This week:
- Commissioning Academies
- Systems Thinking
- Systems and Complexity in Organisation
- Local government
Upcoming events:
One new commissioning academy: coming this winter!
Exciting News
We will be offering a new In-Person Commissioning Academy launching in January, with in-person sessions held in Nottingham.
Accredited by the PSTA and Cabinet Office.
Join our flagship development program to transform outcomes for the communities we serve!
- Be part of a national network of commissioning practitioners.
- Learn to initiate and lead change across complex systems.
- Develop capabilities to drive real transformation.
- Access expert insights and collaborative learning.
- Apply innovative ideas and approaches to your work.
Here’s what’s in store for you at the National Commissioning Academy:
- Foundation concepts: Working as a system, outcomes thinking, collaborative working.
- Commissioning for outcomes as a system: Systems thinking, asset-based commissioning, trauma-informed practice, prevention and early intervention.
- Creating conditions for change: Systems leadership, coproduction, innovation, and promoting social value.
Expect a transformative experience with masterclass workshops, action learning, expert speakers, peer challenges, practical action planning, and membership in our nationwide alumni community.
Ready to make a difference? Apply now to secure your spot at the Academy! Contact David Mason at david.mason@publicservicetransformation.org
Systems Thinking Apprenticeship (2023)
We are delighted to share the news that there is now a Level 7 Systems Thinking Practitioner Apprenticeship available in England.
Systems thinking practice was developed specifically to address highly complex, adaptive, and dynamic situations. It helps you to model each situation as a system incorporating many different parts, dependencies and relationships. Systems thinking practitioners are uniquely equipped for achieving large-scale transformational change.
If you live in England, you can benefit from the scheme. The Apprenticeship is a two-and-a-half year, day release, post-graduate qualification with government funding of up to £18,000 per person. It is fully supported by expert tutors, comprehensive learning materials, and ongoing action learning.
This is a practice-based, portfolio assessed programme which draws on core systems approaches and practice skills. You’ll be supported in your job to actually put the learning to work right away, and you will be evaluated on how you incorporate your continual learning into your practice.
It’s been designed by practitioners for practitioners — the people who have not just read the books, but have written them. More importantly, these are people who have been there, done it, know about all (or at least most) of the pitfalls, and can guide you away from them.
The professional body for systems practice, SCiO, is providing world-class systems practitioner-tutors, and is supporting the curriculum development and overall approach of the programme. They are acting in collaboration with Cherith Simmons Learning and Development, who provide the apprenticeship. Further details are available here.
If you’re not in England, you can still sign up to individual modules here.
And if you are interested in developing your transformation skills, take a look at the RedQuadrant tool shed. This is a small group action learning journey with Benjamin Taylor, founder of the consultancy RedQuadrant, supported by 24 online modules covering all aspects of organisational transformation. Get a 20% discount by mentioning Enlightened Enterprise Academy.
Link Collection:
My Weekly Blog post:
Over the past year, my posts have accumulated a million views and 10,000 engagements, a pleasing vanity metric but also a responsibility, considering the time taken from readers. Despite not adhering strictly to algorithmic rules and covering a broad spectrum of topics, I don’t funnel engagements for profit or sell anything overtly. Reflecting on my four-year writing journey, I admit it’s not always effortless, yet my diverse and thought-provoking posts make me reasonably proud. Seeking feedback for future writing endeavors, I present my top posts of 2023, addressing Adaptive Leadership, Operational Excellence, team dynamics, tax system issues, and reflections on Large Language Models and Machine Learning’s impact on Operational Excellence, among other subjects.
I am once again asking: how, if at all, should I continue to write on LinkedIn?
