Authentic baloney and other sincere problems
What does it mean to be authentic in an age of design and complex social systems? It’s not as simple
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Systems thinking and the simple plan
Planning is something that is done all the time, but the shape in which these plans unfold is often
Read moreThinking systemically about systems thinking
Systems thinking is a class of theories, models and methods for understanding human and non-human interactions as seen as wholes
Read moreSystems and Design Thinking Go to the Ballpark
A recent trip to baseball’s legendary Fenway Park provided the ideal example of understanding systems and how they can create public health problems like obesity through structural means. Being aware of these systems, their boundaries, and their activities can help us better find the causes of individual activity by looking at what encourages behaviour not just what people do.
Read moreWet and Dry Design for Social Innovation
Create systems that are too bounded (dry) and we risk sucking the moisture from the human elements (the wet) that make real social innovation happen. Our challenge is finding the right balance between the controlled, stable environments that these new technologies afford and the self-organized, emergent and innovative environments needed to implement and scale our initiatives more effectively.
Read moreBoundaries: The Food Example
Identifying boundaries and setting them in moving forward with modeling and planning is a critical step in systems thinking practice so much so that it may be time to consider seeing boundaries as a core skill or competency for work in complex systems.
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