1940s SYSTEMS 1960s TIME 1980s LINE 2000

Mental Model; Kenneth CraikIf the organism carries a ‘small scale model’ of external reality and of its own possible actions within its head, it is able to try out various alternatives, conclude which is best of them, react to further situations before they arise, utilise the knowledge from past events in dealing with the present and the future, and in every way react in a much fuller, safer and competent manner to the emergencies which face it.The Nature of Explanations 1943

Feedback: Rosenblueth, Wiener, Bigelow “All purposeful behaviour may be

considered to require negative feed-back. If a goal is to be attained,

some signals from the goal are necessary at some time to direct

the behaviour.” 1943 Wide social science

audience

Open Systems

Servo-MechanismOperational Research

Cybernetics – the Science of control and communication in the animal and the machine

Norbert Weiner 1948

The special sort of machine known as a human being!

Law of Requisite Variety: Ashby “That the available control variety must be equal to or greater than the disturbance variety for control to be possible.Design for a Brain 1954

Homeostasis

Negative Feedback – Warren McCullloch cira 1950“Narrowly defined, negative feedback is the art of helmsmanshipto hold a course by swinging the rudder so as to offset any deviation from that course. For the helmsman must be so informed of the consequences of his previous acts that he corrects them…the intrinsic Governance of nervous activity, our reflexes and our appetites, exemplify this process. In all of them, as in the steering of a ship, what must return is not energy but information.”

Cybernetics: the Science of Effective Organisations: Stafford Beer 1959“Cybernetics studies the flow of information rounda system, and the way in which this information is used by the system as a means of controlling itself;It does this for animate and inanimate systems indifferently. For cybernetics is an inter-disciplinary science, owing as much to biology as to physics, as much to the study of the brain as to the study of computers, and owing also a great deal to the formal languages of science for providing tools for which the behaviour of all systems can be objectively described.”

General Systems (Ludwig von Bertelanffy 1952)

Emergent Properties Self-Organising Holistic Thinking

Ervin Laszio 1972Systems View of the World

Russell Ackoff 1974Redesigning the Future

Gregory Bateson 1972Steps to an Ecology of MindThe study of Form and Pattern

West Churchman 1971The design of Enquiring Systems

Shannon 1949Information Theory

Jay Forrester 1961Industrial Dynamics

Dennis Meadows 1972The Limits of Growth

Margaret Mead 1964Anthropology: A Human Science

Heinz von Foerster 1974Cybernetics of Cybernetics 2nd Order Cybernetics“Should one name one central concept, a first principle of cybernetics, it would be circularity”

Humberto Maturana &Francisco Varela 1980Autopoiesis & Cognition

Herbert Simon 1969Management Science James Gleick 1987

Chaos: making a new Science

Iiya Progogine 1984Order out of Chaos

Peter Senge 1990The Fifth Discipline

Peter Checkland 1981Systems Thinking, Systems Practice

Yaneer Bar-Yam 1997Dynamics of Complex Systems

Robert Axelrod 1999Harnessing Complexity

Doyne Farmer 1986Complex Adaptive Systems

Chaos

Soft Systems

Order

Complexity

Cybernetics VSMMeta-system

Recursion

Living Systems

Systems Engineering

System Dynamics

Autopoesis

Messes

George Richardson 1991Feedback Thought

Adaptive Systems

Chart constructed by Doug Haynes - SCiO Jan 2007Based on a chart by Bob Horn - MacroVU Analytics

Consultant ContextAssisting client with OD issues/problems

Personal/Role ContextContributing to effective

systems and performance

Cones of ResolutionSystems and Sub-systems

Rich Pictures Stakeholder Perspectives Ws Relevant Systems Conceptual Models Comparison Tables Systemically Desirable & Culturally Feasible

Finding Out Analysis / Learning Actions & Decisions

SSM

Terms of Reference Stakeholder Analysis Exploratory Modelling

VSM/ Influence Diagrams/Systems Dynamics Model Validation Recommendations Implementation Benefits Management

Regulation

OR/SystemsModelling

SCiO Jan. 2007