 In this Podcast, Tim Winton talks with Lauren Tenney from Ten Directions, creators of the Integral Facilitator Program. Tim and Lauren explore new developments, in their respective fields of practice, related to working with natural energies, patterns, and principles. This emergence is framed as a ‘New Shamanism’–a practice of getting back in touch with natural forces and how we might use them to organise ourselves to better resolve the challenges of an increasingly complex world. Lauren is a Senior Consultant, Editor, and Director of New Program Development at Ten Directions. She is a member of the Integral Facilitator training staff and a certified graduate of the Integral Facilitator Certificate Program. For the past ten years she has been immersed in the fields of human development, transformative learning, integrative systems, strategic communications and small business development. Lauren is experienced with many of today’s most innovative tools for transformation and collaboration, including: Immunity to Change, Sociocracy, Holacracy, The Natural Change Process, Evolving Worldviews, Way of Council, Cynefin Framework, Permaculture Design, and Integral Theory. As a facilitator, she loves helping people relate with more freedom and joy. Click here to find out more about her work with Ten Directions. photo above by Nesstor CC BY 2.0 Sleep: the trees will hold your dreamsPodcast: Download (Duration: 57:32 — 66.7MB)Subscribe to the Podcast iTunes | AndroidJoin Our Forum Training Community1:15 Emergence of the Shamanistic Sensibility 2:10 Shamanism is a Very Loaded Term 2:40 Breakdown of the Rationalist Materialist Paradigm 3:30 Lifeforce Patterns and Principles of the Natural World 4:10 Understanding the Archetypal Forces of Nature 4:45 Diane Hamilton Mentions Shamanism in Her Work 6:20 Improving the Natural Self-Organising Force 7:30 The Issue of Cultural Appropriation 9:00 Are there Culturally Independent Traits of Shamanism 10:40 We're Westerners, We're White and We're Attracted 11:30 Extasy, the Lower World, Middle World, and the Higher World 12:20 Working with Energy, Patterns, and Principles 13:04 White Western Indigeneity 13:25 Organising around Principles and Archetypes 13:30 How Do We Bring Our Indigeneity Back into the Post Moder World 14:05 Crying Out for the New Shaman 15:30 Listing to the Natural World 16:10 Becoming Participants in a Living World 17:00 Being Free of Shoulds and Wants 17:30 Participatory Aliveness 18:00 Facing Limits: Why We Need a Central Commitment to Generative Health 19:15 Health Includes Dying 20:20 Scary Dimensions of Techno View 21:14 The Machine View Cannot Solve Our Challenges 21:45 Shifting from a Mechanistic Worldview to a Living Systems Culture 22:50 Polarity Emerging 23:50 What Does a Shaman Do When They're Dying? 24:00 Lauren Just Did that New Shamanist Thing 26:10 What Would Recognising Death Do to Our Ability to Be Creative in this Crisis 27:20 Stories are Inevitably About Development and Human Maturity 28:50 Death: A Giant Shot in the Arm of Maturity 32:20 Is Frank Underwood a Shaman? Is Trump? 33:50 Opportunism and Unconsciousness vs Conscious and for a Higher Purpose 36:30 What Is It that We are Bringing Alive? 37:30 Fixed vs Fluid: What's Welcome 30:30 Power and Politics 40:30 Participating in Systems that are Not Truth Inclusive 41:30 Tapping the Glass 43:00 The Activist Stance 43:30 The Yoghurt Metaphor 44:00 From Old School Mechanisms to Living Presence 44:40 We Can't Exclude Loss or Exclude Suffering 45:15 Agility in Polarity: a Systemic Dynamic Way 46:20 Do We Need A Different Way of Being? 47:00 The Invisible Subversive Move 47:45 Self-Organisation: The Bottom-Up Approach 49:05 Always Having the Choice About How to Engage 50:00 Mass Self-Organisation Changes Everything 50:50 A Worthy Place for Grief 52:00 Playing Hide and Seek with That 52:50 Utopian Optimism: Setting the Field 53:30 Letting the Life-Force Do Its Thing 54:00 Soil Preparation: Doing Your Work 54:20 Self as Instrument 54:40 Like a School of Fish: Moving as One 55:30 Where the Fecundity Lands 55:50 Life-Force Rising: Simple Principles + Deep Purpose 56:40 How Can We Be Free to Make the Decisions We Need to Make 57:30 Staying Touch with a Living World-Space 58:30 Don't Lose the Life-Force 59:00 The Field Effect: How Do We Create This Consciously 59:35 Taking Radical Responsibility for our Behaviour 1:00:30 Co-Creating the Story 1:00:50 Holding the View 1:02:05 The Indigeneity in All of Us 1:02:40 Key Themes 1:03:20 Death is the Underworld; Life is the Overworld 1:03:40 The Tree Archetype 1:04:08 Perhaps the New Shamanism is a Commitment to Live in Intimate Relationship with Both Death and Life 1:05:00 If We Were a Ball of Fish and That Was Our Commitment...Tweetables:Shamanism is a Very Loaded TermClick To Tweet Life-Force Rising: Simple Principles, Deep PurposeClick To Tweet Facing the Limits: Why We Need A Central Commitment to Generative HealthClick To Tweet Forum Training Community: click to get access to more videos, audio, and training modules. The post ‘We’ are the New Shaman first appeared on PatternDynamics™.

<h6> In this Podcast, Tim Winton talks with Lauren Tenney from Ten Directions, creators of the Integral Facilitator Program. Tim and Lauren explore new developments, in their respective fields of practice, related to working with natural energies, patterns, and principles. This emergence is framed as a ‘New Shamanism’–a practice of getting back in touch with natural forces and how we might use them to organise ourselves to better resolve the challenges of an increasingly complex world. Lauren is a Senior Consultant, Editor, and Director of New Program Development at Ten Directions. She is a member of the Integral Facilitator training staff and a certified graduate of the Integral Facilitator Certificate Program. For the past ten years she has been immersed in the fields of human development, transformative learning, integrative systems, strategic communications and small business development. Lauren is experienced with many of today’s most innovative tools for transformation and collaboration, including: Immunity to Change, Sociocracy, Holacracy, The Natural Change Process, Evolving Worldviews, Way of Council, Cynefin Framework, Permaculture Design, and Integral Theory. As a facilitator, she loves helping people relate with more freedom and joy. Click here to find out more about her work with Ten Directions. <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/nesster/336858147/in/photostream/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">photo</a> above by Nesstor <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">CC BY 2.0</a> Sleep: the trees will hold your dreams</h6>Podcast: <a href="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/patterndynamics-blog-posts/PD+Blog+Post+11/01+PD+Podcast+11+Lauren+Tenny+We+are+the+New+Shaman.mp3" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Download</a> (Duration: 57:32 — 66.7MB)Subscribe to the Podcast <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/patterndynamics-create-systems/id1003581238?mt=2&amp;ls=1" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">iTunes</a> | <a href="http://app.stitcher.com/browse/feed/68597/details" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Android</a><a href="http://patterndynamics.net/services/id-like-training/patterndynamics-training/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Join Our Forum Training Community</a><code>1:15 Emergence of the Shamanistic Sensibility 2:10 Shamanism is a Very Loaded Term 2:40 Breakdown of the Rationalist Materialist Paradigm 3:30 Lifeforce Patterns and Principles of the Natural World 4:10 Understanding the Archetypal Forces of Nature 4:45 Diane Hamilton Mentions Shamanism in Her Work 6:20 Improving the Natural Self-Organising Force 7:30 The Issue of Cultural Appropriation 9:00 Are there Culturally Independent Traits of Shamanism 10:40 We're Westerners, We're White and We're Attracted 11:30 Extasy, the Lower World, Middle World, and the Higher World 12:20 Working with Energy, Patterns, and Principles 13:04 White Western Indigeneity 13:25 Organising around Principles and Archetypes 13:30 How Do We Bring Our Indigeneity Back into the Post Moder World 14:05 Crying Out for the New Shaman 15:30 Listing to the Natural World 16:10 Becoming Participants in a Living World 17:00 Being Free of Shoulds and Wants 17:30 Participatory Aliveness 18:00 Facing Limits: Why We Need a Central Commitment to Generative Health 19:15 Health Includes Dying 20:20 Scary Dimensions of Techno View 21:14 The Machine View Cannot Solve Our Challenges 21:45 Shifting from a Mechanistic Worldview to a Living Systems Culture 22:50 Polarity Emerging 23:50 What Does a Shaman Do When They're Dying? 