Systems thinking Software Tools Plus...the Elephant in the Room!

Systemic thinking has been made more portable through the use of different online tools.  It is a great achievement for the community in general.  

I have used KUMU to help me work with students.  It was good to help us produce systems models of situations and also explore relationships between issues.  The more we got into it, I was positively surprised to see how students made use of it.  

The portability of tools seems to go in the way of enabling people generate lots of thoughts and ideas, play with scenarios, share what they know and what they see as appearing on their screens.  One could said that a good repository of knowledge can be generated in less time than is the case without tools.

On attending a recent presentation in which another tool was used to facilitate collaboration, I could also notice that there was an elephant in the room...

Despite the potential for electronic data gathering, there did not seem to be a full consideration of a key group of stakeholders being included in the activities of discussion: citizens. 

When it comes to citizen participation, we are still lacking good thinking about how they could be involved in this electronic dialogue.  

Perhaps we need to review our assumptions that technology needs to be used for citizen participation and discussion.  

How could that be done when often the systems problems we tackle as thinkers could involve thousands or millions of citizens?  

Is it that we need powerful electronic engines to help us gather and sieve through citizens' contributions?  

Or could we pay bit more of attention to how we are involving citizens with technologies in looking at situations that are pertinent to us all?  

I have no answer to this 'problem'.   Perhaps this is also a systems problem (how to get citizens involved in discussing citizens problems).  All I can say for now is that we need to look at this elephant in the room if we are to continue making meaningful use of systems thinking and its available tools.  

The Acropolis is Crumbling...again

Many people who were born after me would regard digital as a natural feature of our world.  They are right in saying this, because they have been born in a new period, one in which we have been invited to live with the Gods in the Acropolis.

This Acropolis has allowed us to see the world from a distance, and keep relationships going.  To me, this world has helped me to keep in touch with people in my home country and regain lost friends.  It has also enabled me to travel several times a day to other parts of the globe.  Email, whatsapp, facebook and other deities living in the Acropolis have helped me feel part of something bigger than the place where I live or work.

However, there are now factions in the Acropolis.  We do not interact or socialise with others whose interests or political views are too different.  In the name of avoiding hatred, the deities have cunningly hidden us from them and hidden them from us.  The deities enable me to block others and enable others to block me. By doing so they make me feel that I am right and others are wrong, and vice-versa.  

This Acropolis is not the real world, nor should it become the only way to relate to others.  Deities might not like this and could decide to incite us to remain here.  We could leave.  We are not leaving others behind, we are leaving their avatars, their virtual statues.  

We are going back to our cities, our communities and our crops. Let the Acropolis crumble again.  Not because we destroy it but because it can be abandoned. 

Let us keep some good memories and the short visit to the deities alive as the ancient Greeks did.  Like them, let us remember we are not Gods, we are mere mortals.  

Time is not in our side.  Let us make the best of it. 

Some props please

2017 is to many an uncertain year.

Political landscapes of retreat and nationalism as well as those aiming for inclusivity have to deal with group conflict and misunderstandings.

More than in 2016 there is a need to restablish dialogue and communication, to slow down and listen to others and to oneself. 

We are in need of having some props to communicate.  Not those of a flag or a movement but those which enable us to show our scars and our humanity.

There is bravery in allowing others to see us as we are.  There is fear to show weakness or emotion.  That is why some cultures resort to props.  These are some aids to help us open up.  They are like neutral zones where we could strike a conversation, play, have a bit of banter and pretend to be involved in something.

Like a football match between enemy nations.  Or an improvised comedy over what we fear most.

Let us not take ourselves or the uncertainty too seriously.