Join the discussion at LinkedIn: do you see stability, or change? https://www.linkedin.com/posts/antlerboy_theres-no-escape-from-the-fly-bottle-there-share-7508071308329496576-vgPl/ There’s no escape from the fly-bottle. There are only more or less useful fly-bottles (and knowing that is, of course, an escape). I offered ‘A more useful fly-bottle – systems | cybernetics | complexity in six diagrams’. It was ‘a’ view, in the spirit … Continue reading No escape, no prison – on other perspectives on systems | cybernetics | complexity
The consultant is in the system: a practice lab for helping without taking over – Benjamin P Taylor, Wednesday 30 September 2026, 12:15-13:45, online, free
The system is inside the practice: making relational, place-based public services ordinary – Benjamin P Taylor, Thursday 8 October 2026, 12:30-14:00, online, free
Transduction – leading transformation – Issue #238
Courses and events Commissioning and Innovation: playing on a bigger stage A practical three-day programme for commissioners working in complexity that helps commissioners, transformation leaders, and partners work more effectively across complex systems. It combines practical tools, public service examples, peer learning, facilitated exercises, and direct application to participants’ own challenges. Open for enquiries. https://link.redquadrant.com/CommissioningAndInnovation … Continue reading Transduction – leading transformation – Issue #238
Transduction – leading transformation – Issue #237
My weekly posts A critique of Taylor’s ‘A more useful fly-bottle – systems | cybernetics | complexity in six diagrams’ – (also Taylor, 2026) I’m testing my own systems thinking against its strongest criticisms. Shared understanding, better conversations and elegant frameworks are not enough if structures, power, resources and incentives remain unchanged. Difference and conflict need not … Continue reading Transduction – leading transformation – Issue #237
A critique of Taylor’s ‘A more useful fly-bottle – systems | cybernetics | complexity in six diagrams’ – (also Taylor, 2026)
Don’t rebuild Whitehall inside mayoral authorities; turn civil service secondments into a public service talent exchange
My new article in the Municipal Journal. https://www.themj.co.uk/one-way-only-won-t-work Full text: Don’t rebuild Whitehall inside mayoral authorities; turn civil service secondments into a public service talent exchange The government’s plan to send civil servants into mayoral authorities should become a reciprocal Public Service Talent Exchange. The secondments aren’t the mistake, though they got my back up – … Continue reading Don’t rebuild Whitehall inside mayoral authorities; turn civil service secondments into a public service talent exchange
A more useful fly-bottle – systems | cybernetics | complexity in six diagrams
Some time ago, I was challenged to do this with the 'six diagrams' constraint... For me, it's all about purposeful engagement with context. We need enough shared understanding to act purposefully with others, while remaining able to question how we understand the situation. A ‘team’, a ‘service’, or a ‘problem’ is already a way of … Continue reading A more useful fly-bottle – systems | cybernetics | complexity in six diagrams
Alpha version – systemic systems methods practice for systems practice
Transduction – leading transformation – Issue #236
My weekly posts The better I understand some systems models, the less inclined I am to explain them unprompted The more deeply I understand systems models, the less willing I am to inflict the technical machinery on everyone. Competence is not merely knowing the diagram; it is knowing what to notice, which questions to ask, … Continue reading Transduction – leading transformation – Issue #236