24:00 Lauren Just Did that New Shamanist Thing 26:10 What Would Recognising Death Do to Our Ability to Be Creative in this Crisis 27:20 Stories are Inevitably About Development and Human Maturity 28:50 Death: A Giant Shot in the Arm of Maturity 32:20 Is Frank Underwood a Shaman? Is Trump? 33:50 Opportunism and Unconsciousness vs Conscious and for a Higher Purpose 36:30 What Is It that We are Bringing Alive? 37:30 Fixed vs Fluid: What's Welcome 30:30 Power and Politics 40:30 Participating in Systems that are Not Truth Inclusive 41:30 Tapping the Glass 43:00 The Activist Stance 43:30 The Yoghurt Metaphor 44:00 From Old School Mechanisms to Living Presence 44:40 We Can't Exclude Loss or Exclude Suffering 45:15 Agility in Polarity: a Systemic Dynamic Way 46:20 Do We Need A Different Way of Being? 47:00 The Invisible Subversive Move 47:45 Self-Organisation: The Bottom-Up Approach 49:05 Always Having the Choice About How to Engage 50:00 Mass Self-Organisation Changes Everything 50:50 A Worthy Place for Grief 52:00 Playing Hide and Seek with That 52:50 Utopian Optimism: Setting the Field 53:30 Letting the Life-Force Do Its Thing 54:00 Soil Preparation: Doing Your Work 54:20 Self as Instrument 54:40 Like a School of Fish: Moving as One 55:30 Where the Fecundity Lands 55:50 Life-Force Rising: Simple Principles + Deep Purpose 56:40 How Can We Be Free to Make the Decisions We Need to Make 57:30 Staying Touch with a Living World-Space 58:30 Don't Lose the Life-Force 59:00 The Field Effect: How Do We Create This Consciously 59:35 Taking Radical Responsibility for our Behaviour 1:00:30 Co-Creating the Story 1:00:50 Holding the View 1:02:05 The Indigeneity in All of Us 1:02:40 Key Themes 1:03:20 Death is the Underworld; Life is the Overworld 1:03:40 The Tree Archetype 1:04:08 Perhaps the New Shamanism is a Commitment to Live in Intimate Relationship with Both Death and Life 1:05:00 If We Were a Ball of Fish and That Was Our Commitment...</code>Tweetables:Shamanism is a Very Loaded Term <a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpatterndynamics.net%2F%3Fp%3D2525&amp;text=Shamanism%20is%20a%20Very%20Loaded%20Term&amp;via=PatternDynamics™&amp;related=PatternDynamics™" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Click To Tweet</a> Life-Force Rising: Simple Principles, Deep Purpose <a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpatterndynamics.net%2F%3Fp%3D2525&amp;text=Life-Force%20Rising%3A%20Simple%20Principles%2C%20Deep%20Purpose&amp;via=PatternDynamics™&amp;related=PatternDynamics™" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Click To Tweet</a> Facing the Limits: Why We Need A Central Commitment to Generative Health <a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpatterndynamics.net%2F%3Fp%3D2525&amp;text=Facing%20the%20Limits%3A%20Why%20We%20Need%20A%20Central%20Commitment%20to%20Generative%20Health&amp;via=PatternDynamics™&amp;related=PatternDynamics™" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Click To Tweet</a> <a href="http://patterndynamics.net/services/id-like-training/patterndynamics-training" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Forum Training Community: click to get access to more videos, audio, and training modules.</a> The post <a href="https://patterndynamics.net/we-are-the-new-shaman/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">‘We’ are the New Shaman</a> first appeared on <a href="https://patterndynamics.net" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">PatternDynamics™</a>.

‘We’ are the New Shaman

Zachary Stein

An interview with Dr Zachary Stein by PatternDynamics founder, Tim Winton. Zak and Tim discuss complexity, how to see it, how to manage it, and the power of values aligned with a ‘systems view’ in creating a more generative humanity. Zak is Chair of the Education Program at Meridian University. He received his Bachelor’s from Hampshire College, and his Master’s and Doctorate from Harvard University Graduate School of Education. Zak co-founded Lectica, Inc., a non-profit dedicated to promoting social justice through the reform of large-scale standardized testing, where he worked for over a a decade. Zak’s publications have bridged topics in the philosophy of education, neuroscience, developmental psychology, and psychometrics. He has recently completed a forthcoming book: Social Justice and Educational Measurement: John Rawls, the History of Testing, and the Future of Education (Routledge 2016). Zac co-facilitatings Thrive on Complexity, an online course at Meridian University. Click here for details.  Podcast: Download (Duration: 57:32 — 66.7MB) Subscribe to the Podcast iTunes | Android Join Our Forum Training Community 0:15 Indigenous Models: Mind as Organism 2:15 Piaget’s Natural View of the Mind 3:00 Baldwin: Mind as Metabolic System 3:45 Fischer: Piaget through the neuroscience revolution 4:45 Fischer’s Skill Domains: ‘clusters of inter-related lines’ 5:35 Complex Adaptive System: mind as ecosystem 7:00 Transition from Machine Model to Living Systems Model 7:30 Using a living systems view to thrive in complex circumstances 8:15 Competing Paradigms: Newton and Descarte’s clockwork universe 9:00 Not Embracing Complexity but Simplifying It 10:00 Machines are Fragile; Living Systems are Anti-Fragile 11:30 Disruptions strengthen living systems, but destroy mechanical systems 13:10 Frameworks for Understanding Complexity 13:30 Practices for Managing Complexity Better 14:15 Transforming Consciousness to Thrive on Complexity 14:30 Embodied, Engaged, and Interpersonal Practices 14:45 Ten Directions Practices 15:00 PatternDynamics Practices 15:50 Cross Quadrant Patterns 16:15 First Simplicity vs Second Simplicity 17:00 GDP: Oversimplification (First Simplicity): ‘profoundly limits decision making’ 18:00 Second Simplicity Involves the Patterns and Principles that Matter in a System 18:45 Human Systems are Normatively Constituted 19:45 Identities Have to Do with Values 20:30 Species Wide Identity Crisis 21:00 From the Grand Narratives of Modernity to the Fractured Pluralism of Post Modernity 21:50 The Big Bifurcation Point 22:45 The Values that Bind Us Together 23:00 The Most Powerful Force in Human Affairs 23:40 The Polarity of Love and Power 24:45 New Stories for Us to Emerge 25:00 The Story of Second Simplicity that Will Allow Humanity to Emerge 25:30 Kurt Fischer: Pre-eminent psychological Meta-theorist vs Ken Wilber: Pre-eminent Speculative/Philosophical Meta-theorist 27:20 Vision and Mission of Lectica: A Fischerian Liberating Structure 28:15 Separating the Facts from the Norms Only So You Can Reintegrate Them 28:35 Normative Loading of Systems/Ecological Insights 28:45 The ‘Is’ vs ‘Ought’ Thing 29:20 The Facts/Values Feedback Loop 30:00 The Third Story 31:35 Leveraging Emergence in Evolving Complexity 31:50 Post Conventional Identity Development 32:30 Self as Process 33:00 Re-Storying Humanity as a Complex Adaptive System 33:30 The Fluid–Flux-Based–Processural System 34:45 The Story of Who You Are 35:30 New Language, New Language Games 35:45 Signs of Catastrophic Bifurcation 36:30 Emmanuel Wallerstein: World Systems Analysis 38:30 The Danger of Eugenics 39:00 Little Things Can Make a Big Difference at Moments of Systems Bifurcation 40:45 A Time of Potentiated Change 42:30 Scaffolding Complex Problem Solving 46:30 The Role of Uniqueness (Diversity) 47:30 Cookie Cutter Roles Just Don’t Exist Any More 48:30 Love: The Normative Heavy Hitter 50:30 The Shadow Side of Totalitarianism 52:15 Central Normative Commitments:The Binding Social Force 53:00 The Zero Sum Game 53:30 John Rawls: The View from Everywhere 54:10 Moral Musical Chairs 55:30 Getting the Right Feedback Loops 56:15 Generativity Works for Everybody 56:40 Take the Rawlsian Test Tweetables: Complexity and the Natural View of MindClick To Tweet Re-storying Humanity through a Living Systems WorldviewClick To Tweet Discover the most powerful force in human affairsClick To Tweet Forum Training Community: click to get access to more videos, audio, and training modules. The post The Beautiful Mind of Dr Zachary Stein first appeared on PatternDynamics™.

