| This week Dark patterns Untidy farming Upcoming meetup Looking out for liars Levelling up and the climate crisis (not) Help us support adult social care commissioners Experience your relationship with systems and power Why public service transformation conversations are getting old Your brain does not process information and it is not a computer Context recognition, First Nations thinking in systems, and the Frame Problem The person whose understanding of the disease matters most is really the patient Why government commitments to ‘scrap red tape’ are pretty much meaningless When second-order cybernetics sheds light on societal impacts of Big Data The Future of Work is Not Corporate — It’s DAOs and Crypto Networks What can impact investment contribute to race equity? Cinderella services and their rotating Ministers Was Design Thinking Designed To Not Work? Populism, incompetence, and PAC reports Systemic race issues in Whitehall Is the UK already in food crisis? Sexist kid’s clothes Ancient trees Is Teams polluting Zoom? The power of the magic circle The ancient roots of Paisley Pattern Why the Queen should be more careful with her pictures Long-term directionality in origination of human mutation How to get sent to prison for tweeting The mess of UK company registration The Other Face of Sincere Irony Famous people I have (not) met Why the Tiger is Orange A prophecy fulfilled Potato milk And a humpback whale playing with a dolphin Also, whales have memes! |
| Top phive of the week |
| Pathological liars: they’re out there, and we keep giving them powerHave you ever been taken for a mug? Lied to, manipulated? We hired someone into an important #management position, with financial responsibilities. They aced all the #jobinterviews. Had great references, an engaging style. Perhaps a bit too ‘matey’, something off. But they were from a visible, minoritised group, and shared a lot about their upbringing … Continue reading Pathological liars: they’re out there, and we keep giving them power →chosen-path.org |
| Your help needed – Supporting Adult Social Care Commissioners – Strategic Commissioning Options AppraisalCan you add insight to help #adultsocialcare #commissioning? Continue reading Your help needed – Supporting Adult Social Care Commissioners – Strategic Commissioning Options Appraisal →chosen-path.org |
| Five worlds practices for systems transformation | MeetupWed, Feb 23, 6:30 PM CEST: We’re kicking off 2022 with a great topic, systems transformation, and even more amazing presenter, Benjamin P Taylor. Benjamin will introduce his ‘five worlds’ model for systems transformation, and explain the theory behind it and the practical impact of working with it.How might this perspective impact your organisation and your work?www.meetup.com |
| Benjamin P. Taylor on LinkedIn: #power #systems #BarryOshryBrilliant stuff from John in sharing and building on great, deep insights from Barry Oshry. And something to celebrate that Barry is now 90, something like 60 years into his career of deep theoretical insights into the human condition – and, while latterly retired from ‘work’ – he still popped up to present at The Stoa recently!John is running one of the brilliant simulations that give you the real lived experience of this on 31 March & 7 April – book here: https://bit.ly/3AmhkGrwww.linkedin.com |
| public | service | transformation |
| The Public Service Transformation Academy – about us and our offersThe Public Service Transformation Academy is a not-for-profit social enterprise, led by RedQuadrant with partners including NCVO, Browne Jacobson LLP, E3M, TSIP, nesta, Basis and members of the Public Service Transformation Network. Our mission is to drive better outcomes for people and communities by developing the local, civil, social and health sectors’ capabilities, […]The post The Public Service Transformation Academy – about us and our offers appeared first on PSTA.www.publicservicetransformation.org |
| helengou on Twitter: “OK, it’s crude. But Ctrl F across 332 pages reveals a lot.… “Levelling Up:OK, it’s crude. But Ctrl F across 332 pages reveals a lot.twitter.com |
| Benjamin P. Taylor on Twitter: “Why community budgets must fail — and why they might succeed. https://t.co/x8yLIFOzSJ”A blast from the past…twitter.com |
