Human beings are quick problem solvers. From an evolutionary standpoint, this makes sense—if a sabertooth tiger is bounding toward you, you need to quickly decide on a course of action, or you won’t be around for long. Thus, quick problem solvers were the ones who survived. We quickly determine a cause for any event that we think is a problem. Usually we conclude that the cause is another event.

This made me think of creativity. It’s obvious that creative thinking is the best way to solve business problems. The way this was paragraph written made me visually comprehend what that meant.  It really made me look at things in a different way. I started thinking about the causal loops we did last Friday in class. Firstly, I did it wrong and I managed to create a mega mind map instead (which might I point out, is a creative thinking tool) and I was supposed to be solving a problem rather, which was making the abstract tangible, or recognising the cobblestones to the solution.

So, I think the connection i’m trying to articulate here is that; Creativity seems to be recognising a cobblestone, using the imagination to come up with something, and systems thinking is recognising the pathways and seeing how the cobblestones are connected to each other.

Linear information, structured and heavily simplified.

Observing the surrounding components / cobblestones

Systems thinking is recognising the pathways and seeing how the cobblestones are connected to each other.

“Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while.” ~ Steve Jobs 

I have posted a diagram above to try and illustrate this point further.

The methods of systems thinking provide us with tools for better understanding these difficult management problems. The methods have been used for over thirty years (Forrester 1961)

In particular, they require that we move away from looking at isolated events and their causes (usually assumed to be some other events), and start to look at the organization as a system made up of interacting parts.

A causal loop would be one of these beautiful tools or methods. Causal loops are a way to articulate complex systems and understand the causes and effects of a system. This allows you to view it from different perspectives so one can get down to the conditions of causes and solve issues from an internal system structure.

To start to consider system structure, you first generalize from the specific events associated with your problem to considering patterns of behaviour that characterize the situation.

I am really enjoying the way this paper is written. This passage made me think of emptiness. When emptiness is being explained they always start off by explaining consciousness on a gross level, which is similar to how one generalises as stated above. In Buddhism, once the gross level is experienced/actualised or observed, one moves deeper into the subtler levels of consciousness.

The systems approach gains much of its power as a problem solving method from the fact that similar patterns of behaviour show up in a variety of different situations, and the underlying system structures that cause these characteristic patterns are known. Thus, once you have identified a pattern of behaviour that is a problem, you can look for the system structure that is known to cause that pattern. By finding and modifying this system structure, you have the possibility of permanently eliminating the problem pattern of behaviour.

This is really beautiful. It is so similar to meditation of observation, where one observes the systems of the body, breaking each level down further and further until they understand the nature of something for what it is.

There are four main patterns of behaviour which show up individually in systems or in combinations. These are Exponential growth, Goal-seeking behaviour, s-shaped growth and oscillation.

I’ll continue examining this tutorial in the following blog post.

Interest in system dynamics is spreading as people appreciate its unique ability to represent the real world. It can accept the complexity, nonlinearity, and feedback loop structures that are inherent in social and physical systems.

I find this really beautiful. People understand their world around them through recognising patterns, and understanding how these patterns  work. In my personal opinion, I have found that communication can reduce the wonder of something so easily, because of it’s liner structure. There can be so much abstract knowledge to a subject, which is lost in translation in so many ways. Systems dynamics sounds like a more natural way to uncover and understand our surroundings.

Understanding comes first, but the goal is improvement.

We had two sessions today. The first was with Nosakhere, where we had a class discussion on what we had been doing in the past week, what sort of potential topics were arising and what type of support do we require ?

This would be the structure in which we would report back every friday, on Vula. We got briefed in on how to go about the Action plans and learning logs. Which made me feel like I was in a Sci-fi movie.

On the same theme of Sci fi, In the later Session, with Kosheek, we spoke of whether we’ve noticed any emerging constellations in potential topics. This was so that we could draw a systems map. 

Systems thinking

This is simply put, it is the understanding of how systems behave and improving them. A system is a dynamic and complex whole, it is not just a linear structure which simply arises then passes away, it is living in many paths, so there needs to be a different method to understand this, from more of a human point of view.

