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48. Three Skills

Three Skills for Better Outcomes

Reality exists whether we understand it or not. The challenge is that none of us ever see it completely.

Reality is far more complex than the human mind can fully comprehend, so we all rely on simplifications. Those simplifications differ from person to person because they are shaped by our experiences, education, profession, culture, and interests. This is one reason why communication can be so difficult.

It is important to celebrate the contributions of great thinkers and researchers, but no individual can fully understand reality on their own. Every perspective reveals something valuable while overlooking something else.

That is why I believe poly-perspectivism is such an important personal skill. It is the ability to recognise that different perspectives often contain different pieces of the same puzzle, and that a better understanding emerges through productive coordination rather than competition.

A second skill is motivational reflexivity. This is the ability to ask ourselves where our beliefs come from. Are they supported by good evidence, or do they satisfy personal needs such as certainty, identity, belonging, or status? Why do we sometimes resist changing our minds, even when presented with new evidence?

A third skill is what I call the viability ethic. If our understanding of reality is always incomplete, then our actions should not be judged solely by whether they advance our own interests, but also by whether they enhance the long-term viability of the wider systems on which we all depend—our families, communities, organisations, societies, and ultimately the natural environment.

These three ideas can be summarised quite simply:

See more clearly through poly-perspectivism.
Think more honestly through motivational reflexivity.
Act more constructively through the viability ethic.

Could these three skills help in preventing political debates from becoming polarised?

Could they help experts from different disciplines work together more effectively on complex problems?

Could they help us make better decisions about issues such as climate change, public health, migration, economic policy, or international conflict?

And might they help us respond more effectively to the growing interaction of environmental, economic, political, technological and social challenges that many now describe as the poly-crisis?

Our understanding of reality will always remain incomplete. But perhaps these are three of the most valuable skills we can develop if we wish to understand it a little better—and to work together a little more wisely.

Categories
EFGST

Systems Linguistics: Representation, Compression, and Productive Coordination

Why do intelligent people looking at the same reality often describe it in completely different ways?

An economist, a psychologist, an engineer, a biologist, and a sociologist may all study the same broad phenomenon, yet use different concepts, different terminology, and different explanations.

The result is often misunderstanding, fragmentation, and difficulty working together.

My latest paper in the General Systems Theory series explores a simple but powerful idea:

👉 Human understanding depends upon compression.

Reality is far too complex to comprehend in full detail. We therefore simplify it through concepts, models, symbols, language, and theories. Different people, disciplines, and cultures develop different compressions of overlapping aspects of reality.

This helps explain both the extraordinary power of human knowledge and the communication difficulties that frequently arise between individuals, disciplines, and communities.

The paper introduces and explores:

🔹 Configurational and causal cognition
🔹 Configurational and causal compression
🔹 Linguistic divergence and hidden convergence
🔹 Systems linguistics as a tool for translation and comparison
🔹 Productive coordination as a means of improving shared understanding

Ultimately, the paper asks a broader question:

How can finite minds understand an infinitely complex reality well enough to coordinate action and maintain viability?

Alongside the paper I have also published a new set of General Systems Theory course modules featuring plain-English explanations, diagrams, examples, and practical exercises.

Both the paper and the course modules are open access. The paper is available at:

https://rational-understanding.com/efgst

https://www.academia.edu/169040199/Systems_Linguistics_Representation_Compression_and_Productive_Coordination

The course materials are available in two ways:

🔗 Open access (self-paced): https://rational-understanding.com/gst-course/

🔗 Supported learning: via Google Classroom through the ISSS Student SIG

Those in full-time or part-time education are especially encouraged to join the Student SIG, where they can benefit from guidance by experienced systems scientists, discussion with fellow learners, and access to a wider international community. To join go to: https://isss.org

I hope it proves useful to those interested in systems theory, communication, complexity, interdisciplinary research, and the future of collective problem-solving.

Categories
SST

Intervention, Governance and Viability

I’m pleased to share a new paper and accompanying course modules on Intervention, Governance and Viability — a practical framework for understanding how social systems can be influenced and improved.

Social systems are constantly changing. Some changes emerge spontaneously through the normal operation of social processes, while others result from deliberate attempts to influence behaviour and outcomes. Yet interventions often succeed in some respects, fail in others, and frequently produce unintended consequences.

The paper argues that effective intervention requires more than good intentions.

It proposes three key ideas:

🔶 Social instability often reflects patterns of constraint misalignment.

🔶 Interventions influence outcomes indirectly by modifying the constraints that shape behaviour.

🔶 Effective intervention requires governance and should be guided by the long-term viability of the systems affected.

The paper explores:

🔷 intervention as constraint modification

🔷 causal leverage and significant flows

🔷 why interventions succeed or fail

🔷 bounded rationality and unintended consequences

🔷 governance and meta-governance

🔷 trust and the social contract

🔷 viability as a criterion for evaluating social change

A central theme is that interventions do not directly create outcomes. Instead, they influence the circumstances, conditions, and constraints within which individuals and organisations operate. Understanding these relationships provides opportunities for more effective and adaptive forms of governance.

