SystemsResearchandBehavioralScienceSyst. Res.23, 845^847 (2006)Publishedonline inWiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com)DOI:10.1002/sres.767

& BookReview

Please use this section to share with readers yourideas of books that you consider valuable andinteresting to the international systems/manage-ment community. To achieve this, please supplyas much detail as possible about the book withyour review (title, author, editor, publisher,year, number of pages, price, ISBN etc.) to thefollowing address:

Dr. Zhichang ZhuBusiness SchoolUniversity of HullHull, HU6 7RX, U.K.Telephone: þ44-1482-463076Fax: þ44-1482-463484E-mail: z.zhu@hull.ac.uk

Co-Laboratories of Democracy: How PeopleHarness Their Collective Wisdom to Createthe Future. By Alexander N. Christakis andKenneth C. Bausch. Published by InformationAge Publishing, Boston, MA, 2006, ISBN:1-59311-482-6, $69.95 (hardback), 1-59311-481-8$34.95 (paperback).

Co-Laboratories of Democracy: How People HarnessTheir Collective Wisdom to Create the Future byChristakis and Bausch is a practitioner’s vedemecum that belongs between ‘The Fifth Disci-pline Fieldbook’ compiled by Senge, Roberts,Ross, Smith and Kleiner, and ‘The ChangeHandbook: Group Methods for Shaping theFuture’ edited by Holman and Devane. Insignificant ways, Christakis fills gaps that existin these landmark complementary works. Theprimer on ‘systems thinking’ offered by the Sengeteam is fully developed by Christakis, and themotivational and inquiry methods for largegroups discussed by Holman and Devane iscomplemented with an equally tangible metho-dology for large group collaborative design.

Christakis takes on a challenge which squarelyconfronts all group process scientists—the chal-lenge of discussing a process sufficiently to

inform and inspire systems scientists, anddiscussing group experiences sufficiently toequally inform and inspire social scientists andpractitioners. The challenge is equal to describ-ing the experience of riding a bicycle to theuninitiated. Few individuals combine the vision,talent and life experiences that Dr. Christakisbrings to this task. As a social activist from hisearly youth, a theoretical physicist trained inworld class institutions, an original founder ofthe Club of Rome, and a practitioner who for30 years has shaped not only a specific flavour ofcollaborative design but also the foundations ofthe field, Dr. Christakis remains firmly anchoredin what he has described as a ‘people science’.

‘Co-Laboratories of Democracy’ is a celebra-tion of group process that begins with anintimate reflection on the human condition andprogresses through a historical march foundedin Ancient Greece and ultimately leading to astructured design process (SDP) that has beenartfully provided in support of initiatives thathave ranged from the World Health Organiza-tion’s largest and most costly collaborativeinitiative to Native American tribal governance.It is to Dr. Christakis’ enduring credit that he hassystematically validated the scalability of hisSDP methodology. The case for establishing thepractical value of SDP could be made moretransparent if the author were to provide acomplete catalogue of all of the SDP interven-tions—along with a numerical score for ratingeffectiveness in the context of the complexity ofspecific design challenges. Such an omission isunderstandable, however, due to the necessity tokeep audit functions at arm’s length fromindividual practitioners themselves.

Prior efforts to communicate the practice andphilosophy of the SDP methodology (e.g. ‘AHandbook of Interactive Management’ authored byWarfield and Cardenas in 1994) offer a strongtheoretical foundation; however, critics of theseearly efforts have found the deep formality of the

Copyright # 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

process impenetrable. In his effort to make theprocess more assessable to the arena of practice,Christakis builds a practitioner bridge upon thisfoundation by offering specific application exam-ples along with the resulting work products. Toengage researchers, Dr. Christakis also providesover a hundred references to published workfrom other practitioners, including much of hisown published scientific works. The picture thatemerges is that SDP is the most scientificallydocumented collaborative design process, andthe inference created by the reported work is thatwhen practiced appropriately SDP is a powerfuland reliable methodology for addressing trulycomplex design challenges. While SDP, like all

large group process methodologies, ultimatelymust be experienced to be fully understood, ‘Co-Laboratories of Democracies’ makes a compel-ling case for finding opportunities to explore thisapproach.

Thomas Flanagan (Ph.D., MBA)Venture Development CenterCollege of ManagementUniversity of Massachusetts Boston100 Morrissey Boulevard, BostonMassachusetts 02125-3393, USAE-mail: Thomas.Flanagan@umb.edu

For a change we have a book that comes up witha practical ‘how to’ approach that has also beentested out over many years.

I have just returned from a lecture on criticalsystem thinking and practice in which I praisedthis book to students, saying that it is one of thebest and clearest summaries they are likely toread.

We discussed the laws of dialogue, a few ofwhich they are familiar with, but this book goesfurther than most and gives very clear explana-tions of each. The work explains the importanceof managing the twin challenges of democracy,namely the inability to think about more than afew variables at any one time and the inability tomanage the domination by the powerful.

The authors make a clear, reasoned andpassionate plea for a systemic approach todialogue that enables the people to concentrateon the content, whilst the process frees them toexpress their ideas, knowing that their wisdomwill be represented.

I invite more people to read this work andto explore the findings of related attempts(see Rescuing the Enlightenment from Itself,critical and systemic implications for democracy,vol. 1, Wisdom, Knowledge and Management,vol. 2, and Systemic Governance, vol. 3 forth-

coming, C. West Churchman Series, Kluwer,Springer) to develop the idea that those at thereceiving end of a decision should be party to thedecision making process (or very well repre-sented).

I agree with Aleco and Bausch (2006)that context, role, process and content are allimportant and that we cannot work on all atthe same time. The first steps of a negotiating roleare important for representation. I am fearful ofrepresentation that universalizes, given the poli-tics of balancing diversity and thewhiteness that isoften seen as ‘just the norm’ or a non-issue.

The approach is both encouraging and inspir-ing. Systemic approaches require considering:

* big and small picture;* logical relationships;* idealism;* empirical data;* dialectical relationships;* contextual considerations and consequences.

We need to enable better thinking throughtaking away some of the messiness in the processof seeing the correlations across variables. One ofthe ways is to encourage story telling and to usethese as a means to generate a sense of the

BOOKREVIEW Syst. Res.

Copyright � 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Syst. Res. 23, 845^847 (2006)

846 Book Review

interrelated issues as perceived by the storyteller.

Of course the challenge is to move from thestories of each person to shared understanding.This is where Ashby’s law—namely that thecomplexity of those who are at the receiving endof a decision should be represented by thecomplexity of the story tellers, or better still, thatthere need to be advocates on their behalf—advocates for the voiceless. Not because it isidealistically compassionate, but because prag-matically we are going to feel the effects of ouractions! The will to participate is the biggestchallenge which needs to be addressed throughimplementing pilot projects based on participa-tory democracy that enable people to understandthe implications of their decisions.

Paradoxically the machine mindset can beredressed by means of a computer programadapted to help us become better decisionmakers—to hold in mind multiple variablesand thus to be better decision makers, but onlyif there is the political will. This needs to befostered through enabling greater mindfulnessand this can be achieved with the aid ofcomputer simulations and software—anotherparadox. Indeed the nature of reality is systemic!

Dr Janet McIntyreFlinders Institute of Public Policy and ManagementSturt Road, Bedford Park, AdelaideRoom 321 Social Sciences SouthGPO Box 2100, Adelaide, South Australia 5001Janet.mcintyre@flinders.edu.au

Syst. Res. BOOK REVIEW

Copyright � 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Syst. Res. 23, 845^847 (2006)

On the Opening of Society 847