1 of 100 Suchness of Wicked Problems through Nemetic Lenses

Wicked Problems arise from consequences of 'dynamic iterations of processes'

 

“Dynamic iterations of processes” (memory, learning, eating, walking, designing, beating of hearts, economics, living etc) which is central to our continued existence as human species is also the cause of creating 'wicked problems'. Far from being an ordered system that we might like it to be, dynamic iteration of processes continually shape and change our environment forcing us to constantly adapt to such changes, failing which, we create our own wicked problems.

What initially starts out as an ordered system invariably veers towards complexity upon dynamic iteration of a process, which occasionally slips into chaos to create new dynamic orders and forms that replace previous situations. Undoubtedly the dynamism processes when repeated over and over again generate various consequences. These consequences emanating from iterative processes create 'Wicked Problems' that nag us.

When caught between wicked problems, we yearn for safe ways to wriggle out from its clutches. But it is difficult unless the processes, which are dynamic systems, aren't changed or modified or redesigned according to contextual reality we face. However, we would not like to change any present system unless the returns from the present system are so meagre that it is no longer possible to live with some sense of human dignity and emotional well being.

For example, embracing the industrial age gave us huge benefits that enabled us to live better than what we did during our engagement with 'agricultural age'. But it also brought along with it a wide gamut of 'wicked problems' that we often find so difficult to eliminate or address like 'poverty', 'unemployment', 'pollution', 'water crisis', 'education', 'health care', 'child labor', 'broken homes', 'crimes', 'wars', and 'new diseases' like obesity, bird flu, AIDS, ADD etc.

Needless to say that it is impossible to like these problems. And some of us intensely pine for a different life or outcome. But is that possible?

It is immanently clear that the efforts we have so far initiated to address the 'wicked problems' are far from reassuring. However, it is also clear that necessary changes might be brought about though 'collective action' informed by changes in cognition and collective consciousness.

It depends on our ability to 'innovate' in such ways so as to resolve “man made wicked problems” faced by us, humbly acknowledging the fact that the 'wicked problems' can only be resolved when the necessary conditions to resolve them (to be dealt in the next chapter) exist.

Nemetics as a discipline is exploited not only to understand the world around us but also the gain necessary insights to remain in step or sync with the dynamics of our present 'means of reproduction' (the iterated process) which in many ways resemble the random, erratic and often chaotic dance of Shiva. The events around us shape our consciousness and change our behavior, which in turn enable us to engage in uniquely redesigning our present systems for the better.

 

Why Systems Fail & Redesigning for the Better?

I am excited. My months of struggle is almost nearing its end to give birth to something new. I am almost on the verge of completing a book on 'Why Systems Fail & Redesigning for the Better? - A Nemetic Approach'.

Well, writing a book is something like birthing a baby. I can well feel the joy, worry, agony and ecstasy of women creating life on earth. Unfortunately, being a man I would never feel it exactly as they feel but writing is something similar - a process of creative enfolding and unfolding where intense pure emotions and clear cognition come together to create new flows.  

In this post I would like to share a part of that agony filled excitement with you by presenting the Preface (still in draft till publication):

 

Preface

 

For the last thirty three years I have tried to be attentive in finding an answer to an interesting and important question that occupied my mind for so long: ‘Why systems fail?’ This is just the opposite of asking: ‘How systems work?’

Though these two questions apparently oppose each other the answer is paradoxically the same. That is for anything to work or function smoothly it must not fail. Or stated more explicitly, smooth functioning or failure of any system is the outcome of the same interactions taking place within a system. I also believe that our human mind is designed for noticing failures much faster than noticing successes. Hence my professional journey began with that question, ‘Why Systems Fail?’ and the question has remained with me till date.

 

To my mind this is an important and relevant question in these times since as of now our world as a system has grown more complex and chaotic that shows erratic behavior, which at times, is not very pleasing. We feel it every day in our lives. Uncertainty of jobs or means of livelihood is no longer questionable but a fact of life. We are completely governed by various systems that we have created. Thus failures like famine, poverty, illiteracy, spread of diseases; infant mortality and unemployment that we see around us are outcomes of the systems that we engineered. So my hope is if only we clearly understand as to why systems fail we would also be able to re-design our systems with changing times to benefit many.  

