Stop Bureaucracy: Releasing Europe’s Potential, Rebuilding Trust [Promoted content]: Bureaucracy threatens Europe’s economy, #socialsystems, and #greentransformation. To secure prosperity, freedom, and creativity, the “Stop Bureaucracy” initiative calls for smart, proportionate, and business-friendly rules that empower citizens, support trust, and keep Europe open, competitive, and future-ready. https://www.euractiv.com/section/economy-jobs/opinion/stop-bureaucracy-releasing-europes-potential-rebuilding-trust/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=dlvr.it
#SocialSystems
We're excited about the upcoming #sociocracy conference THIS WEEK.
https://www.sociocracyforall.org/sociocracy-conference-2025/
#socialchange #socialinnovation #socinn #governance #decisionmaking #socialsystems
For people from #nonprofit #business #leadership #doinggood #purpose #education #NGO #forpurpose #coop
"As the Italian philosopher #UmbertoEco warned in his essay "Ur-Fascism," #socialsystems don't collapse overnight. They erode through small surrenders, through the gradual normalization of #compliance as a civic virtue." www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti...
Opinion: Trump’s chaotic rule ...
I"ve started to go down a level of detail in my book on social systems for a better world.
First is a chapter on "Countries in Context", describing the border and interactions with external entities such as other countries, global corporations and the like.
Still at a high level; there is too much to say to fit into one chapter. I may just try to finish the book at about this level of detail, then provide additional details on the same site, with links but outside the linear narrative of a book
#SocialSystems #systemsThinking
#country #corporation #oligarchs
https://ericlawton.org/preface/countries/countries-system-context/
I've updated the section "Social Systems Concepts" in my book on changing #SocialSystems.
It introduces a bit of theory, before diving in to analyzing large-scale social systems. Now working on the next chapter, on Global Social Systems.
#systemsThinking
https://ericlawton.org/preface/social-systems/social-systems-concepts/
My new blog post on updates to my book on understanding and changing the world.
After five days in hospital, and another five days without power because of an ice storm, I decided it was time to return in earnest to writing.
I rewrote the Introduction and the first main section “Humans and Other Persons” and restructured the whole Table of Contents.
#writing #SocialSystems #systemsThinking
https://ericlawton.org/2025/04/08/new-first-sections-of-changing-the-world/
BBC Radio 4 - The Reith Lectures, Dr Atul Gawande - The Future of Medicine, The Century of the System
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04sv1s5
> Atul Gawande calls for a radical rethink of medical systems to transform healthcare.
And not just healthcare. Any complex social systems.
He also talks about checklists as a simple way to improve systems. He has a book on it. Highly recommended for any industry with complex and risky processes.
https://atulgawande.com/book/the-checklist-manifesto/
I created several before I retired, for people designing and building IT systems. They seem so simple, but they can be extremely effective.
(They also got me a trip to Montpellier, France but YMMV 😀)
Rating hurricane impact: The “Waffle House” Effect. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/what-the-waffle-house-index-says-about-hurricane-milton Often the best way to measure impact is to look at patterns of disruption that go beyond estimated dollar amounts of property damage. #HurricaneRecovery #disasterrecovery #socialsystems
Nearly half of students can’t cover basics such as food and housing: TD poll
"In a new survey from TD Bank, nearly half of Canadian students say they are unable to adequately cover basic needs such as food and housing."
The Star list this under "personal finance".
If a very few have problems, it may be a personal issue.
If 45% have the same problem, it's a systemic issue.
What's different about social systems?
Key ways in which human social systems differ from other systems.
- The way human minds co-evolved with our social systems - neither make any sense except in the light of this.
- Our thinking is mostly subconscious and is deeply influenced by our social environment.
https://ericlawton.org/2024/08/19/whats-different-about-social-systems/
Who Benefits from a System?
Why it is useful to think of a system, not as having a single purpose or no purpose at all, as some people imply by their, POSIWID (The Purpose Of a System Is What It Does) slogan, but as having multiple purposes, one for each *Interested Party*.
https://ericlawton.org/2024/08/14/who-benefits-from-a-system/
I've been binge-listening to a podcast series "Human Centred".
I don't agree with some of them but they all made me think hard.
A great combination of academics and activists, often both, on how we change our systems for the better.
Yet another page on #SocialSystems #systemsThinking
Interests, values and metrics:
Understanding who benefits from a system, what they want from it, how to measure it, and the importance of understanding what power they have over the system, in order to plan around their resistance to change.
https://ericlawton.org/preface/social-systems-theory/interests-values-and-metrics/
A couple of new book chapters on social systems theory, including the MADPEA loop, a lifecycle framework.
New blog post on #propaganda and #democracy
I have expanded my book section on Language Tools and Traps, highlighting how repetitive messaging affects our unconscious minds.
I discuss political propaganda in the U.S. Presidential race and suggest factual attacks against Trump as the best option. The USA must fix its broken electoral and party system.
I keep going in circles on what "the economy" is, from the point of social systems theory.
I've decided on a working definition. It is not a subsystem of a social system but a principle of organization and a set of metrics..
Here's why.
https://ericlawton.org/preface/the-economy-is-not-a-social-system/
New blog post on #SocialSystems
"Systems and Purposes" in which I disagree that "The purpose of a system is what it does (POSIWID)" and suggest an alternative.
#systems
https://ericlawton.org/2024/06/20/systems-and-purposes/
New blog post on #SocialSystems
"Systems and Purposes" in which I disagree that "The purpose of a system is what it does (POSIWID)" and suggest an alternative.
#systemsThinking
https://ericlawton.org/2024/06/20/systems-and-purposes/
I’ve seen a few posts on Mastodon recently about purposes and systems. A couple of them have assumed as a fact that the purpose of a system is what it does (POSIWID). I don’t think that’s helpful. The Oxford Dictionary of English defines “purpose” as
the reason for which something is done or created for or for which something exists.
I don’t think we systems theorists have the authority to change common usage of the word “purpose”. I understand the reasoning. That we should counter the notion that the purpose of a system can be read from the intentions of those who design, operate, or promote it. But it would be better to say that systems generally do not have a purpose than to insist that “the reason for which it was created” is what it does. That’s just not usually true.
That said, I have an alternative suggestion. A system can have no purpose at all – it just does what it does and nobody has any reason for it. Or it can have multiple purposes, for multiple people. The purpose of my wall clock is to show me the time. It’s purpose for its maker, some time ago, was to make a profit selling it. The fact that it consumes power from a battery is part of what it does, but not of its purpose.
I propose another model: “Purpose” is a relationship between an interested party (like me and the clockmaker) and a system (the clock). It is one kind of interest.
Parties can have many interests in a system. Some of those interests are things that they want it to do: its purpose for them. Other interests may include what it does not do, such as not emitting CO2, which certainly can be a reason for its design.
Since the larger-scale human social systems have many interested parties, they can have many purposes, which may be cross-purposes. From the point of view of most residents of a country, the purpose of the democracy subsystem (legislature, voting processes, …) is to express their will and govern the country on their behalf. For others, it may be to act as a screen to conceal the real state of affairs—that they have more power than the residents—so that they can maintain their power with less risk of revolution.
For more details, see my Social Systems Metamodel.
New blog post: Writing Tools Update
I use Obsidian for organizing non-fiction material, Freeplane for visual organization, and Modelio for full concept mapping. I also use drawio for quick diagram creation and plan to use Inkscape for artistic diagrams in the future. I chose the tools based on their specific strengths and my preferences.
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