An interview with Dr Zachary Stein by PatternDynamics founder, Tim Winton. Zak and Tim discuss complexity, how to see it, how to manage it, and the power of values aligned with a ‘systems view’ in creating a more generative humanity. Zak is Chair of the Education Program at Meridian University. He received his Bachelor’s from Hampshire College, and his Master’s and Doctorate from Harvard University Graduate School of Education. Zak co-founded Lectica, Inc., a non-profit dedicated to promoting social justice through the reform of large-scale standardized testing, where he worked for over a a decade. Zak’s publications have bridged topics in the philosophy of education, neuroscience, developmental psychology, and psychometrics. He has recently completed a forthcoming book: Social Justice and Educational Measurement: John Rawls, the History of Testing, and the Future of Education (Routledge 2016). Zac co-facilitatings Thrive on Complexity, an online course at Meridian University. Click <a href="http://www.meridianuniversity.edu/public-programs/online-courses/thriving-on-complexity-online-course" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">here</a> for details. Podcast: <a href="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/patterndynamics-blog-posts/PD+Blog+Post+10/01+PD+Podcast+10+The+Beautiful+Mind+of+Dr+Zachary+Stein.mp3" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Download</a> (Duration: 57:32 — 66.7MB) Subscribe to the Podcast <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/patterndynamics-create-systems/id1003581238?mt=2&amp;ls=1" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">iTunes</a> | <a href="http://app.stitcher.com/browse/feed/68597/details" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Android</a> <a href="http://patterndynamics.net/services/id-like-training/patterndynamics-training/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Join Our Forum Training Community</a> <code>0:15 Indigenous Models: Mind as Organism 2:15 Piaget’s Natural View of the Mind 3:00 Baldwin: Mind as Metabolic System 3:45 Fischer: Piaget through the neuroscience revolution 4:45 Fischer’s Skill Domains: ‘clusters of inter-related lines’ 5:35 Complex Adaptive System: mind as ecosystem 7:00 Transition from Machine Model to Living Systems Model 7:30 Using a living systems view to thrive in complex circumstances 8:15 Competing Paradigms: Newton and Descarte’s clockwork universe 9:00 Not Embracing Complexity but Simplifying It 10:00 Machines are Fragile; Living Systems are Anti-Fragile 11:30 Disruptions strengthen living systems, but destroy mechanical systems 13:10 Frameworks for Understanding Complexity 13:30 Practices for Managing Complexity Better 14:15 Transforming Consciousness to Thrive on Complexity 14:30 Embodied, Engaged, and Interpersonal Practices 14:45 Ten Directions Practices 15:00 PatternDynamics Practices 15:50 Cross Quadrant Patterns 16:15 First Simplicity vs Second Simplicity 17:00 GDP: Oversimplification (First Simplicity): ‘profoundly limits decision making’ 18:00 Second Simplicity Involves the Patterns and Principles that Matter in a System 18:45 Human Systems are Normatively Constituted 19:45 Identities Have to Do with Values 20:30 Species Wide Identity Crisis 21:00 From the Grand Narratives of Modernity to the Fractured Pluralism of Post Modernity 21:50 The Big Bifurcation Point 22:45 The Values that Bind Us Together 23:00 The Most Powerful Force in Human Affairs 23:40 The Polarity of Love and Power 24:45 New Stories for Us to Emerge 25:00 The Story of Second Simplicity that Will Allow Humanity to Emerge 25:30 Kurt Fischer: Pre-eminent psychological Meta-theorist vs Ken Wilber: Pre-eminent Speculative/Philosophical Meta-theorist 27:20 Vision and Mission of Lectica: A Fischerian Liberating Structure 28:15 Separating the Facts from the Norms Only So You Can Reintegrate Them 28:35 Normative Loading of Systems/Ecological Insights 28:45 The ‘Is’ vs ‘Ought’ Thing 29:20 The Facts/Values Feedback Loop 30:00 The Third Story 31:35 Leveraging Emergence in Evolving Complexity 31:50 Post Conventional Identity Development 32:30 Self as Process 33:00 Re-Storying Humanity as a Complex Adaptive System 33:30 The Fluid–Flux-Based–Processural System 34:45 The Story of Who You Are 35:30 New Language, New Language Games 35:45 Signs of Catastrophic Bifurcation 36:30 Emmanuel Wallerstein: World Systems Analysis 38:30 The Danger of Eugenics 39:00 Little Things Can Make a Big Difference at Moments of Systems Bifurcation 40:45 A Time of Potentiated Change 42:30 Scaffolding Complex Problem Solving 46:30 The Role of Uniqueness (Diversity) 47:30 Cookie Cutter Roles Just Don’t Exist Any More 48:30 Love: The Normative Heavy Hitter 50:30 The Shadow Side of Totalitarianism 52:15 Central Normative Commitments:The Binding Social Force 53:00 The Zero Sum Game 53:30 John Rawls: The View from Everywhere 54:10 Moral Musical Chairs 55:30 Getting the Right Feedback Loops 56:15 Generativity Works for Everybody 56:40 Take the Rawlsian Test</code> Tweetables: Complexity and the Natural View of Mind <a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpatterndynamics.net%2F%3Fp%3D2277&amp;text=Complexity%20and%20the%20Natural%20View%20of%20Mind&amp;via=PatternDynamics™&amp;related=PatternDynamics™" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Click To Tweet</a> Re-storying Humanity through a Living Systems Worldview <a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpatterndynamics.net%2F%3Fp%3D2277&amp;text=Re-storying%20Humanity%20through%20a%20Living%20Systems%20Worldview&amp;via=PatternDynamics™&amp;related=PatternDynamics™" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Click To Tweet</a> Discover the most powerful force in human affairs <a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpatterndynamics.net%2F%3Fp%3D2277&amp;text=Discover%20the%20most%20powerful%20force%20in%20human%20affairs&amp;via=PatternDynamics™&amp;related=PatternDynamics™" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Click To Tweet</a> <a href="http://patterndynamics.net/services/id-like-training/patterndynamics-training" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Forum Training Community: click to get access to more videos, audio, and training modules.</a> The post <a href="https://patterndynamics.net/the-beautiful-mind-of-dr-zachary-stein/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Beautiful Mind of Dr Zachary Stein</a> first appeared on <a href="https://patterndynamics.net" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">PatternDynamics™</a>.

