Day 14: How We Got Here

Today we'll explore how the situation came to be. Either focus your exploration on a textual narrative, or use a graphical history canvas:

  • Textual narrative: Pick up a thread in the situation (from Day 12), and write a few paragraphs exploring how it came to. What were the various paths of influence and unfolding? What are some stories of the history that you were there for, or have heard others tell?While you have time (in the 15-20 minute window), pick up other threads and explore those and notice interconnections. If you don't know the history, think of what you'd like to explore and jot down questions you can ask someone knows more of the history.
  • Graphical History: draw the unfolding over time that led to how things are now, identifying major events and their rippling consequences. Consider going back (somewhat) further than you think is "the beginning.“ Place key events (changes in the landscape such as competitor entry, new technology; project start and product launch; scale points, major incidents, etc), people/org changes (changes in senior or influential people and teams, etc), strategic shifts, etc, on the timeline. Some places to go for ideas on how to structure this visually:
    • follow the chart style suggested in this post by Paul Osman (source of image above; draw a timeline with annotated markers (dashed lines) at significant deploys, changes to infrastructure, major user shifts, and team changes): Sociotechnical Lenses into Software Systems
    • use the layout from the Graphic History template from David Sibbet's books, and The Grove

If you did this in a previous adventure, and would like an alternative, here is one from Sebastian Hans:

"Plot the trajectory of a property of the situation that you care about from the past (how did it come about?) into the future (how might it evolve), taking into account the dynamics of the system itself as well as outside influences. Include an assessment of the (un)certainty of the projection and possible alternative trajectories."

As usual, reserve some time to step back and reflect on insights and questions that are emerging.

“An important aspect of complex systems, one which certainly complicates our understanding and modeling of such systems, is their temporal nature. Complex systems unfold in time, they have a history which co-determines present behavior and they anticipate the future. [..] as we know at least since the work of Prigogine, the behavior of complex systems are not symmetrical in time. They have a past and a future which are not interchangeable“

— Paul Cilliers, On the Importance of a Certain Slowness

“Complex systems have a history. Not only do they evolve through time, but their past is co-responsible for their present behaviour. Any analysis of a complex system that ignores the dimension of time is incomplete.”'

— Paul Cilliers, Complexity and Postmodernism: Understanding Complex Systems

“Since a system's prior experience constrains its behavior, that history, too, is embodied in its ontogenetic landscape.”

— Alicia Juarrero, Dynamics in Action