This work forms part of a broader programme developing a social systems framework grounded in causality, constraints, adaptive governance, and systemic viability.

The paper is available via the following links:

🔗 Academia: https://www.academia.edu/168724321/Social_Systems_Intervention_Governance_and_Viability

🔗 Website: https://rational-understanding.com/sst/

Alongside the paper, I have also added a new set of course modules to the Social Systems Theory (SST) course. These modules correspond to the concepts developed in the paper and are designed to make them accessible through:

🔷 plain-English explanations

🔷 diagrams and illustrations

🔷 worked examples

🔷 practical exercises

The course materials are available in two ways:

🔗 Open access (self-paced): https://rational-understanding.com/sst-course/

🔗 Supported learning: via Google Classroom through the ISSS Student SIG

Those in full-time or part-time education are especially encouraged to join the Student SIG, where they can benefit from guidance by experienced systems scientists, discussion with fellow learners, and access to a wider international community.

#SystemsThinking #SystemsScience #ComplexSystems #SocialSystems #Governance #Intervention #Viability #ConstraintAnalysis #AdaptiveGovernance

Categories
EFGST

The Ontology of Randomness, Structure and Information

I’m pleased to share the publication of my latest paper:

The Ontology of Randomness, Structure and Information

This paper is the third in a series on General Systems Theory. It develops a clear, physically grounded account of how patterns arise in reality, addressing a fundamental question:

👉 Why does the world exhibit recurring structure rather than remaining a field of transient variation?

The paper introduces and systematically distinguishes four key concepts:

  • configuration — the arrangement of entities in space-time
  • randomness — non-recurring variation in configuration
  • structure — configuration with causal connectivity
  • information — recurring structure

A central claim is that recurrence requires causality, establishing structure as a necessary condition for information and grounding pattern in causally organised processes rather than in arrangement alone.

The aim, as with earlier papers, is not to add complexity, but to clarify foundational concepts and provide a consistent basis for understanding pattern and information across physical, biological, and social domains.

The paper is available via the following links:

🔗 Academia: https://www.academia.edu/166175568/The_Ontology_of_Randomness_Structure_and_Information
🔗 Website: https://rational-understanding.com/efgst

Alongside the paper, I have also added a new set of course modules to the General Systems Theory (GST) course. These modules correspond to the concepts developed in the paper and are designed to make them accessible through:

  • plain-English explanations
  • diagrams
  • practical exercises

The course materials are available in two ways:

🔗 Open access (self-paced): https://rational-understanding.com/gst-course/
🔗 Supported learning: via Google Classroom through the ISSS Student SIG

Those in full-time or part-time education are especially encouraged to join the Student SIG, where they can benefit from guidance by experienced systems scientists, discussion with fellow learners, and access to a wider international community. To join go to: https://isss.org

I hope these resources are useful to those interested in systems theory.

#SystemsScience #GeneralSystemsTheory #Complexity #Cybernetics #Information #PhilosophyOfScience #Education

Categories
EFGST

Ontological Foundations of General Systems Theory

I’m pleased to share the publication of my latest paper:

Ontological Foundations of General Systems Theory

This paper is the second in a series on General Systems Theory. It sets out a clear, physically grounded framework for understanding reality in systems terms. It brings together concepts of space-time, entities, structure, relationships, causality, and change into a single coherent ontology.

The aim is not to introduce new complexity, but to clarify the foundations on which systems theory rests; providing a consistent basis for analysing systems across physical, biological, and social domains.

The paper is available via the following links:

🔗Academia: https://www.academia.edu/165495501/Ontological_Foundations_of_General_Systems_Theory

🔗Website: https://rational-understanding.com/efgst

Alongside the paper, I have also added a new set of course modules to an existing General Systems Theory (GST) course. These modules correspond to the ontological foundations developed in the paper and are designed to make the concepts accessible through plain-English explanations, diagrams, and practical exercises.

The course materials are available in two ways:

🔗Open access (self-paced): via my website https://rational-understanding.com/gst-course/
🔗Supported learning: via Google Classroom through the ISSS Student SIG.

Those in full-time or part-time education are especially encouraged to join the Student SIG, where they can benefit from guidance by experienced systems scientists, discussion with fellow learners, and access to a wider international community. To join go to : https://isss.org

I hope these resources are useful to those interested in systems theory.

Categories
Admin

Learn More about Systems Science

I have made much mention of Systems Science in my recent articles. If you would like to learn more on this topic, then I recommend following Shingai Thornton’s blog at: https://systemsexplorers.substack.com/

Shingai is a member of the International Society for the Systems Sciences (ISSS) and will write about the topic on a weekly basis. Each article takes about 5 to 10 minutes to read.

Initially, they will focus on making some of the core concepts in George
Mobus’ Principles of Systems Science textbook easily accessible to a
broader audience who might not have time to read the book.

Shingai is an aspiring systems scientist looking for critical feedback on his writing, and collaborations around the application of systems science to issues in the social sciences. He is receiving advice from George and other members of the ISSS education committee and together they are also developing an online course based on the book.