Why self-organisation is not a trend?
Category: systems thinking
Circulations
Reflections from the student forum at Capra Course:
Wellbeing as a network of diverse resources & a circulation of resources. Circulation is important part!
RE organisations, I’m thinking lately about organisations as communities, where community is a network of diverse relationships indeed. I also wonder, how this systemic view can be applied in business education, that is, starting with an idea that a business is a community, always changing, fuelled by (diverse) relationships. (This almost goes the opposite to traditional (static) approach of “business strategy”).
In both of these areas, wellbeing of our bodies/minds/spirits and wellbeing of organisations, what seems to be common is circulation of resources, a flow of interactions. When I started learning about systems thinking this year, I observed that the main idea about systems is indeed interactions (links), rather than parts (topics). … Here, valuing conversations, too. Because every interaction disturbs the network in an unexpected way!
Glue
The basics of Living Systems is a conversation.
Tikyba
Tikiu grožiu.
Emergence
Min energy
Brian Goodwin
Max grace
Hack: Transforming a feeling into a pause = situation with the least resistance.
Wholes
Spontaneous emergence of new forms of order. When the energy of the flow increases, it may happen that the system as a whole encounters a point of instability, known technically as a “bifurcation point,” where it can branch off, or “bifurcate,” into an entirely new state. (Section 8.2)
Capra course
What conditions are needed for emergence? Any general patterns here?
Memes
Enough Disturbances in an Open System (that we all are) create Break-Throughs (emergence to a new order) instead of Break-Downs.
How might we spark innovative ecosystems?
If all living systems are creative and nature favours novelty … how might we spark this meme in society where popular memes say – being creative is going “against the grain” and “hard work” is praised – while in nature, minimum effort and fluidity takes the lead?
Learning Systems
All living systems are learning systems;
Life as a pattern of relationships; a self-generating network within a boundary of its own making; membrane is always active as a boundary, always opens and closes; life as metabolic networks: flow;
The more fluctuation, the more flexible system is; pattern is stable, structure changes (structural coupling); only disturb people, not direct;
Every interaction with the environment causes structural changes within the system
Hmm..
Can a system have no boundary?
What’s a healthy level of fluctuation?
What exactly happens when a system interacts with the environment? What are these structural changes?
I wonder..
The future of education: learners realising they’re learning systems already, the role of teachers as feedback loops. What disturbances are worthy in learning environments?
How could a self-directed learning be the future of education? Seeing our bodies+minds as a learning system, where our knowledge graph changes based on interaction with environment, new neurons in the brain grow when we learn.
Mini Systems
How would nature design a Community as MVP? 3+1.
Systems
Zoom in and zoom out. Everything is a system. But how to create a tiny one?
Maybe drive an inspiration from a city or a car.
Links
Co-existence is never fulfilled solo. Because links is what create belonging. Just being. Just give. Balance it with just ask.
Parts
A cell is both, an individual and a part of an arm. And of the body.
Same with humans. We’re on our own but also a part of something bigger by default. A part of a human species. And of a planet Earth. And of the solar system. And of the universe.
And what’s awareness then? Maybe realising which role to play when. Different needs matter then.
Teams
Learning to be an arm, sometimes a head, sometimes a finger for a team. Same like cells are units of their own but also part of the bigger unit – the body.
Complexity
Self-organisation was interesting to me for a long time when experimenting with personal development. But these days I look for inspiration elsewhere and everywhere.
How do self-organised organisms work? What conditions are needed? When these are better than top-down organised systems?
This is quite an important question to me as I believe that self-direction promotes construction and thus meaningful life for all.
Ethics
Ethics is a common topic in business and in technology. What are ethics? It’s a personal question, first.
Making myself (and/or others) better vs. Making myself (and/or others) worse.
The challenge is – ecosystems we live in are so complex and complicated, so that in most moments we cannot answer this question.
How might we simplify? Why complicate?