The Beautiful Mind of Dr Zachary Stein

Julian Waters-Lynch

Part 1 of a three part interview series with Julian Waters-Lynch, who researches and explores the rise of the newest way of sharing office space and the future of work in the new economy. In this segment creator of PatternDynamics, Tim Winton, discusses a range of topics with Julian, ranging from what Coworking actually is, to is distinct aesthetic approach, core principles, origin stories, and the tension that started it all in the first place.Podcast: Download (Duration: 19:55 — 18.3MB)Subscribe to the Podcast iTunes | AndroidJoin Our Forum Training CommunityTopics Discussed:1:30 CoWorking: What is it? 2:20 The Long History of Shared Office Arrangements 3:45 2005 and the Emergence of the CoWorking Difference 5:07 Aesthetic Differences in CoWorking Spaces 6:15 Celebration of the Non-Standard Work Environment 7:50 Principles of CoWorking 9:00 The Boundary Pattern in CoWorking 12:00 The CoWorking Business Model 12:30 Concentration/Diffusion Pattern 13:00 Hybridisation of Digital and Physical Workspaces 13:30 CoWorking Origin Stories 15:20 Open Software Frameworks 16:21 Accelerator Serendipity 17:00 The Generative Tension that Started It All 18:45 A Response to Corporate Globalisation Tweetables:The unique aesthetic of CoWorking ExplainedClick To Tweet What are the origin stories of Coworking spaces?Click To Tweet Cowering: Discover the power of ‘Accelerator Serendipity’Click To Tweet Forum Training Community: click to get access to more videos, audio, and training modules. Download PDF Transcript Transcript: Tim : Welcome to PatternDynamics Create Systems that Thrive blog podcast series. In today’s episode we’re going to talk to Julian Waters Lynch and we are going to talk about co-working and the future of work. I would like to introduce you to Jules. Jules is a PHD candidate in the School of management at RMIT University in Northern Australia. He researches co-working, the practice of non-standard work sharing space, interacting and sometimes collaborating on shared projects. His research examines the social construction of the role co-worker and where it comes, collaborative practices that co-working entails to ethnographic case study. Co-working has often being held up as an example of one of the growing trend in work practices and certainly it’s something that contributes to creating systems that thrive in the workplace environment and new and all the ways of doing that. Tim : Welcome Jules, I’m really looking forward to what you have to tell us today from your research and from your experience with co-working in the future work. Julian : Wonderful, great to be here. Tim : Jules, can you tell us how you view co-working? What is it for you? Julian : It’s an interesting one. The more I’ve looked at it and more I’ve looked at the history of these practices, the more subtle it becomes. It’s like on the surface you could say that coworking is a practice of largely freelances or solely self-employed co-workers or sharing office space, working on their individual projects and sometimes interacting. And that’s new to some people. They may come in and say it’s is a sort of new phenomenon — independent workers credit knowledge workers, plunge in their laptops, working on their own things but sharing a coffee machine, sharing a conversation, and sharing knowledge. It’s actually the history of shared office arrangements goes back decades; it goes back to the 60s. We’ve had business centers, executive suites, serviced office arrangements, literally for decades particularly during the 80s and the 90s. What’s interesting to me is from about 2005, this term co-working really came out at San Francisco (around that particular frame) but we had similar emergences from major global cities like Berlin, London, New York, etc. where groups of predominantly young people started saying we’re going to do something together that different from our past experiences of organization. Tim : Right. So on the surface the structures were the same; shared office environment but something different happened. Is that what you’re research is showing? Julian : Yes, very much indeed; shared office environment. If we look at something as simple as the distinction between serviced offices; these has been around and delivered most notably by companies like Regus and Surf Bot. I think Regus have thousand of spaces around the world. And if we look at what’s different about a co-working space in general, you get at least three answers. One is the kinds of people that inhabit these spaces. These are often in an urban creative knowledge space. They don’t do things like dress formally. They normally work on technology or credive design industries. The second point is that the people themselves are different; whereas service office is really catered to conventional twentieth century business. The second level down is related in a way; it’s a level of social participation. So almost every coworking space says something about community; something about the way this word ‘community’ used. It’s almost not a co-working space if it doesn’t use the word community. Tim : Right. Now we’re getting in to some of what might be the central features that make coworking, co-working as opposed to things that look similar on the surface. But, don’t feel the same at all. Julian :  Similar sharing space. Yes, absolutely. We’ll probably talk more about the nature of social participation and collaborative activities and co-working spaces. That’s really the key focus of my own research. But I think the third one worth noting is the ascetic differences. Most service offices (at least the ones that I’ve seen) somehow look like you’re plastic twentieth century fortes offices, standardized amenities, a professional veneer, it’s hard to find precise language for this but I think we know impressionistically what we mean right? Tim : We know it when we see it. I understand this one. Julian :  And if you look at most co-working spaces and particularly the early years, from sort of 2005 to 2008 or 2009, they looked like almost the complete opposite; neo-syncretic, spoke non standard IELTS, they looked like in an urban café or bars or mini contexts. Many of them grew out of a post-industrial infrastructure so these were factories, warehouses, re-purposed for young digital work. And there was a celebration of that post formal ascetic right? There was a celebration of the non-standard often at times the fact that they used themselves at a hand creating the designed or even fabricating the materials at times. So there’s a prog-user of dynamic that you get in the web, the literature on digital networks and web use. Tim : A producer-user is some sort of a combined role. Julian : Yes. It’s a combination. The users are the producers. You really got that dynamic twirl upon and that I think is part of the current cultural cohesion of the movement in the early days. Tim : Yes. You and I have been to a numbers of hubs. You’ve been to a lot of them in your research and in your career. Impact Hub Oakland is what comes to mind for me as the classic of the form. It’s the re-purposed commercial site in an urban renewal setting that has all the characteristics that you’ve talked about. If I went in a service office facility and then I went into Impact Hub Oakland; it’s like chalk and cheese. It’s like night and day. They’re so different. And that’s not magic. What is the difference? Aside from the ascetics and the natural structure of the office layout, they’re ostensibly offering the same thing — shared work space environments.  Now that we’ve somehow identified what co-working is, as distinct from what shared office spaces are, I’m really interested on what you think the principles are. What are the main distinctions that allow these things called co-working space to emerge as opposed to them just being serviced office environments. Also, sometimes, do co-working spaces fall back? Or transition to becoming more like service office environments if these principles are not in place? What’s your feeling on that? What are these principles that you’ve identified. Julian :  It’s a fascinating question, and one that I am prone to go on at length about. Because I think there’s are really compelling factorss here. So, one level you write and you zoom out and you take away who’s inhabiting these or the ascetic dimensions or the kind of activities, you look purely at the business model itself. A lot of the time it looks almost identical to the service office arrangements; participants would usually pay a monthly fee, so it’s essentially a club in economics that means it’s a shared good with a boundary around it. Tim : We’ll come back to that. I think this boundary principle is something that we’ve discussed before and it’s really interesting. So maybe we’ll park that one and come back to it but I just wanted to flag it. I think we both agreed it’s important.  http://patterndynamics.net/patterns/structure/boundary/ Julian : And with that being raised, the reason I think its important is because when you get into the actual good being shared. It’s the first of principle distinction. If the good being shared is office facilities and physical space maybe enabling access to a strategic location, fostering credibility for an individual business because they can use a CBD address or its access to physical infrastructure; the printers, the wifi, that’s actually quite an easy thing to put an economic boundary around. You can exclude non payers by not letting them in the building, not giving them access to the wifi and etc. If the good being shared is the community itself, that field of social relations through which knowledge and networks or access to resources is contained. Well, that’s quite a difficult thing for our entrepreneurs to build exclusion rights around. It is communities by their very nature, they’re not owned by anyone. Most by definition, they are owned an amorphous collective field. And so when you look at the digital space like Facebook and they have a particular answer to owning the field in which social relations play at. Like Facebook owns a sort of platform and people interact in a fairly free manner and Facebook harvests some of that value and sells it to advertisers and etc. and the cost of leaving is difficult. So you can see where that sort of works. That netarchical capitalist model, according to balance, is where you build a platform; actors come and interact on that platform and the owner of that platform derives value from that. But, in a co-working context where a lot of that interaction is actually happening face to face in the context of an urban environment where the costs of leaving and taking those relations outside the boundary of the space is not very high. You make friends or you make connections in a co-working space and stay friends with them outside of it. It’s a little bit less clear to me how you monetize that in a sense; how an entrepreneur can control the who’s in and who’s outside that, right? And where is that very much in the service office environment. So, I might be a bit angry now but at one it’s a crucial one in terms of thinking about the value creation mechanism of these spaces and then also where they should properly sit in terms of the private-public sector and the non-profit sector. What they’re really trying to achieve? What’s the best business model to achieve that? I think I answered one aspect of your question, but there’s a lot more. Tim : Okay. There are a couple of things that came up for me; a couple of points that I want to switch back on. One is the idea that there are concentrations. You mentioned in London, Berlin, New York, San Francisco where co-working or things like it emerge pretty much independently at the same time. And they were concentrated in inter-city course or within 10 kilometers I think you said in our previous conversation. So where these things arose is very concentrated.  