 

This gives us the hope that you and I may do something about making our systems fail less often that they do now. Never before, mankind has been so dependent on the success of man made engineering systems (social systems are also engineered systems) to function smoothly in an uninterrupted manner. If this can be done, as the numerous examples in the book would show, it saves us time, money, resources (mainly energy) and effort. Isn’t it a sane thing to do? The approach is neither evolutionary nor revolutionary. It lies “in between” the two. Hence I call it ‘evorevolution’ – an interesting in between where big systemic changes may be brought about by small onetime efforts. Achieving the interesting ‘in between’ is the focus of the book.

 

A failure of our man made systems often proves too costly. It endangers human lives. It endangers the environment. It affects national economies. It affects productivity. It wastes material and resources that affects our own sustainability as a ‘species’. It affects costs and thereby profitability of our productive organizations. If we cannot put our human feelings and intelligence to work to eradicate such ‘failures’ then what is the use?

 

It is obvious that poorly engineered systems force an economy to spend more and thereby impoverish the economy and lower the standard of living of its citizens. Thus I can say that in today’s world, the success of engineered systems has created the fundamental divide between richer and developing (read poor) nations. Then the question of improvement of economy squarely rests on the how do we eliminate or contain failures of our engineered systems and make them work to meet the best performance standards. That is the essence of the subject of System Reliability through the discipline of Nemetics on which I would love to have a dialogue through this book.  

 

In this regard I must say that I was extremely lucky to have been associated with failures within manufacturing organizations. It could not have been any better. It proved to be a perfect field of study that is totally concerned with ‘surprises’, ‘failures that prove to be costly’, ‘randomness’, ‘complexity’ and ‘chaos’.  I have been lucky to engage with thousands of failures that take place in strange combinations. I have seen innumerable machinery problems. And each of those told me stories, which I internalized. I have seen countless problems and issues with the human part of manufacturing organizations and have learned from those stories too. I have seen problems with management and problems with workers and employees and those stories have been kind enough to teach me through silence, the lessons worth learning for life. Over time, I slowly got to see the underlying essence of the problems through the patterns that evolved on their own. And then I was in for some great surprise.

 

One day, it suddenly dawned on me that the lessons I learned from the dark and dim world of manufacturing organizations could be easily applied to any system whether local or global’ whether small businesses or big businesses; whether economies or nations; in short to every conceivable system even to social systems like healthcare, education, transportation etc. That makes life grand. It gives us tremendous hope for creating a better future.   

 

That does not mean that I have learned all the lessons life has to offer me. Far from it! I am still on that exciting journey learning everyday something new and exciting. But all I want to do is to share a simple enough framework with its methods, called Nemetics, that helps just about anyone find answers to how and why systems fail and what we might do about such failures to improve systems as time and need change.  

 

I must say that the framework of Nemetics, so to say, was quite accidentally invented and co-evolved through several conversations and dialogues on Twitter with my Twitter pals, coming from various fields. We soon discovered that this framework could be effortlessly applied to any field or context of human activity involved in a process or a system. The context changes but the metaphor remains the same.

 

So, with great enthusiasm and excitement I want to share with you the stories with the hope that the framework and the methods of Nemetics, i.e. to notice reality through failures & movements, engage with the interrelationships that play out, mull over the rules that create them, create and exchange value with new or re-engineered designs might help others to improve productivity, performance and profitability of the systems they are presently engaged with.

 

And there are two big advantages of using the Nemetics framework and its methods, which are:

 

1. A group of multiple problems can be addressed by “one time effort”. There is little need to address problems one by one. That saves money, resources, time and the pain of suffering failures.

 

2. Such ‘one time efforts’ to solve groups of multiple problems & paradoxes simultaneously also help individuals and organizations to reap on-going benefits for years to come before new needs accost us to disturb our peace of mind.

 

Acknowledgements:

 

One must know a rather strange fact regarding the development of Nemetics. The discussion on Nemetics started out more as fun conversation on Twitter amongst Twitter friends. Since then it has come a long way to its present state of development through constant practice and theory. Therefore I acknowledge with thanks Michael Josefowicz (@toughloveforx) with whom the initial conversation on Nemetics started. He introduced to me his language of Nemetics waiting for real life applications. And I in turn slowly introduced to him my methods of solving ‘complex’ and ‘wicked problems’ waiting for a language to express the essence. There could not have been a better relationship that resonated at once fulfilling each others mutual needs.

