and it may even be necessary for a some reason, but after awhile it will catch up with us. We will eventually have to get more sleep, (pay back the loans), or we'll get sick, (get sued), and will have to stay in bed until we recuperate.

Discovering trends through systems thinking

I've always enjoyed reading history. Current events are also a strong interest of mine. It was great this weekend to learn a new tool for unpacking all the connections we see in everyday life and notice how trends emerge from these connections. The article about Haiti and the Dominican Republic was very interesting. I've always wondered at the stark differences between the two countries and it was great to get a deeper understanding of how the current state of affairs there came to be. I was also struck with the idea that because of the proximity and the unique differences between the histories of the two countries, particularly the way in which external influences caused the D.R government to fail initially and internal forces caused the Haitian government to fail, that the two lessons learned here can be of great benefit to the current governmental struggles going on in Iraq and Afganistan. I imagine that this has been obvious to whomever is in charge of policy in restructuring governments, but it is exciting to be able to apply systems thinking to things on such a large scale. I've become increasingly interested in strategic planning and am very interested to continue to explore how systems thinking can be used to discover trends and how it can be applied to strategic planning.

week one

I've always been most comfortable with big picture thinking. Noticing trends, perceiving challenges before they arise, understanding how a subtle shift can have a huge impact over time, these are some of the tools that I like to use both in my personal life and in a wrok situation. I have some experience with systems thinking, though we didn't call it systems thinking when we studied it. We called it the Science of Creative Intelligence. Already having a language in which I can speak about systems certainly has it's pros and cons. For example, reading The Web Of Life was very difficult for me. I found the authors wordplay to be overly philosophical and to me indicated a general lack of true understanding. When he said "physics has now lost its role as the science providing the most fundamental description of reality" it clashed with my experience that all fields of knowledge have the potential to present us with the most fundamental description of reality. Also, for someone claiming to be a leader in thinking, it bothers me that he would lean on someone else's definition of sustainability, "a sustainable society is one that satisfies its needs without diminishing the prospects of future generations," which to me is only a very partial definition as it completely fails to define what those "needs" might be. The author seemed to enjoy defining his use of words, in particular his use of holistic and ecological (which I found to be just plain backwards), and I'm disappointed that he didn't do so here. Defining "needs" is the crux of sustainability, and to just say that there are needs is lazy. I'm sure that there must be some nuggets of good information in this book, but I would likely stop reading at this point were it not required for the class.

The study of what we called the Science of Creative Intelligence at my undergraduate university helped us recognize common patterns that exist across all fields of knowledge and our own personal life experiences. I have not had much opportunity to explore how life's fundamental patterns can be applied to business, but I'm excited to do so in this class.