LOOKING BOTH WAYS THROUGH THE WINDOWS OF SENGE’S FIVE DISCIPLINES

Senge pointed out a simple set of dynamics that we tend to forget – that as humans we want to learn, and we want to understand why things are the way they are – in a more whole way.

Systems thinking is a way of seeing how entities connect, where they connect and how they are related to one another, this is much better than just viewing a certain part and not understanding the whole.

Causal loop

We learnt about causal loops in todays class. We learnt about it the true Mphil way, which was by practise. I thought I understood this, and I started my causal loop on my research topic. I think I had travelled through the pathways of my topic a bit to throughly and I ended up just making a mega-mind map of my research topics. When I reflect back on the Ownpower LMS causal loop we did, I can understand it a lot more.

So, I did a bit of reading on causal loops and I came to the conclusion, that to understand a causal loop I need to create a causal loop on causal loops. That didn’t really work out either.

However, I really felt that I needed to engage with the practise of this task and actualise it before reading further about it. So, I did a causal loop on Suffering.

Causal loop practise – on Suffering.

Seeing as those images are quite small in the  Ownpower | LMS post, here are those diagrams again.

Here’s what I got up to this week…

Ownpower invited me to a workshop. Nosakhere was also present. The aim of this workshop was to come up with a new paradigm of learning, or a new business model for online learning. 

We used integrative thinking and causal loops to get to the heart of the subject. We looked at two lens views, to create the business models. 

Ontology

We used the Pedagogy of the oppressed by Paulo Freire. It is a book based on the teacher student relationship. Freire, speaks of traditional education working on a linear bases he calls it the ”banking model” because it treats the student as an empty vessel to be filled with knowledge. He offers a solution, to treat the learner as a co-creator of knowledge.

This fits onto Nosakere’s dreamocrat model. The model points out for every learner/dreamer there is an equivalent educator/dreamer. At the moment traditional education is  working on a vertical axis, where the educator treats the student as an empty vessel and the student in turn accepts knowledge as a passive learner. The horizontal axis is where we witness subject, objective unity. Where Learning how to receive knowledge creates the Co-dream. It’s not about one role, it’s about making the world a better place form both sides. The ideal spot to be for all, is a balanced central position, the Dreamocrat.

Epistomology

We worked with Disclosing new worlds – By Charles Spinosa, Fernando Flores and Hubert L. Dreyfus I have not read it yet, so I will quote a section from this website. However, I’m sure there will be a future blog post on this book.

Disclosing New Worlds calls for a recovery of a way of being that has always characterized human life at its best. The book argues that human beings are at their best not when they are engaged in abstract reflection, but when they are intensely involved in changing the taken-for-granted, everyday practices in some domain of their culture—that is, when they are making history. History-making, in this account, refers not to wars and transfers of political power, but to changes in the way we understand and deal with ourselves.

Disclosing new worlds diagram

I then got taken through the ridiculously, awesome process of causal loops. A causal loop is used to understand complex systems. A causal loop is a visualisation method, where we map out all the possible variables in a system, to understand how they are interrelated.  This is the LMS causal loop.

Then, we used Integrative thinking. It is a method or discipline, in which one can solve complex problems. It was originated by Graham Douglas.

All these methodologies and techniques have been used to create business models for the LMS. Here is our first business model on formal learning.

In the end we are self-perceiving, self-creating, locked-in mirages.We are miracles of self-reference. Douglas Hofstadder  

Jason Silva speaks about the Mirroring mind in this video.

Jason Silva is one of my favourite performance philosopher, as he calls himself. He speaks about self-awareness and how we mirror our external world. He speaks about the observer, observing. 

The more self referentially aligned, the more self aware one becomes. 

These topics have all been resonating with me at the moment. If I ask myself why, it would be based on 2 separate conversations I had this week.

I was talking to Ayanda, from Ownpower about language and how we articulate ourselves.

“We don’t understand each other, language is just a false construct. We think the other person understands us, but we are infusing ourselves into the conversation and the person listening is listening by infusing themselves into the conversation. ” 

So, we are basically talking to each other, by listening to where or how we,ourselves fit into the situation. How does this affect ME. 

