BA465H

Systems Thinking and Practice (4)

Spring Term 2005

Jonathan King Bexell 332 737-4601

jonathan.king@bus.oregonstate.edu

There is no more important element in education today than the understanding of the systems which we form

and by which we are both sustained and constrained.

Sir Geoffrey Vickers

Readings: selected articles and book chapters

Grading: quality of participation and homework

Course objective: to understand the readings and exercises in the following context

ê ê

We must not cease from exploration.

And the end of all our exploring will be

to arrive where we began and to know

the place for the first time.

T.S. Eliot

Exterior Interior

Objective Subjective

“Outside-In” + “Inside-Out”

“Actor” “Author”

Collective ITS è WE

Synthetic

Holistic Functionalist Causality Expectationalist Causality

Darwin Durkheim

ê

+

é IT I

Individual

Analytic Mechanistic Causality Intentionalist Causality

Atomistic Descartes ç Dante

OR

How the below is good for business, good for science, and good for us.

Multiple "frames" and "games" vs The facts

Multiple S, P, F vs The game

Multiple Levels vs Reductionism

Meaning vs Detached Observer

Meaningful vs ? ? ?

INTRODUCTION

Week 1: Beyond "Problem Solving"

"Learning to Solve the Right Problems," King

"Mechanisms, Organisms, and Social Systems," Gharajedaghi & Ackoff

'GAMES THAT PLAY PEOPLE"

Week 2: SEEING SYSTEMS

Act I & II, Oshry

Act III, Oshry

Week 3: CANL SYSTEMS

"The Dark Side of Organizations…," Bella, King, Kailin

"Chug and Plug, Cram and Flush," Bella

HOW TO SEE SYSTEMS: THE REALITIES OF MULTIPLE DIMENSIONS

Week 4: Multiple Games

"The Balanced Scorecard"

"Human Capitalism," & excerpts, Natural Capitalism

TBA--S,P,F

Week 5: Continued

TBA--Lewontin; Varela et al.

TBA--Wilber

HOW TO SEE SYSTEMS: THE REALITIES OF MULTIPLE LEVELS

Week 6:

"More Is Different," Anderson

"Determinism and Humanism," Frankl

WANTING TO SEE SYSTEMS: EMOTIONAL REALITIES

Week 7: DEFENSIVE THINKING

Argyris

"C.P. Ellis"

Hoffer

Becker

Goleman et al.

"The Unheard Cry for Meaning," Frankl

Week 8: INTRINSIC MOTIVATION

Why We Do What We Do, Deci

First, Break All The Rules

Week 9: A SCIENCE OF THE POSSIBLE: LISTENING

The Great Walls of Misunderstanding

"Empathetic Listening," Covey

"What Is Science?" "What Is Religion?" Wilber

Week 10: