The cult of performance: what are we doing when we don’t know what we are doing?

Title from:
Burke, R. (2004) ‘The cult of performance: what are we doing when we don’t know what we are doing?’, foresight, vol. 6, no. 1 [Online]. DOI 10.1108/14636680410531534.

"Being aware, when we don’t know what we are doing, of what we are doing assists in bringing people involved to the reality that not knowing what we are doing really is the situation." (Burke, 2004, p. 53).

Systems: false and useless?

Systems thinking: a false and useless systems-organic analogy promoting the ideology of unification and organisation for the benefit of the elite? (Oakes, 2012, noting arguments by Hammond and Lillianfeld).

Oakes, J. A. (2012) Criticism of Systems [Online]. Available at https://oakesj.wordpress.com/2012/09/08/criticism-of-systems/ (Accessed 24 December 2016).

The jargon problem

"We have developed a vocabulary that equips our students with the ability to speak
with authority about subjects they do not understand. Little wonder they do not
become effective spokespersons to potential users."

(From Why Few Organizations Adopt Systems Thinking - Ackoff Center).

"Dance with the system"

"Before you disturb the system in any way, watch how it behaves. Learn its history. Ask people who’ve been around a long time to tell you what has happened....learn to dance with the system" (Meadows in Bowman et al., 2015, p. 17).

Bowman, K., Chettleborough, J., Jeans, H., Whitehead, J., Rowlands, J. (2015) Systems thinking: An introduction for Oxfam programme staff [Online], GB, Oxfam. Available at http://policy-practice.oxfam.org.uk/publications/systems-thinking-an-introduction-for-oxfam-programme-staff-579896 (Accessed 16 December 2016).

Reflection and recursion

"Suggest some differences between reflection as evaluation and reflection as
recursion."

(OU, 2010, SAQ 2.18, p. 97)

...

Tell a story part 2..

"what story or stories you might like to tell yourself and/or others about your systems practice as a
result of your systemic inquiries thus far in the module? ... What have you come to value – or not value?"

(OU, 2010, p. 96)

Purpose: P(Q)<-R

A system to do P (what) by Q (how) because of R (why) (Ison, 2010, p. 162)

Other views are possible?

Ison (2010, p. 114) notes, after referring to a story by Patricia Shaw around an unconventional approach to a tender meeting, that Shaw and colleagues have "rather publicly rejected systems approaches" but Ison argues "what they reject is their own misunderstanding..".

"..I will argue that this assumption of controllability is the
distinguishing feature of what I will call mainstream thinking about
innovation. In my view, mainstream thinking is basically systems
thinking. The purpose of this book is to argue for a very different
understanding of innovation.... Innovation will be presented as the
emergent continuity and transformation of patterns of human interaction."

Fonseca, J. (2004) Complexity and Emergence in Organizations [Sample] [Online]. Available at http://samples.sainsburysebooks.co.uk/9781134577125_sample_510246.pdf (Accessed 25 November 2016).

Social (and anti-social) technologies

Technology as Mediator of Our Being (Cf. Ison, 2010, pp. 107-112).

i) Technology is relational
ii) Understanding becomes embedded in technologies
iii) Our being is a product of these dynamics

For example; language, institutions, management, projects, etc.



We live within the "ball" of technologies (from Ison, 2010, p. 108).

Ison (2010) further refers to the work of Don Ihde.

Morphologics

(Re-purposed from "Gemma and Sonja", in OU, 2010, p. 84)

The other(wise) stakeholder

"Paradoxically a stakeholder can also assert influence by not participating.." (OU, 2010, p. 82, quoting SLIM, 2004).

Systems practitioner as juggler

	Being being ethical isophor embodied person living in language explanations social technology emotions technology as mediator institution tradition(s) of understanding
Engaging choices about situations bringing forth mess complex adaptive system resource dilemma difficulty reification experience neologism wicked problems, wicked situations tame problems systems diagramming		Contextual- ising aware systems practice systematic thinking tradition designing a systemic inquiry systemic thinking tradition exploring purpose metaphor analysis patterns of knowing method, methodology purposeful and purposive behaviour multi-methodology revealing and concealing metaphors
	Managing causal-loop models emergence perspectives on managing self-organisation transformation systems dynamics tradition emotions viable system model systemic awareness getting by, getting on top, creating space for hierarchy heterarchy responsible autonomy researchers ecological intelligence learning

(Ison, 2010, ch. 4)

System or situation, process or entity

A "situation" is where "something is at issue" in a system(s) [?] (Ison, 2010, p. 34).