http://patterndynamics.net/patterns/polarity/concentrationdiffusion/ Also there’s this idea of physical space and digital space and the somehow the hybridization of this two things that played a role in the emergence of co-working. Can you talk a little bit on the concentration factor and also the hybrid digital, physical space? I think that somehow leads on to this idea that there is a boundary that this places rely on. And I think we need to flesh out what boundary it is that leads to that concentrated focus and what the hybernization of the digital and physical workspace has to do with it. Julian : Sure. There are quite a few things in there. I’ll start with the origin stories perhaps. I know three in detail, and make fourth in Berlin but I suspect that there is actually lots of these independent origin stories that will increasingly come out over the years. They all happened (well the ones I’m familiar with) in around 2005. One of them is where the term co-working came from which is Dekelbrag Nelburg in San Francisco and he put out a call which has really captured the imagination of a group of people at that time; but has been drawn on subsequently as a sort of co-working early manifesto. He basically said that if you work in a large organization, it sucks because there’s politics, and power, and you’re not in control of your work. And if you work by yourself at home, it sucks because you’re isolated and you fall into bad social patterns and you don’t have a supportive community of people around you — a particular kind of community; a work community. Third is co-working. He said: “come and hang out at this place in San Francisco.” and the first one I think it was called Spiral Muse. It was sort of in the mission district. In the first experiment, he would probably say it didn’t really work; it was an old feminist collective house that looks totally hippie. I think he had five or six people that turned out didn’t have a lot of space and he said it took him a lot of time – much more than he has anticipated. But it captured enough information that him and a few other people like Chris, Mesina and Tara Hunt opened another space and another space and it sort of became infectious at that point. Now, these people were big fans of the open software movement. They had a framework in open culture, around re-mixing, packing taken up. First of all they were highly digitally literate people. They understood the nature of web 2.0 Tim : So they had digital space in their life. They were capable of doing that but the downside was they didn’t have any of the physical space that allows people to interact face to face. Is that you think is kind of the drivers behind this? Julian : Yes, I think there was craving for or a yearning for a face to face re-localization. These are people that could easily get online and make people highly socially mobile in many ways. There’s a particular term that emerge down of that; those experiments called accelerator serendipity and now it’s a bit of a catchy phrase that I think was Tara Hunt that came up with it. But there were points to this sort of the unplanned; serendipity is like a happy accident; the unplanned nature of local buzz and bouncing to each other that. Creative collisions between people that share enough in terms of creativity or values and they’re happy to interact with each other but are different enough that they could have some sort of useful novelty to each connections. Tim : Yea I think I’m interested in this because I’m trying to identify the tension that signaled the need for this new emergent form. The tension being that in a physical space you do get these serendipitous connections and that that was missing. There was some sort of an absence; that there’s some new form that was trying to address. And the reason why I mentioned that is because the theme of this podcast is “Creating systems that thrive.” First, we’ve got to sense that there is an opportunity or a pain point that needs to be addressed. And that’s the first step in actually creating a more flourishing environment. I’m imagining that was the driver here and we can identify that as a generative tension. Julian : Yes I think it was. The reason I told you the three stories is that’s one. Each of them was a little bit different so there was another movement about the same time in New York, it’s where Jellies came out of. And that was just a lot more than being on your own. These two guys that are inviting people to heir New York apartment and said: “Hey just come hang out. We’re all working individually together.” It was a nonmonetarize form. It never really was attempted to be turned into an enterprise itself. The Jelly movement still happens around the world. There are lots of cities around the world where you can jump on a computer and find a Jelly where creative independent workers do their own thing on their laptops but in the presence of others. So there’s a light hearted social element there but the reason why I think the third case is interesting is really the genealogy of the hubs. The impact hubs which is in London and that was very much a response to corporate globalization. These were people that were engaged in the alter globalization movement, the social forums; these movements that were critical of what capitalism is doing in a large scale and looking for more than just alternatives but not simply as a protest movement as a way of structuring their own work lives into things like social enterprise. So that was really community of people trying to work out how to do this thing. Again, predominantly in the 20s so I guess I didn’t feel they had mentors, established pathway that they could follow. They were trying to forge their own create their own. The post CoWorking and the Future of Work: Interview with Julian Waters-Lynch first appeared on PatternDynamics™.

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Listen to this episode and discover how to put PatternDynamics to work straight away with a simple process that get’s you results every time. The Source Course takes you straight to the heart of the PatternDynamics framework to learn the three foundational aspects of it central organising principle. Understanding these 3 primordial dimensions within every system will help you gain critical insights for the better decision making, complex problem solving, and strategy design required to create systems that thrive in today’s increasingly complex world.    Podcast: Download (Duration: 16:04 — 18.4MB) Subscribe to the Podcast iTunes | Android Join Our Forum Training Community Topics Discussed: 00:09 The Source Course: Getting Started with PatternDynamics 05:22 Source Tool: Demonstration 06:50 Purpose 13:24 Recommendations Tweetables: Get the Source Course and learn to thrive.Click To Tweet What is your Source?Click To Tweet Learn Nature's Source Code.Click To Tweet Get access to more videos and training modules in our Forum Training Community Download PDF Transcript Transcript: PatternDynamics helping you create systems that thrive. Okay, now we move on to the source course. This is how we get started with PatternDynamics. It’s the very first thing we learn that allow us to get a result using the PatternDynamics framework. And we’re just working with one principle — that is, one pattern. The principle behind me, the organizing principle and if you look behind me it’s here, it’s the source diagram. That’s what we call the pattern — the diagram itself. And when we understand what that diagram means, what that symbol, the information or the meaning behind that symbol, then we’ll be able to apply it as a principle of how systems works, how it’s organized and how we can change it. We look at the slide here, in the source course getting started with PatternDynamics. The source symbol that you can see there in blue is the source code. It’s what we call the collective awareness identity in purpose but you think of it primarily as purpose. That is, having strong purpose or strong aim as a system, as an organization provides a very, very powerful self organizing force — with all the parts, all the people within that organization are aligned and they can self- organize. They can determine what it is they need to do and they’re motivated to do it and that is an extremely powerful self-organizing force, and it’s a principle organization that work in all systems that we can come to understand and identify and then use as a principle. So, we call it the most central and important source of any system self-organizing capacity. So, PatternDynamics is the central organizing principle and it is the most important pattern in the PatternDynamics framework. If we look at the diagram, that pattern represents three primary aspects of source or what we call the ‘three basic principles; sub-principles that work in source. Sometimes, we call it dimensions. So these dimensions of source, the part and the whole of the first one, you can see a bar; a slider we call it. In the diagram, you could see there’s two parts bounded by a whole. So, if you look at the chart behind me, we have these two parts and their bounded by a larger oval which is the whole. So, parts and whole are represented in this diagram. If we go to the next slider down, there are short term and long term as two different aims of a continuum because just like no system is just a whole. It always is composed of parts and nothing is ever a part because it’s always composed of parts itself. So therefore, it’s a whole. Then there’s a continuum between them — how we can look at a system as a part or a whole. There’s also a polarity there. When there’s a polarity, there’s also a polarity between the short term and the long term. Now, the long term here is represented by the infinity symbol which is very long term and the oval as one revolution as the short term; just one cycle. So again, when we’re talking about a system there are always short term concerns and then there are always things that need to longer term outcomes and finding the balance between that polarity is something that will allow us to adjust systems using the source principle or at least the dimensions of it. And we have represented in the diagram the tangible versus the intangible. And the lines themselves are tangible; we can see them. They look like the thing that is the diagram but actually it’s only defined by the less tangible white space in and around it. And any system has its tangible things; things that we can measure and poke with a stick, more objective elements