This second in a series on Principles-Focused Evaluation (PFE) draws our attention to the concepts of systems and complexity and how can PFE help us navigate both. Systems (thinking), complexity, and principles all go together. Principles-focused Evaluation (PFE) brings them together in meaningful ways, but to understand that, we first need to understand what we …
Systems and Complexity: Implications for Evaluation Read More »
We can learn much about change from our trips to the beach and how things relate to one another. Beach-going is a summer pleasure than those of us fortunate to live close to the water can enjoy as an escape and, when it’s hot, sometimes a necessity. While it might odd at first, our lazy …
‘Unprecedented’ is a term that is changing how we understand complexity and foresight. One thing that often makes complex situations live up to their name is that there is so much going on at once in different directions, velocities, and timing; it’s hard to connect causes with consequences. We hear the term ‘unprecedented‘ being used …
Complexity introduces significant challenges for humans. One of the unexpected ones is that it’s been used to hide from difficult problems. Our understanding of complexity has come a long way, but like many things, a little knowledge can be a real problem. A few years back I was facilitating a public health event that was …
‘Achieving scale’ might be the golden goose of social innovation. It’s a simple phrase, but its meaning and misunderstanding is not. “How do we take this to scale?” This common and often well-meaning question has enormous problems with it for social innovation besides the grammar. Scale might be among the most widely misunderstood concepts in …
As cities and regions worldwide celebrate Pride the role of diversity, understanding and unity has been brought to mind just as it has contemplating the British public’s choice to leave the EU with Brexit. Both events offer lessons in dealing with complexity and why diversity isn’t about either/or, but more both and neither and …
What is quality when we speak of learning? In this third post in series on education and evaluation metrics the issue of quality is within graduate and professional education is explored with more questions than answers about the very nature of learning itself. But what does learning really mean and do we set the system up …
Jonah Lehrer is/was as big as it gets in science writing and two weeks ago proved the adage that the higher one climbs the farther the fall after admitting to some false content in his stories. This is bad news for him, but may be much worse for all of us interested in making science …
Jonah Lehrer and the Crisis of Knowledge Synthesis Read More »
Futurists take what we know now and project into the future ideas about things will be like years from today using the models that have worked consistently up to now. Those models applied to human systems are changing quickly making marketing the future based on them senseless and potentially dangerous. Earlier this past week a …
Complexity and the Senseless Marketing of the Future Read More »
Complexity, by its very nature, is not a simple concept to communicate, yet it is increasingly becoming one that will define our times and may be the key to ensuring human survival and wellbeing in the years to come. If society is to respond to complex challenges the meaning of complexity needs to be communicated …