Suddenly, my understanding of communication broke down. I now saw communication, as being in a car driving forwards by looking backwards through a rear view mirror. 

The other conversation was, in the orientation period, when Nosakhere was chatting to us about Michael Jackson’s song –  Man in the mirror 

” I’m starting with the man in the mirror, I’m asking him to change his ways.”

By watching this video, It made me grasp what they were trying to say. 

Come on, my Reader, and let us construct a diagram to illustrate the general course of thought

Charles S. Peirce, Manuscripts on Existential Graphs. Reprinted in Peirce (1906), CP 4.530.

After the incredibly exciting orientation period, I started to re-think possibilities and practises of this project. My mind was jumping from idea to idea, in true monkey mind style. 

I have been working with Ownpower for the past two months, we were most recently working on the Skills intelligence platform.We are moving on to the learning management system tomorrow. I really think this is a system that will be a great practical component to my research, I believe that learning is something where innovation needs to help with solving some serious issues. I should focus my research on this.

I also start working at my new job next week, which will be focused on usability on e-government / e-citizen systems for the Western cape government. Since this is my main job and I will be putting a lot of my energy into this, I should focus my research on this.

I have been wanting to explore interaction design in depth, as it is what I am pursuing a career in. The idea of human and machine being able to interact, observing two polarities which are based upon one another, fascinates me. It is what I truly love and I should research what I love.

This research is also based on entrepreneurship, so I should pursue my dream startup, Diagrammatic. This is based on infographics and perception of information being easily digested. Alexander Gerner’s concept of diagrammatic thinking, was the inspiration of the startup and it was something I had been wanting to get going for a while. It resonated with me and I feel it is also something I would love to research. 

I had so many options which I feel needed to be researched. How was I going to do this ? Where do I start, what is my practise?  I started to overwhelm myself with questions and spin into an anxious heap. So, I did what everyone in an anxious heap does, I sat down at a coffee shop and had a beverage that would make me even more anxious.

Then, I noticed that this was in fact what the research was all about. It was about the practise, and how I perceive it, how I work with this, it is about the nature of being and how I understand it and how I will validate it. My research includes all of these components and how I understand it, act on it , reflect on it and practise of  all of these. This is where I attempted to wrap my head around four beautiful words; Epistemology, ontology, reflexivity and praxis.

I’m still working on it, but here’s a diagram that I created to try figure out how to try figure this all out.

We had three days of registration and orientation at the GSB, where we met everyone involved in the MPhil programme. 

We started off with an incredibly inspiring session about living your dreams with Nosakhere. We spoke about identifying one’s purpose of one’s dream, which was quite difficult. The difficult part was actually figuring out what one’s dream is, never mind the actual purpose of it. We started off with individual dreams, then we moved into a super dream, which was the groups dream – this later led to a super duper dream, which was the whole classes dream. 

I really enjoyed this, mainly because it was great to observe and participate in finding out that everyone’s dreams were very similar  and that it would be best to utilise everyones dreams to create a combined grasp on how to make those dreams possible. Nosakhere calls this the co dream. 

We also spoke about, what makes a good dissertation and it got pointed out that, the best dissertation is a finished one. I really liked hearing that “The dissertation process is your process, it’s about self transformation”. Which reminded me of the ancient alphorism “know thyself”,which has been used in many dialogues about knowledge and wisdom, yet it is so often overlooked and misunderstood. 

We talked about language being the currency that is used to understand the world. In these three days, this was definitely coming across; There was this path that needed to be walked, and while walking it there would be realisations on an experiential level, these realisations would affect one’s perception of reality. These would then need to be articulated, through language. 

This is research in practise, it’s a practical understanding of how we research and come to an outcome by taking action. The way in which we will walk on this path will be by studying different techniques and methodologies to unravel and generate knowledge for action. This allows us to develop a way to describe ourselves in everyday reality, so that we can have a deeper understanding. It is important to know oneself, so that you can recognise and relate to the human state because business is based on human activities and needs. 

These three days have really been inspiring days and I am so grateful for this opportunity.

I feel like it’s the right time to bring Morpheus in on this one.