 

Subsequently, such conversations on Twitter turned into a sort of an exciting game that we played along with other Twitter pals  Dan R.D (@ddrrnt)  Sean Grainger (@graingered) D. C. Padhi (@humanatom) and having Paula Thornton (@rotkapchen), Neus Lorenzo (@newsneus) @counterpane, @assesswell, Paul (reomahi), Steven Putter (@stevenputter), Mpule K. Kwelagobe (@mpulekwelagobe) as interested, engaged & curious observers and participants to our frequent but intense and passionate plays. And soon many others joined. I am grateful to them too.   

I am also greatly indebted to organizations like Tata Metaliks Kobutu Pipes Limited, Tata Metaliks Limited, UltraTech, Vikram Cement, Grasim Cement, Tega Industries Limited, and Hindustan Unilever for providing opportunities and the playgrounds where the action research of Nemetics (from 1990 till date) played out to resolve their complex issues and ‘wicked problems’ in manufacturing systems, design, incentive and learning systems.

 

Till date, the discipline and practice of Nemetics are being developed through active participation of many through numerous conversations, applications to live problems, training and education programs all of which form the significant part of the ongoing Action Oriented Research in the development of Nemetics. Such practical self organizing way of development of the discipline is what we call ‘praxis’ that informs our theory, which then goes on to develop the practice in an iterative manner.

 

However, I am immensely grateful to Prof Tim Henry, of the University of Manchester, whose gentle voice coaxed me along on the roads of Reliability, Design Improvements, Complexity and Chaos and to stay with that exciting journey, whenever tiredness overcame me. With his light I saw how all these seemingly diverse subjects are really entangled into one. He is my Guru.

 

I am indebted to my Dad, who spent countless hours at my study table from my young school days teaching me how to look at social systems, their birth, development, death and re-formation. It was and still is a pleasure listening to him explaining social movements and development. It not only shaped my young mind but also gave me the much needed understanding that we as a ‘human species’ simply do too much and unnecessarily waste too much. There are easier ways. This book is dedicated to him.

 

But without the immense patience and tolerance exhibited by my wife, Madhumita, for putting up with my crazy emergent ways of passionately engaging with this exciting work, this exciting book that reveals the magic of big changes through Nemetics would not have seen the day. I am grateful to her.

 

A sense of gratitude fills me for the immense support and constant encouragement provided by Core Common Press in taking the initiative to publish the book and exchanging the value it contains with many.  

In a way, like all complex systems, each and every one of them left their entangled and hard to segregate, imprints on the development of this important subject, which only enriched the discipline through spontaneous co-evolution.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Simple to Chaotic Systems - Future Leadership & Role of #Nemetics

For the sake of simplicity we have classified different type of systems, which are the following: -

Simple System -> Wrist Watch: It has many parts but not very diverse, very interdependent and connected but it is very predictable with great accuracy of a few seconds over a year. Nothing funny happens on and off.

Complicated Systems -> Computer: Has many parts that are diverse. They are also interconnected and interdependent. Highly predictable with great accuracy. But since the computer is also connected to the environment (for e.g. the net) it can suddenly get affected, corrupted, spammed and some unpredictable things might happen. But it is mostly under control.

Complex Systems --> Chess game. There are diverse pieces. These are interconnected and also interdependent. There are few rules - say about 10 and those rules generate a great variety of responses which can't be predicted. This appearance of new situations is called 'emergence'. The situations completely change with every turn. And we are forced to take action (a sort of adaptation) to continue the game till it ends.

Complex Adaptive Systems -> Our human body. Diverse pieces. Interconnected and Interdependent. Few rules produce infinite variety of responses (emergence). And we can adapt by balancing, action and also inaction.

Chaotic Systems -> Our heart. More than a pump it is a vortex that sucks in blood imparts it with some additional energy and drains it out into the system. In this case very small changes trigger massive changes to the system.

Though it is very interesting to classify systems in this manner for academic reasons (helps to formulate theories) it is really very difficult for such definite classes of systems to independently exist in reality. This is because all systems ranging from the simplest ones to the most chaotic exist in interconnected and interdependent ways. In that case one is not more important or less important than another. Everyone plays the game together.

Hence if we take the right view, such classification is only good for our initial understanding of different systems. Theories spun out of such 'abstracted individual systems entities' are simply meaningless to say the least.