| Social Work 2020-21 under Covid-19 MagazineThe SW2020-21 Covid-19 Magazine was a free online publication about social care released during the first UK lockdown in 2020. Five editions were published between the 9 April and 14 July 2020. There was also a special edition issue, linked to the calling of a Review of the English children’s social care system, published on 28 April 2021. All six issues are available here.sites.google.com |
| Michael Cearns on Twitter: “I’ve started writing clinic letters directly to my patients, and copying the GP in. You’d be amazed at the positive response I’ve had from this.”The person whose understanding of the disease matters most is really the patient.So why do we write clinic letters to the GP?I’ve started writing clinic letters directly to my patients, and copying the GP in.You’d be amazed at the positive response I’ve had from this.twitter.com |
| Benjamin P. Taylor on Twitter: “I’d like to see more just on ‘how’ “In recent days I’ve joined and quietly left great sessions on public service leadership and local government/devolution/levelling up.It might be just me being jaded.. but don’t we know what needs to change – and the barriers?twitter.com |
| systems | complexity | cybernetics |
| Benjamin P. Taylor on Twitter: “a collection of First Nations people sharing their ‘thinking in systems’ and thought others might be interested.”seanna davidson on Twitter: “just started a collection of First Nations people sharing their ‘thinking in systems’ and thought others might be interested. https://bit.ly/3ujBn7itwitter.com |
| 3D Abductive Thinking / Grounding 2D Meta-Fluff on Twitter: “This is amazing – context recognition and context sensitive behaviour in a mammalian brain. https://t.co/bSx0bPojhm”This is amazing – context recognition and context sensitive behaviour in a mammalian brain.twitter.com |
| The Frame Problem (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy) | Systems Community of InquiryThe Frame Problem First published Mon Feb 23, 2004; substantive revision Mon Feb 8, 2016 To most AI researchers, the frame problem is the challenge of representing the effects of action in logic without having to represent explicitly a large number of intuitively obvious non-effects.stream.syscoi.com |
| Systems Thinking Ontario – 2022-02-21 Schizophrenia, Alcoholism, Double Binds: From Practice to System Theory | Systems Community of InquirySystems Thinking Ontario – 2022-02-21 022-02-21 February 21 (the third Monday of the month, dodging Valentine’s Day, to run into Family Day!) is the 97th meeting for Systems Thinking Ontario. The registration is at https://double-binds.eventbrite.ca . Schizophrenia, Alcoholism, Double Binds: From Practice to System Theory Is there a pattern where you see a system is…stream.syscoi.com |
| Benjamin P. Taylor on Twitter: “Fruits of a ‘systems thinking’ google alert: Experts: Congress must treat poor nutrition, climate change, and biodiversity loss as interconnected | Successful Farming https://t.co/uThyUkeyAC David Byrne, the Artist, Is Totally Connected – New York Times https://t.co/DsiUzD7aVf”Fruits of a ‘systems thinking’ google alert: Experts: Congress must treat poor nutrition, climate change, and biodiversity loss as interconnectedtwitter.com |
| Your brain does not process information and it is not a computer | Aeon Essays – Robert Epstein ed Pam Weintraub | Systems Community of InquiryYour brain does not process information and it is not a computer | Aeon Essays The empty brain Your brain does not process information, retrieve knowledge or store memories. In short: your brain is not a computerstream.syscoi.com |
| The unlikely encounter between von Foerster and Snowden: When second-order cybernetics sheds light on societal impacts of Big Data – Chavalarias (2016)The unlikely encounter between von Foerster and Snowden: When second-order cybernetics sheds light on societal impacts of Big Data David Chavalarias First Published January 6, 2016 Research Article https://doi.org/10.1177/2053951715621086 Abstract Although information and […]stream.syscoi.com |
| organisational development / transformation |