of the system and business sometimes. You know, money is a very objective tangible thing or plant in equipment is tangible but in the business world organization believes that the strength of relationships and trust in an organization — these are less tangible assets in fact, will be guided by the parts of the system. Again, it’s never ‘either or’ and they’re not really in conflict. They’re just two different sides at one point or two polarities. And we can evaluate systems or aspects of systems based on, you know, just how tangible thing are we talking about or how intangible and what difference does that make to a thinking and what does being able to make that distinction do for us. And so if we go back to the slide, the whole course is on this one slide. And that’s what we call it getting started because it’s that simple and this is how you can get a result. You use, just draw the diagram or the pattern on a piece of paper or white board, label its source, draw the three sliders, put part, whole, short term, long term, tangible, intangible and use that to help you think more carefully about how this issue you’re talking about or you’re thinking about relates to the system. So, I’m going to do that exercise right now and just show you how simple it is and I’ll just put up my trusty white board. Okay, I’ve drawn the source tool up on the white board here direct from the source course slide. And what I’ll do now is I’ll go through an example from my own life and work to demonstrate how you can use this to get better insights about some of the issues in your own life and work. So the issue, I’m going to work with in this example is from PatternDynamics itself and its related to the creation of this level one training program as something as meaningful to me and this is a real life example. So, I had a conversation with my, with Kenya O’Keith. She’s my chief collaborator, and my central flop partner in the development of PatternDynamics as a social enterprise. And in that conversation, we spoke about the creation of this training module. And my perspective, first of all, we use PatternDynamics on the development of PatternDynamics very often. It’s how we, it’s one of the central ways — this is not the only way but it’s our principal way of creating our own organization, designing it, making better decisions and solving our challenges. So, we sat down and the first thing we do is ask ourselves “What’s the source of this issue of what we’re going to discuss? We’re going to discuss the level one training program and its creation and make decisions about it. Then, “What’s the source of that? Well, you know the purpose. That’s where we start. “What’s the purpose of the level one training program? And the creation of it and how does it relate to our larger purpose, the social enterprise, the PatternDynamics itself? So that’s where we start, with source. And then, we go on to explore our perspectives and point of view using the three primordial dimensions of source — well, ways that we can make adjustments to our purpose and in this case the purpose of the level one training course. So, my, I realize after this conversation, after we did this exercise; that I was very focused on the level one training program and I’m the one who is mostly doing it, and actually creating the video training modules and other support materials in the workbook and things like that. And I have been very, very focused on that and my perspective is very oriented around that part of our organization. Now, for a while I think of it become, for me just about all there was in the organization and the social enterprise. I’m so focused on it that, you know, I’d lost side of a little bit of the whole project. You know, with our discussion, Kenya; my interpretation, my inquiry after I asked her what she was thinking about how we were going with the development of the program; part of the reflection was, you know, (a) let’s think about how this serves the greater whole — the bigger social enterprise, the community practice aspect, our commercial aspects making sure this is available as for not profit resource on a planetary scale. (b) Let’s make sure that we consider how this part fits within the whole. So, she’s advocating for making sure that this fit with the big picture, and that we will make a good decision with regard to the whole enterprise. And also my focus, I realized or I came to understand with very much and I do; it’s right over here on the end of the slider for short term, long term. On short term, I was really keen, that it was a big priority for me to help people get a result and an outcome from engaging with the level one training right away. I wanted, especially the source course and using this tool I want people to be able to learn it easily, I want them to be able to go away and go up to the white board or the back of the napkin and just go through the exercise to get better insights, to start making that difference. You know, little bit by little bit, getting a result can be a small result at first but that’s okay and a slightly bigger result and get better and better insights and get more and more units too, reflecting on the systems dimension or how their issues relate to the system in their lives, their organizations, their communities, their businesses. So, I want to do results with people; a short term result with people and that was my focus. And Kenya spoke more about the medium term, I think. That was my interpretation after inquiring about her perspective — about how she felt going with the development of the level one program. She said, “Yes, the short term memory is fine but don’t make it so simplistic that some of the depth on what we’re doing gets lost. We don’t have to unfold the full journey. That can be a bit more overwhelming. PatternDynamics, in its level three training can be very complex and it can be a bit overwhelming for beginners but look, don’t lose side of the fact that there is depth in this, and don’t dilute it and make it too simplistic.” So, we recorded those or I recorded those perspectives for you here that was my interpretation and I think with the level one program that I’m developing now, I’ll be doing; I’m very focused on the tangible dimension of it. That is, its creation as a tangible asset that can generate revenue so that we have a budget to fulfill our social mission. And I think, you know, I’m not overly focused because this is not primarily a commercial enterprise. It’s a social enterprise. Our overall source of PatternDynamics, our overall purpose is to provide a social benefit to helping people learn purpose-driven collaborative types of systems thinking. But, I did want sub tangible outcomes of this. So I’m quite focused on that. And Kenya, on her perspective, was a little bit more on the intangible side not much still we’re very, we’re quite aligned actually in the commitment to making this work commercially and making sure we have commercial-great product and that it would have a market that we can generate revenue. Kenya was also advocating for making sure that the level one program was designed, and we made decisions about how its constructed and disseminated that support the culture of our organization. Maybe a slightly less tangible outcome, where we use the training to help consolidate our commitment, our real belief in the value of systems thinking and being collaborative and having high purpose in our work for our social transformation. So, that is how we recorded our perspectives or in fact, match thorough each of our perspectives and we can then reflect differently and allow us to avoid conflict. You know here, when we’re far apart, it’s easy sometimes to have conflict. Unlike, “You’re wrong.” “You’re right, I’m wrong.” So, in PatternDynamics and dealing with these exercises, we especially, as we get better at it, we can see that these are just two complimentary perspectives on our whole system and especially around the central organizing force of our system, or our source code which our moral purpose. And that I’m focused on that part. Kenya was advocating a little more for the whole organization or the whole system and that we can think now about ways to coordinate these and the value of these perspectives on maybe which ones we should prioritize, make sure we don’t have a blind spot and certainly making sure that we are collaborative, we coordinate our perspectives, we bring a collective intelligence to helping solve our complex challenges and help us make better decisions so that our system can thrive. So, we have a series of recommendations now that we’ve gone through some of the introductory features of PatternDynamics, how to use it and giving you a basic tool. And these recommendations are: 1. Getting out of trying to identify the purpose and the source of issues in your life and your life from work. So, just find the trigger and the trigger sometimes can be something that’s bothering you; attention or an opportunity that gets you excited. 2. And second point: regularly evaluate the effects of how you and others are thinking about these issues in terms with the three dimensions of source. So, that’s the source course and that’s an exercise you can d0 — it’s actually a tool. Use the source tool, pull it out anytime you like, go on the back of an envelope when you’re at a café and think about any issue on your life or anything that’s causing you a bit of attention or looks like a bit of an opportunity and think about that central organizing principle and its three dimensions. How you’re feeling about it or the issue you’re thinking about relates to in terms of the part of what you’re doing or the whole, the short term outcomes versus the long term outcomes, intangible things versus the less tangible things and what impact that has. Just draw that down, mark where you think your perspective lies on each slider, make this a regular habit and reflect on how it changes your thinking about issues that arise and your ability to communicate how you feel about them. Reflect through, reflections through journaling, blogging, or other writing will be particularly effective here. And reflection, especially when we write gives us a chance to contemplate and consolidate what we have learned. So, the more reflection we can do, especially intentional reflection through things like writing and blogging, the better we will learn. So, I encourage you to start using PatternDynamics system. I’m passionate about it because I get a result from it and it works and I can make the kinds of changes that I’d like to make and help systems become healthier and more functional around me. And the first place to get started is simply develop a habit of using purpose driven collaborative systems thinking and putting up, drawing the source tool and making the three evaluations of its primary aspects or its primary dimensions and seeing and then reflect on those and ask yourself on how you might change what you’re doing based on your reflections and understandings of source. PatternDynamics helping you create systems that thrive. Previous: Getting Started with PatternDynamics Part 2The post Getting Started with PatternDynamics™ Part 3: The Source Course first appeared on PatternDynamics™.

