Systems Thinking & Social Media

Sysparatem

Social Media, Complexity at the Organisation / Environment Interface & Systems Thinking Frameworks

Copyright 2012 Sysparatem

Copyright Sysparatem 2012 under creative commons license

● Major real-world paradigm changes create multifaceted problems

● They demand a range of skills and toolsThey demand a range of skills and tools

● Usually we need to mix approaches and frameworks to suit the Usually we need to mix approaches and frameworks to suit the territory we find ourselves in territory we find ourselves in

● We are free to fuse frameworks to suit the territory but trying to We are free to fuse frameworks to suit the territory but trying to make the territory fit the framework only ends in falsifying or ignoring make the territory fit the framework only ends in falsifying or ignoring evidence evidence

● This half of the session explains a framework fusion I used for This half of the session explains a framework fusion I used for looking at crucial change looking at crucial change

● The problem was how organisations need to transform to function The problem was how organisations need to transform to function in modern social media environments in modern social media environments

Sysparatem Framework Fusion


Sysparatem Problem I

Organisations can't invent customers to suit their organisations any more because their customers are in an enormous articulated network outside the boundaryThey have to address much more complexity at the perimeter and have to respond to the inputs instantly in most cases


Sysparatem Problem II

A hierarchical structure is unable to deliver the necessary responsiveness at the organisational perimeterThe structure cannot process the necessary policy application decisions and strategic actions required for organisations to survive


Sysparatem Problem III

A lot of the answers have been around for a long time but while it was still largely possible to hoodwink the consumer, implementing those answers was optional.The big difference now is that you can't do that any more


Sysparatem Systems Thinking VSM

What follows are 3 frameworks from Systems Thinking that mashed up together looked like a solutionThe first was developed in the 1970's by Stafford Beercalled the Viable Systems Model



Diagram from “The Brain of the Firm” By Stafford Beer published by Wiley 1981

System 5Policy, Governance, Culture

System 4Marketing, Portfolio, Innovation

System 3Delivery Resource Distribution

System 2Coordination

System 1Operations



VSM is not a 5 minute study so I'm going to focus here on the aspect which most directly answers the problem with hierarchical structure.The organisational model is fractalSo every level of every organisation contains a whole model within. This provides requisite variety at theorganisational perimeter as there arealways local instances of Governance etc.Power is distributed but also coordinated.This framework let me see how largeorganisations could work to achieve common aims

See “The Fractal Organisation” by Patrick Hoverstadt


Sysparatem Systems Thinking PCP

The Second area of ST I drew on was work developed by Fran Ackermann & Colin Eden based on George Kelly's Personal Construct Theory. This work is called SODA

Strategic Options Development and Analysis.

George Kelly



SODA uses cognitive mapping techniques and workshop environments to arriveat socially negotiated and jointly shared models for organisational change

I thought this fitted perfectly with VSM as a method of developing a shared vision across an organisation

The next slide is an example of a causal map. Rule of thumb if the map is of anIndividual it's Cognitive if it's used for a group it's Causal



Cognitive mapping tool Decision Explorer available from Banxia.com


Sysparatem Systems Thinking Head Stuff

Now no change proposal or effort gets very far without meetingserious resistance and quite often from serious players.

SODA is great at encouraging group negotiated strategic options but it seemeda good idea to look at tools and techniques that might be used to helpwith more human / individual levels of resistance

So the final third element were a group of techniques designed to help people re-frame or re-conceptualise their part in the whole

Metaphor & Visualisation

Challenging restrictive thinking

Overcoming fear and building trust


Sysparatem Mashing the ST Frameworks

Pulling these different frameworks together I ended up with A model that showed them as three interlocking and mutually supporting parts of a pyramid

The fourth point of the pyramid I saw as outcomes and I labelled it 'Crucial Change' because it expresses that the change that needs to be made in 21st century environments is about whether organisations will survive

So looking at those issues, this was my Framework Fusion.


Sysparatem The Framework Fusion


Sysparatem Part II

Example of a Social Media Tool Helping Meet the Challenge of Increased Variety


Sysparatem Managing Variety in Social Media

A very simple, common attenuator and amplifier of variety

Organisation

Environment



For the purpose of illustration I'm using prediction markets as one example of a social media tool

A prediction market is an approach to using collective intelligence which is being dealt with in greater depth by Dr Servan-Schreiber in a separate session. A very brief summary will serve for our purposes



World's shortest introduction to Prediction Markets

A Prediction Market is:A market in which the stocks are questions about future events, money may not be real and there are no insider trading laws

A technique applied by Iowa Electronic Markets to successfully predict the outcomes of nearly all the US elections for the past 15 years with greater accuracy than the professional poll organisations 75% of the time

A technique for getting at the aggregate knowledge and wisdom of large groups so effective that it is leveraged by GE in its’ new innovation driven business model and by Best Buy to select product lines for next years focus

A method of finding out what people really think about the questions floated as stocks because bidding is anonymous



Another example of tackling massive variety created by Social Media actually extends BEYOND the organisations self perceived boundary.

One of our technology partners FlyingBinary, run by the inimitable Jacqui Taylor, specialises in big data and social media.

The following two slides show the results of a massive high speed web-data trawl and the latest super-fast structuring and search technologies


Sysparatem Managing Variety in Social MediaFrom FlyingBinary


Sysparatem The Framework Fusion


● Major real-world paradigm changes create multifaceted problems

● They demand a range of skills and toolsThey demand a range of skills and tools

● Usually we need to mix approaches and frameworks to suit the Usually we need to mix approaches and frameworks to suit the territory we find ourselves in territory we find ourselves in

● We are free to fuse frameworks to suit the territory but trying to We are free to fuse frameworks to suit the territory but trying to make the territory fit the framework only ends in falsifying or ignoring make the territory fit the framework only ends in falsifying or ignoring evidence evidence

We shall not cease from explorationWe shall not cease from explorationAnd the end of all our exploringAnd the end of all our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first timeAnd know the place for the first time

Sysparatem Framework Fusion

Copyright under Creative Commons Sysparatem 2012

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Systems Thinking & Social Media

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