| The Future of Work is Not Corporate — It’s DAOs and Crypto Networks | FutureIn the future, it’s likely that the average person will not work for a company. Instead, people will earn income in non-traditional ways by taking actions such as playing games, learning new skills, creating art, or curating content. This kind of shift in how we work is not unusual or unexpected — the idea that most people would be employed by large corporations would have seemed crazy to someone in the year 1800.future.a16z.com |
| David Durant (He/him) on Twitter: “Interesting to compare this to the concept of “Cinderella services” “Interesting to compare this to the concept of “Cinderella services” – parts of delivery in organisations that no fast-track manager wants to run because no-one gets promoted for doing it well.Same thing for some ministerial positions where there’s definitely no glory…twitter.com |
| Was Design Thinking Designed To Not Work? | by Debbie Levitt | Feb, 2022 | R Before DThere is a fantastic (and long) article called “On Design Thinking” by Maggie Gram. It tells the story of badly-failing design thinking projects, and then explains the origins of modern design…rbefored.com |
| Matt Edgar on Twitter: “About to start scribbling a Venn diagram of human-centred design, user experience design, participatory design, patient involvement and allied concepts. Stopping to check before I do, has someone done this already?”About to start scribbling a Venn diagram of human-centred design, user experience design, participatory design, patient involvement and allied concepts. Stopping to check before I do, has someone done this already?twitter.com |
| Alexey Guzey on Twitter: “I used to sleep the normal 7.5 hours a day. Over the last 180 days I have slept an average of 5 hours 57 minutes per day. So, after 2 years of experimentation and occasional deep dives into the scientific literature, here are my theses on sleep: https://t.co/7BayHADQaN”I used to sleep the normal 7.5 hours a day. Over the last 180 days I have slept an average of 5 hours 57 minutes per day.So, after 2 years of experimentation and occasional deep dives into the scientific literature, here are my theses on sleep:twitter.com |
| Six Variations of the VSM – Intelligente-Organisationen – Mark Lambertz | Systems Community of Inquirystream.syscoi.com |
| Brent Toderian on Twitter: “Your semi-regular reminder. #reality… “Your semi-regular reminder. #realitytwitter.com |
| Benjamin P. Taylor on Twitter: “When I worked for PwC, we.… https://t.co/Mq9qDsC9GL”When I worked for PwC, we won the contract for the ‘Admin Burdens Reduction Project’, to assess the admin burden of every single piece of (non-tax) UK legislation (Deloitte? KPMG? pr someone else? got the tax stuff). It was based on ‘the successful Netherlands model’.twitter.com |
| procurement AND commissioning |
| A Blast from the past! Commissioning to the private sector10 years ago, one of PSTA’s facilitators, Jon Harvey, wrote about the extent to which commissioning to the private sector actually improves public services. How much of this debate is still relevant today? What has changed since?The post A Blast from the past! Commissioning to the private sector appeared first on PSTA.www.publicservicetransformation.org |
| ethics in public service |
| 55 Tufton Official Spokesperson on Twitter: “A tale of two Brexit facts”A tale of two Brexit facts:1) Brexit’s wasted enough money to fund 300 years of children’s mental health support2) the Tesla factory Brexit lost to Berlin will generate in one year for Germany what fishing takes 50 years to generate for the UKtwitter.com |
| Andrew Percy on Twitter: “Levelling-up report co-author Andy Haldane says UK should be like Renaissance Florence”Levelling-up report co-author Andy Haldane says UK should be like Renaissance Florence and effectively argues for #UniversalBasicServices, explaining that it’s not just 1 thing, it is the interaction of social infrastructreS that make a difference.twitter.com |
| Benjamin P. Taylor on Twitter: “This is actually painful :-(… “This is actually painful 😦twitter.com |
| UK flight compensation plan will slash average payouts | Consumer affairs | The GuardianGovernment says move is a ‘Brexit win’ but figures suggest average sum will drop from £220 to about £23.60www.theguardian.com |
