Coevolving Innovations | Systems Thinking and Futures Studies (Systems Thinking Ontario, 2013-02-21) The pre-reading of Emery (1967), “The Next Thirty Years: Concepts, Methods and Anticipations” was introduced as a challenging article for the second meeting of Systems Thinking Ontario on Feb. 21, 2013. The theme for the evening was “Systems Thinking and Future Studies”, so there was some irony in looking backwards to 1967 to have a discussion on looking forward. In my role as reviewer in Systems Thinking Ontario sessions, I would prefer to try to stick to the text rather than adding editorializing. However, since this Emery (1967) article is particular rich, I tried to provide some additional context to make the reading easier. Fred Emery is especially known for his work with the Tavistock Institute for Human Relations, as one of the pioneers of the field we know today as organization science, including organization development and organization design. In I. Essentially, the challenge is that human beings can shape their futures, and not just be passive participants in the changes. 1.
"Situational Futuring" and 44 Mind-Stretching Scenarios to Learn How to Use It Last week I got into a discussion with a friend about the concept of self-contained water. If you think in terms of picking up a bottle of water, only without the bottle, you get the picture. Rocks are self-contained, baseballs are self-contained, so why can’t we devise some way to make water self-contained? As an example, if water itself could be used to form a somewhat hardened skin around a small quantity of water, we could create 100% consumable water with zero waste. An industrial design team in London has come the closest with something called “Ooho,” a blob-like water container made out of an edible algae membrane. As we imagine our way through this design problem, many more questions come to light. Even a container made of water will get dirty, so how do we clean the dirt from the side of a solid water container? More importantly, what is the optimal size for a self-contained water container? Maybe we don’t actually eat or drink the container. Situational Futuring 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
Form, Patterns, Emptiness and Stuckness This post first appeared on my companion site Transformational Tools for Body Energy and Mind This one isn’t a pot-boiler. However it’s utterly profound and utterly a meta-pattern about life and next to every tool in TTEM. We live in a world of form – ie persistent patterns. However excess form is rigidity, stuckness. About twenty years ago I was interested in the work of the Santa Fe institute on complexity. this great idea of life existing at the edge of chaos (mine often feels that way (ha ha)). The criterion of whether you age or whether you grow is whether you become more fixed or more flowing. Your body will inevitably get more rigid – but even then that can be hugely minimised. Before we get too excited, enamoured of charts and commit the errors of derivative pricing (taking nice simple mathematical models and equating them to reality) we need to back up a bit. To take an example TTEM was stuck for many years by outdated website software. Anyway what does this all mean to you?