We can "choose to see a situation as a system [systemically]" (Ison, 2010, p. 37).

We also choose where we draw borders, what types of systems we see, and criteria for success (Ref. Ison/Morris in Systems and Systemic thinking). It is a trap to assume agreement about 'the system' (Ison, 2010, p. 45).

See 'system' "as a particular way of thinking about a complex set of interactions in particular situations" (Ison, 2010, p. 45).

Similarly, don't confuse a system as entity, and a system as process (Ison, 2010, p. 45); "the process of formulating systems of interest as a form of practice (i.e. inquiry)" (Ison, 2010, p. 52). Systems practice is "epistemological" more than "ontological" (OU, 2010, p. 70).

Ison (2010, p. 47) recommends;

1. Start with the situation not the system.
2. We choose how to characterise situations as different "types of system".
3. Distinguishing a system in a situation is a particular way of knowing the situation.
4. Beware "reifying" this choice.

Management dyslexia

Management dyslexia; the ".. talent for putting together entities that are less than the sum of their parts.. inability to think in systems terms".

(Caulkin, S., 2007, in The Observer, reproduced in Ison, 2010, p. 23).

Systems and Systemic thinking

Ison (2010, p. 19) has "no intention of defining what systems thinking or practice is, or is not. ... definitions are constraining.. ". Rather, we "recognise" systems thinking" systems thinking and practice are a [social dynamic]..". This recognition may follow from a "claim" to be systemic (Ison, 2010, p. 20).

but ..
"Systemic thinking .. refers to the understanding of a phenomenon within the context of a larger whole... to put [things] into a context, to establish the nature of their relationships." (Ison, 2010, p. 22).

and ..

Quoting Morris (in Ison, 2010, p. 39); "Somewhere between the delightful simplicity of reductionist explanations and the possibily unreal requirements of unrestricted holism ... where the ideas of systems and of systems thinking are valuable."

Definition of a system; "A collection of entities that are seen by someone as interacting together to do something (... to cause change)" (Morris, in Ison, 2010, pp. 39-40), therefore including a "subjective" element (Ison, 2010, p. 44). This can manifest as choosing "diffeent types of systems"; conflicting "conceptions of a system of interest" and "criteria for success" (Ison, 2010, p. 44, referencing Morris).

Matrix: "a complex network of nested and intersecting circular relationships"
(Ison, 2010, p. 18) [refer also 'network'].

Other systems concepts (from Ison, 2010, pp. 21-22); boundary, communication, connectivity, difficulty, emergent properties, environment, feedback, hierarchy, measure of performance, mess, monitoring and control, networks, perspective, purpose, resources, system, system of interest, systemic thinking, systematic thinking, tradition, transformation, trap, worldview. Also; cycles, counterintuitive effects and unintended consequences (Ison, 2010, p. 30).

"Someone who pays particular attention to interconnections is said to be systemic" (Ison, 2010, p. 28) although "effective systems practice .. means being both systemic and systematic when appropriate (Ison, 2010, p. 28).

Systems practice is therefore a "relational dynamic", that "arises in social relations" (OU, 2010, p. 70). Refer also system as process vs system as entity.

“If you act with epistemological awareness, then you enhance the practice repertoire you have at your disposal for managing systemic change” (OU, 2010, p. 72).

Ison's systemic practitioner (as juggler) is an "ideal type" (Ison, 2010, pp. 53-54).

A discourse of hope

Purposive change wants a discourse of hope, an horizon vision to draw us
(Ison, 2010, pp. 324-5)

From being to doing

Being systemic is one step in systemic understanding, awareness and communicating. Doing Systems goes further, to "commit" to action in the world; juggling all the Systems balls [being, engaging, contextualising and managing].
(Ison, 2010, p. 317; OU, 2010, p. 166).

Systemic inqury

Figure: Activity model of a systemic inquiry system (from Ison, 2010, p. 248).


Figure: Systemic inquiry (OU, 2010, p. 93)

The emotion of systemic inquiry

"What is the dominant disposition, or emotion, that underpins a systemic inquiry process?"

A. "Respect for uncertainty"

(OU, 2010, p. 164)

Living in language

"Metaphors .. both reveal and conceal but because we live in language it is sometimes difficult to reflect on our metaphors-in-use..."
(Ison, 2010, p. 172).

but also

"Within all dominant discourses there is always resistance"
(Ison, 2010, p. 174, referencing Foucault).

Language is a "social technology" (OU, 2010, p. 165).

".. systems practice creates the possibilities for the emergence of authenticity"
(Ison, 2010, p. 312).