| Polly Mackenzie on Twitter: “I see Jacob Rees Mogg has invited the public to write to him about EU regulations they want scrapped. In coalition days, I was involved in the public consultation on the Freedoms Bill and the Red Tape Challenge. I guarantee JRM will emerge with slim pickings. Why? 🧵… https://t.co/7IBiy5rkS0”I see Jacob Rees Mogg has invited the public to write to him about EU regulations they want scrapped.In coalition days, I was involved in the public consultation on the Freedoms Bill and the Red Tape Challenge.I guarantee JRM will emerge with slim pickings. Why?twitter.com |
| Mark O’Neill on Twitter: “I’m not sure I have ever seen a department attack a PAC report in this way, especially after a government minister resigned in the House after agreeing with the report. The collective delusion which is the British Constitution is coming apart. https://t.co/SmLZ2phMto”I’m not sure I have ever seen a department attack a PAC report in this way, especially after a government minister resigned in the House after agreeing with the report.The collective delusion which is the British Constitution is coming apart.twitter.com |
| Ian Dunt on Twitter: “Once upon a time, I would have been astonished to hear an attorney general utter this kind of constitutionally illiterate populism. Now, it barely touches the sides.… https://t.co/rW5SOeq4HC”Once upon a time, I would have been astonished to hear an attorney general utter this kind of constitutionally illiterate populism. Now, it barely touches the sides.twitter.com |
| Robert Peston on Twitter: “No one in or around SAGE and Nervtag is aware of any scientific advice given to the PM that the requirement to isolate for those infected with Covid19 should be terminated from end of the month. “It’s politics, isn’t it” is a typical reaction”No one in or around SAGE and Nervtag is aware of any scientific advice given to the PM that the requirement to isolate for those infected with Covid19 should be terminated from end of the month. “It’s politics, isn’t it” is a typical reactiontwitter.com |
| environmental and social justice |
| What can impact investment contribute to race equity?Not every business owner in the UK is in the same position today. If you’re a white entrepreneur your access to finance is varied and includes venture capital, equity and debt.www.linkedin.com |
| Black civil servant handed six-figure payout amid warning of ‘systemic’ race issues in Whitehall | The IndependentDeputy cabinet secretary raised questions over Cabinet Office approach over allegations of racial discrimination in Whitehall, with the deputy cabinet secretary warning that there was a “systemic issue” in the Cabinet Office, The Independent can reveal.www.independent.co.uk |
| Food security: Is the UK already in crisis? – Birmingham Food CouncilThis is a list of the blogposts supporting my presentation to the 12th January Lunar Society meeting on Zoom entitled Food Security: Is the UK already in crisis?www.birminghamfoodcouncil.org |
| Andy Hollingsworth on Twitter: “Props to The Times for this epic shade at the end of the article “twitter.com |
| Keith Brennan on Twitter: “My farm is untidy. Inefficient. Self seeded trees colonise viable field. Blocked drains create wetland. The margins, yard, old veg plots overgrown with hip tall weeds. An orchards is filled with rotting trees. Parts of it can’t be access with a tractor…”I think of our management strategy as untidy by nature. And I spend more time and effort managing the farm to facilitate it’s untidyness.twitter.com |
| Lakota Man on Twitter: “Celebrating the birth of a baby white buffalo, born into a herd belonging to the Sioux Valley Dakota Nation. “Celebrating the birth of a baby white buffalo, born into a herd belonging to the Sioux Valley Dakota Nation. Lakota prophecy says the return of white bison — signal the resurgence of Indigenous people.twitter.com |
| The Dialogical, The Ecological and Beyond | Goodbun and Sweeting (2021) | Systems Community of Inquirystream.syscoi.com |