My diverse writings of the year, spanning beyond 2023, covered topics from organizational innovation to AI critiques. Tenth place revisited my 2021 model for service organizations, while ninth playfully discussed the cat versus dog people dynamic. Criticizing LinkedIn’s AI articles for mediocrity claimed eighth place. Seventh introduced the CPORT task definition, sixth challenged the notion of complexity as a paradigm shift, and fifth dismissed transformation concepts in 2021. The fourth provided an organizational review outline without specifying its origin year. Securing top spots, third compiled Peter Block quotes from 2021, second explored leadership types in a 2023 podcast, and first delved into the Double Diamond’s attribution challenges, differing notably from my top LinkedIn posts.
My top ten most read posts in 2023
SCiO monthly events newsletter – January & February 2024
This is the end-December 2023 monthly events mailing from SCiO. Click on the flags or group titles below to go to the events that interest you. Please remember that you can attend online events organised by any of the SCiO groups if they are held in a language you speak/understand (and you are a member if it is a member-only meeting). Further details of events may be available by clicking on the event titles below and you can also book each event directly from the Book now text.
Note that some groups post events quite late, so it is always worth checking the website – also for changes to dates and times. Please click here to see all the events in a browser.
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Career Opportunity in the UK: Lecturer in Systems Thinking in Practice at the OU (Ref.21377)
The Open University are seeking to appoint an enthusiastic academic who will be able to contribute to the development and delivery of their postgraduate systems thinking in practice (STiP) distance learning provision and help lead their Level 7 Systems Thinking Practitioner Apprenticeship (STPA).
Unit : Faculty of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM); Salary : £45,585 to £54,395; Location : Milton Keynes; Two Years Fixed Term with possibility of extension, Full Time; Closing Date : 11 January, 2024 – 12:00
Click here for more details.
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Individual modules of professional development courses from the apprenticeship can be booked by anyone at commercial rates – see details here .
Happy New year for 2024!
Steve Hales
SCiO – Systems & Complexity in Organisation
Systems and Complexity in Organisation Ltd is a company registered in England with Company Number: 3499590 Registered address: Unit 14 Tower Street, Century Building, Brunswick Business Park, Liverpool L3 4BJ UK
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SCiO UK
SCiO UK Virtual Open Meeting – January 2024
Mon 22 January 2024 18:30–21:00 GMT
Virtual Open Meeting: A series of presentations of general interest to Systems and Complexity in Organisation’s members. SCiO organises Open Meetings to provide opportunities for practitioners to learn and develop new practice, to build relationships, networks hear about skills, tools, practice and experiences. The agenda comprises a brief introduction and two speaker sessions followed by our usual ‘later in the bar’ open chat for around 30-mins after speaker sessions.
Running a systemic intervention in Government – a new practitioners perspective – Alison Guthrie-Wrenn
Cave Drawings and Campfire Conversations: Relocalizing Creativity in your Neighbourhood – Kerry Turner
All welcome, FREE; Online event; EnglishBook now
SCiO UK Virtual Development Event – February 2024
Tue 20 February 2024 18:30–20:30 GMT
SCiO’s Development Event offer an opportunity to draw upon the collective expertise of SCiO members in a friendly and supportive atmosphere. By taking Development Events online, using the Zoom meeting platform, we aim to make them accessible to more SCiO members DevelopmentCybernetic Theory: Information Physics, Quantum Cosmology, Simulation Metaphysics – Vikoulov (2023)
Futurist | Evolutionary Cyberneticist | Philosopher of Mind | Author | Filmmaker
Saturday, October 14, 2023
Alex Vikoulov: Cybernetic Theory: Information Physics, Quantum Cosmology, Simulation Metaphysics
https://www.alexvikoulov.com/2023/10/cybernetic-theory-information-physics-quantum-cosmology-simulation-metaphysics.html?fbclid=IwAR3K9gJylFDp8FocqHvJdgMRaxpy54mfSmVzDIeC-NoetcT9wAcg45zSbqU Events are both for members who are just starting out on a journey to explore Systems Thinking approaches, and for those who have many years of exploration and practice.
