systems time line v2
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TRANSCRIPT
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