| Kate Long on Twitter: “Strap in for a thread about the hugely sexist messaging on children’s clothing at @Primark. “Strap in for a thread about the hugely sexist messaging on children’s clothing at @Primark . The store I popped into was in Chester but of course it’s a nationwide chain.Let’s begin with the messages girls are being hammered with.twitter.com |
| Rare and ancient trees are key to a healthy forest | Science | AAASTwo studies pinpoint the need for forest diversity both in age and specieswww.science.org |
| Benjamin P. Taylor on Twitter: “‘I remember the feeling of insult’: when Britain imprisoned its wartime refugees “https://t.co/RCxCsflWvatwitter.com |
| Earth Restored — Toby OrdThe most beautiful photographs of Earth — iconic images and unknown gems — digitally restored to their full glory.www.tobyord.com |
| more brain food |
| Here’s why Twitter users in the UK can still be jailed for sending ‘grossly offensive’ tweets – The VergeIt’s a surprise to many, but internet users in the UK can face fines, community service, and even jail time if convicted of sending “grossly offensive” messages. Here’s how and why an obscure bit of legislation — Section 127 of the 2003 Communications Act — is used to prosecute Brits.www.theverge.com |
| Practicing Civilization – by N.S. Lyons – The UpheavalOr how and why China plans to save your “collective soul”theupheaval.substack.com |
| NowThis on Twitter: “A drone photographer captured the ‘magic’ moment when a humpback whale & dolphin began playing and swimming together off the coast of Oahu. ‘On a scale of 1 to 10, it would be a 12,’ Jacob VanderVelde said, via Hawaii News Now. 🐋🐬… https://t.co/P3e2GBi9MI”A drone photographer captured the ‘magic’ moment when a humpback whale & dolphin began playing and swimming together off the coast of Oahu.twitter.com |
| Ask a Librarian, contact us with your questionMore than 100,000 pages of working notes and drafts by the influential philosopher and scientist.library.harvard.edu |
| Potato milk arrives on UK supermarket shelves to rival oat and soya drinks – Nottinghamshire LiveIt is said to have a “neutral” flavour but one report claimed it had a “saline aftertaste”www.nottinghampost.com |
| Steve Stewart-Williams on Twitter: “Why are tigers so conspicuously colored? Doesn’t it give them away to prey?”Why are tigers so conspicuously colored? Doesn’t it give them away to prey? Well, they’re conspicuous to us, with our trichromatic vision. But the species they typically hunt have dichromatic vision, and can’t distinguish orange from green. To them, tigers are camouflaged!twitter.com |
| Benjamin P. Taylor on Twitter: “It feels to me like the bleedover from MS Teams has actually spoiled Zoom! More and more people defaulting to camera and video off, raise hand to ask questions – behaviours I associate strongly with Teams. :-(“It feels to me like the bleedover from MS Teams has actually spoiled Zoom! More and more people defaulting to camera and video off, raise hand to ask questions – behaviours I associate strongly with Teams. 😦twitter.com |
| Mike Sowden on Twitter: “I recently learned something mindblowing about the geological history of the Mediterranean Sea…”I recently learned something mindblowing about the geological history of the Mediterranean Sea, and I just can’t get it out of my head.Now I’m going to make it your problem too. Sorry.Hang onto your hat. This is wild.twitter.com |
| Benjamin P. Taylor on Twitter: “Paisley: The story of a classic bohemian print “Paisley: The story of a classic bohemian print: https://t.co/2NcPiOTTOx Paisley (design) – Wikipedia https://t.co/ILlrLEVRqa… https://t.co/6blKuR9BvRtwitter.com |
| Magic circles – by Gordon Brander – SubconsciousThere’s this lens from games studies that I keep coming back to, the “magic circle”. All play moves and has its being within a playground marked off beforehand either materially or ideally, deliberately or as a matter of course. Just as there is no formal difference between play and ritual, so the “consecrated spot” cannot be formally distinguished from the playground. The arena, the card table, the magic circle, the temple, the stage, the screen, the tennis courts, the court of justice, etc, are all in form and function playgrounds, i.e. forbidden spots, isolated, hedged round, hallowed, within which special rules obtain. All are temporary worlds within the ordinary world, dedicated to the performance of an act apart.subconscious.substack.com |
