Day 8: Context Changes Everything
Before we get into today's activity, a word about where we're headed. We've been practicing systems sensing and sense making: zooming in to see the system and its parts and interrelationships (day 1), zooming out to see the system in its vaious contexts (day 2), and shifting perspective to consider what is taking shape (day 3). We used Rich Pictures to explore some of the infrastructure we rely on, in a form that draws out people, organizations and systems involved, but also their interactions, and concerns (day 4). We considered a dynamic model of shaping influences in a situation, mapping causal networks and considering feedback loops (day 7). And we started to draw out some of the ideas about systems that have been percolating (day 5). We will again step back and gather thoughts about central concept in systems seeing (today, day 8).
We were getting practice with some of the perspectives and tools of system understanding, but the focus, while hopefully interesting, was likely generally outside our current set of concerns. We will shortly shift focus to applying the practices and tools of system seeing to a situation you care about. I'm mentioning that now, so you can start to think about what situation or system you would like to focus on. This may mean we have fewer folk sharing their work done, because its personal or work sensitive. Still, the part where we step back and reflect on what we learned may be shareable. Ok, back to today's activity.
Today's Activity: On Day 5 we created an overview zine page and optionally one on another topic. Today, we will return to the idea of creating a page (or two) of a zine. The topic is up to you, but I'll suggest the focus is Context (or environment or situation). Again, you're drafting ideas for the design of a zine page on context (or another concept that is fundamental to systems, like purpose). Why do we consider (system) context, when we're talking about systems? What are associated concepts? Is there an explanatory diagram that helps convey why context is important to consider, or what is useful to draw out and make visible? Think back across the work we've done (bicycle in context (day 2), changes and impacts as ebikes become more prevalent (day 3), dependencies on other systems and infrastructure (day 4), causes and effects that shape the situation (day 7)), and draw out lessons.
"We fail more often not because we fail to solve the problem we face but because we fail to face the right problem.” — Russell Ackoff (via Jamshid Gharajedaghi in Systems Thinking)
"the meaning of the system can only be found in its context, so what you discern as 'context' is inextricably part of what you discern as 'system'.” — Patrick Hoverstadt The Grammar of Systems