Members only; FREE; Online event; EnglishBook now
Call for papers – International Journal on Cybernetics & Informatics ( IJCI)
ISSN : 2277 – 548X (Online) ; 2320 – 8430 (Print)
Webpage URL: http://airccse.org/journal/ijci/index.html
CONTACT US:
Here’s where you can reach us: ijcijournal@airccse.org or ijcijournal@aircconline.com
SUBMISSION SYSTEM:
https://airccse.com/submissioncs/home.html
International Journal on Cybernetics & Informatics ( IJCI) i
Last weekend, I launched my new children’s book, APART, TOGETHER at the Silver Unicorn bookstore. (Thank you Casey Robinson, and the enthusiastic staff at this small but mighty bookshop in Acton, Massachusetts. You made this earnest but relatively unknown children’s book author, feel like royalty!)
Using Rhyme to Encourage Early Systems Thinking? Yes, You Can! – Linda Booth Sweeney
The Unreasonable Sufficiency of Protocols – Rao et al (2023)
DRAFT Version 0.99, March 6th, 2023
Venkatesh Rao, Tim Beiko, Danny Ryan, Josh Stark, Trent Van Epps, Bastian Aue
Thanks to Hasu, Micah Zoltu, Matt Garnett, Vitalik Buterin, Ben Edgington, Alex Stokes, and Josh Davis for helpful discussions.
https://venkatesh-rao.gitbook.io/summer-of-protocols
Karim Knio & Margaux Schulz
Published online: 13 Dec 2023
https://doi.org/10.1080/14767430.2024.2278936
This Special Issue of Journal of Critical Realism (JCR) is dedicated to the 2022 International Association for Critical Realism (IACR) Conference, which was hosted by the International Institute of Social Sciences (ISS) in the Hague (Netherlands), part of the Erasmus University of Rotterdam. Its theme was ‘Realist Complexity, between Causal and Complex Systems’, although it also engaged with other pertinent subjects within critical realism research, including ecology, social work, health, ethics, and the interconnections between critical realism and other schools of thought like pragmatism and realist evaluation. The conference, along with the pre-conference, attracted over 120 participants from diverse backgrounds across 31 countries, indicating a growing interest in critical realism. Notably, about half of the attendees were PhD students, indicating the significance of the event in academic circles.
This special issue aims to showcase selected presentations from the conference, providing a diverse representation of the topics discussed across different panels, although it is not intended to be comprehensive. The conference theme sought to explore the potential contributions of critical realism to the study of complexity, as well as to address the criticisms faced by ‘complex realism’, a concept introduced in the 1990s (Byrne Citation1998, Citation2021; Reed and Harvey Citation1992). Complex realism aims to identify parallels between critical realism and complexity theory, but it has encountered criticism from within critical realism due to concerns that it conflates ontological levels (Holland Citation2014). To reinvigorate the discussion and develop a critical realist research agenda informed by complexity, the conference revisited the debates between complexity theory and critical realism, with a focus on three main thematic questions: ontological and epistemological domains, causality, and open/closed complex systems.
To represent the theoretical discussions that took place on complexity and complex systems, you will find in this issue two articles. The first article is by Leigh Price, and it sets the stage for the discussion by including a brief introduction to the field of systems theory. It argues that critical realism allows us to move beyond first generation (positivist) and second generation (hermeneuticist) approaches to systems theory towards a third-generation approach based on Bhaskar’s layered ontology. In third generation systems theory, the resolution of wicked (complex) problems, such as the socioecological crisis, involves correcting the method of homeostasis which in the context of society is our social method of finding knowledge about the best – most ethical – way to act. This homeostatic version of ethics assumes that, in the event of a problem that threatens our wellbeing, rather than correcting the consequences of the failure of homeostasis (the misguided action/behaviour based on misguided ethics), it is better to deal with the failure of the homeostatic mechanism itself (the mechanism by which we find truthful knowledge about the best way to act). This is a non-teleological approach to emancipation from ills and ‘it releases activists from having to be keepers of the moral high-ground or having to try to change people’s behaviour’.
