This year on November 9, the people of Berlin celebrated the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. A business trip to explore partnerships with German universities took me to Berlin one month before that anniversary to see what has been, and continues to be, an amazing transformation. What I saw taking place… Read more »
Tag: Systems Theory
Learning Across Boundaries – The ISSS-2014 Conference in Washington, D.C.
The 58th meeting of the International Society for the Systems Sciences was held George Washington University, in Washington, D.C. Gerald Midgley president for this year, and his conference team, are to be commended for creating a great week of learning. The theme of the conference was “Learning Across Boundaries: Exploring the variety of systemic theory and practice.” That theme was reflected… Read more »
The Evolutionary Journey of Life
Life is a journey. I have been keenly aware of that for a good portion of my life. I guess I became aware of the power of the metaphor in my early twenties when I broke away from some cultural patterns that diverted me from what a friend called “the franchised life” — that more… Read more »
Conversations About the Future Systems Research
There is a long connection between Saybrook and systems conversations, which continues to this day. The semi-annual conversations have been hosted by the International Federation for Systems Research (IFSR), and were historically known as the Fuschl Conversations (due to their location at Fuschl am See in Austria). Bela Banathy, the founder of the systems program… Read more »
Destructive Cycle/Generative Cycle
After going through a long destructive cycle in my life, where everything I counted on fell away, I have emerged into a generative period in which life energy has returned, and I am moving toward the world again. This period of disintegration changed everything for me. Keeping my seat as life’s fabric unraveled was hard,… Read more »
Complexity and Grace
I have been teaching systems thinking as an approach to deal with complexity for many years. Complexity has become a catch word, something that is recognized as a part of modern life, something that should not be ignored or simplified. We have too many examples of reductionist approaches that tried to solve a problem through… Read more »
Myths About Leadership
In 2010 IBM published a study identifying complexity as the primary challenge for leaders. Intuitively, we can relate to this study’s premise. However, we may have different understandings of complexity ranging from mere complication to total chaos. Complexity can be defined as a state of intricacy, complication, variety and involvement in the interconnected parts of… Read more »
Is the “Eco-System Economy” Ready for Prime Time?- A Review of “Leading from the Emerging Future”
For anyone interested in 21st century organizational effectiveness, sustainability, integral leadership, conscious evolution and/or societal transformation who has not yet delved into Otto Scharmer’s concept of “presencing” — the practice of “sensing” future possibilities and acting from the presence of what wants to emerge – I invite you to prepare for a most satisfying journey… Read more »
Group Intelligence
Why does the intelligence of a group matter? What is group intelligence? We spend most of our lives engaged with people in a myriad of activities. Our livelihoods depend on our interaction with others. For most of us living in modern societies, our success and quality of life are completely dependent on the various groups… Read more »
The Evolving Notion of “City Center”
The notion of city is morphing, including how it is structured and how it functions as a center of commerce. As they have done down through the ages, cities today are continuing to evolve. They are developing new forms of society and methods of commerce by weaving people and digital technology into dynamic systems not… Read more »