| Adam Kay on Twitter: “A quick thread on in the importance of being careful what data you share – even if you’re the Queen.”Today, Her Maj tweeted this lovely picture, gor bless er, etc. You might think that the contents of the red box would be official business. And you’d be right. 1/6twitter.com |
| Saying goodbye to Steve, the reader who commented on everything I wrote for 17 yearsAndrew Dansby, Staff writerSteve’s emails would wash in like a response to a message in a bottle, saying, “You’re not alone.”12ft.io |
| The Other Face of Sincere Irony | divine curationI recently saw this GDC talk by Leighton Gray, which was shared with some approval in a Discord server I’m a member of. The talk is ostensibly about game design and marketing, but it also doubles as a sort of metamodernism 101 and is largely concerned with the topic of sincere-irony. What’s interesting for me is the way it takes up this topic: it is neither an attempt at detached cultural analysis, nor does it present a world-historical vision—it is focused rather on the far more nuts and bolts realm of product design. The fundamental question it is addresses is what can be done with sincere-irony, on the small and personal scales, and in this respect it is an extremely instructive example of how this is supposed to work in practice.divinecuration.github.io |
| Study uncovers first evidence of long-term directionality in origination of human mutation, challenging neo-DarwinismA new study by a team of researchers from Israel and Ghana has brought the first evidence of nonrandom mutation in human genes, challenging a core assumption at the heart of evolutionary theory by showing a long-term directional mutational response to environmental pressure. Using a novel method, researchers led by Professor Adi Livnat from the University of Haifa showed that the rate of generation of the HbS mutation, which protects against malaria, is higher in people from Africa, where malaria is endemic, than in people from Europe, where it is not.phys.org |
| @antlerboy on Twitter ‘Famous people’ I’ve met… I have two fakes in here 😀– PMS Hacker- Dexter Fletcher- Dido- The King of Serbia- Andrew Weatherall- Archbishop Desmond Tutu- Sheridan Westlake- Arthur Scargill- Andy Swiss- Baron Adonis- Finlay Quaye- Tony Benn- Jarvis Cocker- Pooka- Boris Johnsontwitter.com |
| Flat above a West Country takeaway is home to 761 Chinese firms as money-laundering fears mountREVEALED: The flat above a West Country takeaway that is home to 761 Chinese firms – and fraudsters are suspected of registering more than 11,000 companies in the UK in the past yearwww.dailymail.co.uk |
| Highway Code myths and misinformation | Cycling UKThe line that a lie can travel halfway round the world before the truth puts on its shoes could have been crafted with the Highway Code changes in mind. The reporting on these changes should leave some journalists hanging their heads in shame. Here’s just a few of the myths being pedalled, and the truth, with reference to that document the mis-reporters should possibly have read – that’ll be the actual text of the new rules!www.cyclinguk.org |
| Data-Driven Decision Making cartoon | Marketoonist | Tom FishburneComputer scientists coined the colorful expression “garbage in, garbage out” in the earliest days of data processing, a term first recorded in an article in 1963 when an AP reporter visited an early computer lab. Nearly 60 years later, we’re still struggling with data credibility.marketoonist.com |
| Benjamin P. Taylor on Twitter: “Freud, Rilke and Transience | European Journal of Psychoanalysis”Freud, Rilke and Transience | European Journal of Psychoanalysis https://bit.ly/3J0nxL9 pdf – Freud on transcience https://bit.ly/3J2kgLntwitter.com |
| Interlude |
| 🏳️🌈misha fletcher on Twitter: “WHALES HAVE MEMES?… “Alder (A99) swims with a dead fish balanced on his head. Back in 1987, a K Pod orca started swimming everywhere with a dead salmon carefully balanced on the top of her head, and it soon became a popular Southern Resident fad as other orcas quickly started mimicking her behavior. https://pic.twitter.com/K5UsX3sOsOtwitter.com |
chosen path 