Listen to this episode and discover how to put PatternDynamics to work straight away with a simple process that get’s you results every time. The Source Course takes you straight to the heart of the PatternDynamics framework to learn the three foundational aspects of it central organising principle. Understanding these 3 primordial dimensions within every system will help you gain critical insights for the better decision making, complex problem solving, and strategy design required to create systems that thrive in today’s increasingly complex world. Podcast: <a href="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/patterndynamics-blog-posts/PD+Blog+Post+3/PD+Blog+Post+3_PD+LI+Intro+Part+3_editor+Jonathan_audio_20150624+_v1.0.mp3" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Download</a> (Duration: 16:04 — 18.4MB) Subscribe to the Podcast <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/patterndynamics-create-systems/id1003581238?mt=2&amp;ls=1" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">iTunes</a> | <a href="http://app.stitcher.com/browse/feed/68597/details" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Android</a> <a href="http://patterndynamics.net/services/id-like-training/patterndynamics-training/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Join Our Forum Training Community</a> Topics Discussed: <code>00:09 The Source Course: Getting Started with PatternDynamics 05:22 Source Tool: Demonstration 06:50 Purpose 13:24 Recommendations</code> Tweetables: Get the Source Course and learn to thrive. <a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpatterndynamics.net%2F%3Fp%3D1798&amp;text=Get%20the%20Source%20Course%20and%20learn%20to%20thrive.&amp;via=PatternDynamics™&amp;related=PatternDynamics™" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Click To Tweet</a> What is your Source? <a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpatterndynamics.net%2F%3Fp%3D1798&amp;text=What%20is%20your%20Source%3F&amp;via=PatternDynamics™&amp;related=PatternDynamics™" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Click To Tweet</a> Learn Nature's Source Code. <a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpatterndynamics.net%2F%3Fp%3D1798&amp;text=Learn%20Nature%27s%20Source%20Code.&amp;via=PatternDynamics™&amp;related=PatternDynamics™" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Click To Tweet</a> <a href="http://patterndynamics.net/services/id-like-training/patterndynamics-training" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Get access to more videos and training modules in our Forum Training Community</a> <a href="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/patterndynamics-blog-posts/PD+Blog+Post+3/PD+Blog+Post+3_PD+LI+Intro+Part+3_editor+Jonathan_transcrip_20150630+_v2.0.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Download PDF Transcript</a> Transcript: PatternDynamics helping you create systems that thrive. Okay, now we move on to the source course. This is how we get started with PatternDynamics. It’s the very first thing we learn that allow us to get a result using the PatternDynamics framework. And we’re just working with one principle — that is, one pattern. The principle behind me, the organizing principle and if you look behind me it’s here, it’s the source diagram. That’s what we call the pattern — the diagram itself. And when we understand what that diagram means, what that symbol, the information or the meaning behind that symbol, then we’ll be able to apply it as a principle of how systems works, how it’s organized and how we can change it. We look at the slide here, in the source course getting started with PatternDynamics. The source symbol that you can see there in blue is the source code. It’s what we call the collective awareness identity in purpose but you think of it primarily as purpose. That is, having strong purpose or strong aim as a system, as an organization provides a very, very powerful self organizing force — with all the parts, all the people within that organization are aligned and they can self- organize. They can determine what it is they need to do and they’re motivated to do it and that is an extremely powerful self-organizing force, and it’s a principle organization that work in all systems that we can come to understand and identify and then use as a principle. So, we call it the most central and important source of any system self-organizing capacity. So, PatternDynamics is the central organizing principle and it is the most important pattern in the PatternDynamics framework. If we look at the diagram, that pattern represents three primary aspects of source or what we call the ‘three basic principles; sub-principles that work in source. Sometimes, we call it dimensions. So these dimensions of source, the part and the whole of the first one, you can see a bar; a slider we call it. In the diagram, you could see there’s two parts bounded by a whole. So, if you look at the chart behind me, we have these two parts and their bounded by a larger oval which is the whole. So, parts and whole are represented in this diagram. If we go to the next slider down, there are short term and long term as two different aims of a continuum because just like no system is just a whole. It always is composed of parts and nothing is ever a part because it’s always composed of parts itself. So therefore, it’s a whole. Then there’s a continuum between them — how we can look at a system as a part or a whole. There’s also a polarity there. When there’s a polarity, there’s also a polarity between the short term and the long term. Now, the long term here is represented by the infinity symbol which is very long term and the oval as one revolution as the short term; just one cycle. So again, when we’re talking about a system there are always short term concerns and then there are always things that need to longer term outcomes and finding the balance between that polarity is something that will allow us to adjust systems using the source principle or at least the dimensions of it. And we have represented in the diagram the tangible versus the intangible. And the lines themselves are tangible; we can see them. They look like the thing that is the diagram but actually it’s only defined by the less tangible white space in and around it. And any system has its tangible things; things that we can measure and poke with a stick, more objective elements of the system and business sometimes. You know, money is a very objective tangible thing or plant in equipment is tangible but in the business world organization believes that the strength of relationships and trust in an organization — these are less tangible assets in fact, will be guided by the parts of the system. Again, it’s never ‘either or’ and they’re not really in conflict. They’re just two different sides at one point or two polarities. And we can evaluate systems or aspects of systems based on, you know, just how tangible thing are we talking about or how intangible and what difference does that make to a thinking and what does being able to make that distinction do for us. And so if we go back to the slide, the whole course is on this one slide. And that’s what we call it getting started because it’s that simple and this is how you can get a result. You use, just draw the diagram or the pattern on a piece of paper or white board, label its source, draw the three sliders, put part, whole, short term, long term, tangible, intangible and use that to help you think more carefully about how this issue you’re talking about or you’re thinking about relates to the system. So, I’m going to do that exercise right now and just show you how simple it is and I’ll just put up my trusty white board. Okay, I’ve drawn the source tool up on the white board here direct from the source course slide. And what I’ll do now is I’ll go through an example from my own life and work to demonstrate how you can use this to get better insights about some of the issues in your own life and work. So the issue, I’m going to work with in this example is from PatternDynamics itself and its related to the creation of this level one training program as something as meaningful to me and this is a real life example. So, I had a conversation with my, with Kenya O’Keith. She’s my chief collaborator, and my central flop partner in the development of PatternDynamics as a social enterprise. And in that conversation, we spoke about the creation of this training module. And my perspective, first of all, we use PatternDynamics on the development of PatternDynamics very often. It’s how we, it’s one of the central ways — this is not the only way but it’s our principal way of creating our own organization, designing it, making better decisions and solving our challenges. So, we sat down and the first thing we do is ask ourselves “What’s the source of this issue of what we’re going to discuss? We’re going to discuss the level one training program and its creation and make decisions about it. Then, “What’s the source of that? Well, you know the purpose. That’s where we start. “What’s the purpose of the level one training program? And the creation of it and how does it relate to our larger purpose, the social enterprise, the PatternDynamics itself? So that’s where we start, with source. And then, we go on to explore our perspectives and point of view using the three primordial dimensions of source — well, ways that we can make adjustments to our purpose and in this case the purpose of the level one training course. So, my, I realize after this conversation, after we did this exercise; that I was very focused on the level one training program and I’m the one who is mostly doing it, and actually creating the video training modules