The second article, titled ‘Complexity, trans-immanent systems and morphogenetic régulation: towards a problématique of calibration’ by Karim Knio, studies the intersection between critical realism and complexity theory via the philosophies of substance and persistence. Knio’s focus lies on Luhmann’s concept of autopoiesis, which refers to systems that self-reproduce. He argues that such systems are founded on a transcendental understanding of substance and a perduration account of persistence, implying that objects persist over time independently of their changing forms across different temporalities. In contrast, Knio introduces the immanent account of substance and exdurantist account of persistence through allopoiesis, where unanimated systems are defined by their qualities and only exist in time. However, to analyse complex systems comprehensively, both allopoietic and autopoietic systems must be considered. As such, and to overcome the paradox of substance, the development of a trans-immanent account of substance appears necessary. To achieve this, Knio employs Spinoza’s doctrine of parallelism and exemplifies its application through the Immanent Causality Morphogenetic Approach (ICMA) – French Régulation (FR) (Morphogenetic Régulation) model. In this article, Knio demonstrates how a trans-immanent system fits with CR via the Morphogenetic Régulation framework by exploring the theme of crisis in terms of the movement from inadequate to adequate understanding of objects in systemic environments (problématique of calibration).
#critical-realism, #philosophy, #philosophy-of-science, #realism
Women’s running shoes and bananas match – a thread. https://bsky.app/profile/antlerboy.com/post/3ki6pshr3ya2d
(let me know if you need a code to join – if I know who you are!)
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What is the crossroads we face in local government?
https://noelito.medium.com/what-is-the-crossroads-we-face-c88294bcf615
Why 2023 was the year of the e-bike and not the self-driving car https://www.fastcompany.com/90994141/why-2023-was-the-year-of-the-e-bike-and-not-the-self-driving-car
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I had years of being part of fiddling the figures when I was at Hammersmith & Fulham – so successfully, having evaded CCT, that we became one of the first Excellent local authorities.
But every time I hear about something like government meeting its SME targets by encouraging big providers to simply make ‘more generous estimates’ of SMEs in their supply chains, a little part of me dies, a mirror of trust in government.
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The problem of thinking in straight lines
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BBC · 5d The problem of thinking in straight lines By Kit Yates
Scott And Scurvy (Idle Words) https://idlewords.com/2010/03/scott_and_scurvy.htm
idlewords.com Scott And Scurvy (Idle Words)
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From the Music community on Reddit: French rap with the castaways liar liar sampled https://www.reddit.com/r/Music/s/0cLnVIswxV
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A decade in reflection – Sarah Lay
www.sarahlay.com A decade in reflection – Sarah Lay
Want to Be Persuasive? Find a Metaphor
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‘This is the worst financial situation facing local government ever!’
No, Bart. ‘This is the worst financial situation facing local government *so far*’.
Bad take and worse headline
‘Bad management’ not inflation to blame for councils going bankrupt
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Why so much is going wrong at the same time – Cascade Institute
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What Design Can’t Do | Set Margins’
www.setmargins.pressWhat Design Can’t Do | Set Margins’
The Socially Responsible Organization
library.oapen.orgThe Socially Responsible Organization
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‘Bethlehem is empty of joy – no Santa, no celebration’
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How to Criticize with Kindness: Philosopher Daniel Dennett on the Four Steps to Arguing Intelligently https://www.themarginalian.org/2014/03/28/daniel-dennett-rapoport-rules-criticism/
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Positive Psychology Is Garbage (And Why You Should Follow Its Founder’s Lead)
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There are no wrong notes in music @victorwooten
YouTube There are no wrong notes in music 🔥 🔥🔥 @victorwooten By Johnsonkeyz Music Academy
Lauren Roberts-Turner Speech at Final Children England Event
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What Charles Koch Paid to Elude 70 Years in Prison – Greg Palast
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Engineer Fined for Criticizing Traffic Light Policy without a License | Melissa Quinn
Why I’m proposing we move our MPs and Lords into Buckingham Palace
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Police to be able to run face recognition searches on 50m driving licence holders
chosen path 