Once different types of systems are interconnected, two basic things happen.

First, they are no longer isolated (equilibrium and predictable conditions) by becoming a part of a larger system that is in a non-equilibrium and therefore highly unpredictable state.

Second, the combined effect of such a networked relationship between different systems is 'non-linearity'. This essentially means the effect can't be predicted with a high degree of certainty. In such a situation most of our static theories would fail.

When we combine the two conditions what we get is something called 'bifurcation'. In simpler terms it is the source of creativity. Something new emerges from the mix.

a) Knowledge would no longer be static. It would become 'dynamic', i.e. more fluid and changing where meaning would arise from interconnecting different parts and not lie in the interpretation of any singular part. In such a situation specific attributes of any parts would become insignificant to the behavior of the whole. All parts would enfold within it the whole as much the whole would contain the unfolding of the interactions of the diverse parts and systems. Once we perceive this view the design of our present education system might change. 

b) Such turbulent mixing of various systems generating 'dynamic knowledge' would help us to live more humane lives away from the prey predator model of the animal world, which we are practicing right to this moment only amplified and sustained through so called national or organizational interests created only in the minds to boost national or organizational supremacy of one nation or organization over the other. 

c) It would help the 7 billion odd people on the earth to reduce the income disparity which the majority suffers from and is being crushed by its cruelty.

d) It would enable free play of imagination and creativity to live more humanely with the hope of living in a liberated state of Non-Fear, where Fear presently shrouds the lives of most.

Herein is the crux of future leadership since 'leadership' as we know of it today is a stale and sick replay of understanding of parts based on the infamous 'prey-predator' model of the animal world - a world where the possibility of conscious evolved living is simply non-existent.

#Nemetics is concerned about study and evolution of such Leadership through education and action research.

 

Leadership in Complexity

"Leadership in Complexity" maintains a position and a viewpoint that each one of us is a leader of his/her own life not only to change oneself but also to act as agents of change for others through their actions and ideas. For this, one needs the courage to look at his/her own thought process to discover the underlying assumptions, beliefs, perceptions that create the apparent complexity and paradoxes one is engaged with in life.

That in short is the essence of social and cultural innovation and entrepreneurship. However, the important thing to be kept in mind is that we are not going to create any purely imagined 'desired future' in our minds rooted in idealism and run after that. For example, we are not going to say that 'let us build a more resilient community' or let us aim for more 'structure and order' realizing that resilience, structure, order are products of self organization.

Why is that? This is because 'complex systems' would not listen to what we 'desire'. They produce their own emergence, which take on various forms. For instance 'failures', 'insight' 'learning', 'wisdom', 'strange behavior', 'shortfall in attendance' , 'bad quality', 'low productivity', 'obesity', 'disease', 'epidemics' and 'love' are all cases of 'emergence'. And these are never fixed or static. They keep changing over time.

So, it is indeed stupid to have any fixed plan in the mind and exert our will to achieve the 'desired mental model' we have in mind. That of course does not tell us not to have any 'intention' whatsoever. Nor does it ask us to submit to 'fatality' of reality. Our path clearly lies in balancing between the two wheels of 'reality' and 'desire' forged by our will emanating from intention. Such balancing act is fueled by the heady mix of courage to pay attention to our thought process and the deeply felt intention to balance.

Our intention in most cases would be to adapt to the ongoing emergent phenomenon by exploring the rules that generate the emergence and then examine the underlying 'paradoxes' that shape and sustain such emergence enabling us to adapt through balancing (the Indian concept of jugaard) to give shape to a better collective future. Our aim is not to achieve this or that. Our aim is to simply adapt based on the emergence. It is a delicate balancing act like walking on the sword's edge and being in the fire at the same time.

I believe it makes life simpler, fun to live, helps us 'survive' better and also 'collectively thrive'.

The philosophical base that we are going to use is 'Complex Adaptive Systems'

The process that we would use to do so would be #Nemetics

And the tools that we would use would be many but mostly Dialogs, Learning by Doing, Iterations, Improvisations and even employ mathematical tools, if needed, like Time Waveforms, Fourier Transform without losing sight of highly explosive techniques like Meditation and the use of Principles of #nemetics

While knowledge lies in selecting the right technique for a given context or situation wisdom lies in balancing and adapting, where both knowledge and wisdom are contextual emergence.