and other support materials in the workbook and things like that. And I have been very, very focused on that and my perspective is very oriented around that part of our organization. Now, for a while I think of it become, for me just about all there was in the organization and the social enterprise. I’m so focused on it that, you know, I’d lost side of a little bit of the whole project. You know, with our discussion, Kenya; my interpretation, my inquiry after I asked her what she was thinking about how we were going with the development of the program; part of the reflection was, you know, (a) let’s think about how this serves the greater whole — the bigger social enterprise, the community practice aspect, our commercial aspects making sure this is available as for not profit resource on a planetary scale. (b) Let’s make sure that we consider how this part fits within the whole. So, she’s advocating for making sure that this fit with the big picture, and that we will make a good decision with regard to the whole enterprise. And also my focus, I realized or I came to understand with very much and I do; it’s right over here on the end of the slider for short term, long term. On short term, I was really keen, that it was a big priority for me to help people get a result and an outcome from engaging with the level one training right away. I wanted, especially the source course and using this tool I want people to be able to learn it easily, I want them to be able to go away and go up to the white board or the back of the napkin and just go through the exercise to get better insights, to start making that difference. You know, little bit by little bit, getting a result can be a small result at first but that’s okay and a slightly bigger result and get better and better insights and get more and more units too, reflecting on the systems dimension or how their issues relate to the system in their lives, their organizations, their communities, their businesses. So, I want to do results with people; a short term result with people and that was my focus. And Kenya spoke more about the medium term, I think. That was my interpretation after inquiring about her perspective — about how she felt going with the development of the level one program. She said, “Yes, the short term memory is fine but don’t make it so simplistic that some of the depth on what we’re doing gets lost. We don’t have to unfold the full journey. That can be a bit more overwhelming. PatternDynamics, in its level three training can be very complex and it can be a bit overwhelming for beginners but look, don’t lose side of the fact that there is depth in this, and don’t dilute it and make it too simplistic.” So, we recorded those or I recorded those perspectives for you here that was my interpretation and I think with the level one program that I’m developing now, I’ll be doing; I’m very focused on the tangible dimension of it. That is, its creation as a tangible asset that can generate revenue so that we have a budget to fulfill our social mission. And I think, you know, I’m not overly focused because this is not primarily a commercial enterprise. It’s a social enterprise. Our overall source of PatternDynamics, our overall purpose is to provide a social benefit to helping people learn purpose-driven collaborative types of systems thinking. But, I did want sub tangible outcomes of this. So I’m quite focused on that. And Kenya, on her perspective, was a little bit more on the intangible side not much still we’re very, we’re quite aligned actually in the commitment to making this work commercially and making sure we have commercial-great product and that it would have a market that we can generate revenue. Kenya was also advocating for making sure that the level one program was designed, and we made decisions about how its constructed and disseminated that support the culture of our organization. Maybe a slightly less tangible outcome, where we use the training to help consolidate our commitment, our real belief in the value of systems thinking and being collaborative and having high purpose in our work for our social transformation. So, that is how we recorded our perspectives or in fact, match thorough each of our perspectives and we can then reflect differently and allow us to avoid conflict. You know here, when we’re far apart, it’s easy sometimes to have conflict. Unlike, “You’re wrong.” “You’re right, I’m wrong.” So, in PatternDynamics and dealing with these exercises, we especially, as we get better at it, we can see that these are just two complimentary perspectives on our whole system and especially around the central organizing force of our system, or our source code which our moral purpose. And that I’m focused on that part. Kenya was advocating a little more for the whole organization or the whole system and that we can think now about ways to coordinate these and the value of these perspectives on maybe which ones we should prioritize, make sure we don’t have a blind spot and certainly making sure that we are collaborative, we coordinate our perspectives, we bring a collective intelligence to helping solve our complex challenges and help us make better decisions so that our system can thrive. So, we have a series of recommendations now that we’ve gone through some of the introductory features of PatternDynamics, how to use it and giving you a basic tool. And these recommendations are: 1. Getting out of trying to identify the purpose and the source of issues in your life and your life from work. So, just find the trigger and the trigger sometimes can be something that’s bothering you; attention or an opportunity that gets you excited. 2. And second point: regularly evaluate the effects of how you and others are thinking about these issues in terms with the three dimensions of source. So, that’s the source course and that’s an exercise you can d0 — it’s actually a tool. Use the source tool, pull it out anytime you like, go on the back of an envelope when you’re at a café and think about any issue on your life or anything that’s causing you a bit of attention or looks like a bit of an opportunity and think about that central organizing principle and its three dimensions. How you’re feeling about it or the issue you’re thinking about relates to in terms of the part of what you’re doing or the whole, the short term outcomes versus the long term outcomes, intangible things versus the less tangible things and what impact that has. Just draw that down, mark where you think your perspective lies on each slider, make this a regular habit and reflect on how it changes your thinking about issues that arise and your ability to communicate how you feel about them. Reflect through, reflections through journaling, blogging, or other writing will be particularly effective here. And reflection, especially when we write gives us a chance to contemplate and consolidate what we have learned. So, the more reflection we can do, especially intentional reflection through things like writing and blogging, the better we will learn. So, I encourage you to start using PatternDynamics system. I’m passionate about it because I get a result from it and it works and I can make the kinds of changes that I’d like to make and help systems become healthier and more functional around me. And the first place to get started is simply develop a habit of using purpose driven collaborative systems thinking and putting up, drawing the source tool and making the three evaluations of its primary aspects or its primary dimensions and seeing and then reflect on those and ask yourself on how you might change what you’re doing based on your reflections and understandings of source. PatternDynamics helping you create systems that thrive. Previous: <a href="http://patterndynamics.net/getting-started-with-patterndynamics-part-2/" rel="bookmark nofollow" target="_blank">Getting Started with PatternDynamics Part 2</a>The post <a href="https://patterndynamics.net/getting-started-with-patterndynamics-part-3-the-source-course/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Getting Started with PatternDynamics™ Part 3: The Source Course</a> first appeared on <a href="https://patterndynamics.net" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">PatternDynamics™</a>.

Getting Started with PatternDynamics™ Part 3: The Source Course

In this episode you’ll learn more foundational material for getting started with PatternDynamics and for putting it to work in your life and work. We cover the keys to understanding complexity itself, why collaborative systems thinking is a highly leveraged strategy for generative change, and why a pattern language can help create more robust organisational cultures. You also discover the step by step process we’ve developed for helping you learn to become a better systems thinker.    Podcast: Download (Duration: 10:49 — 12.3MB) Subscribe to the Podcast iTunes | Android Join Our Forum Training Community Topics Discussed:  00:09 Keys to Complexity 02:27 Learning Outcomes 04:14 Learning Method 07:49 Learning Design Tweetables: Do you know the 7 keys to complexity?Click To Tweet The key to patterns is using them as a language.Click To Tweet A pattern language for creating systems that thrive.Click To Tweet Get access to more videos and training modules in our Forum Training Community Download PDF Transcript Transcript: PatternDynamics helping you create systems that thrive. Well, the keys to complexity at least in PatternDynamics’ view, we have to look at the slide here, it said that: PatternDynamics is a unique systems thinking framework that enables a key strategy for managing higher levels of complexity. Now, the key strategy is that the key to complexity is a collaborative type of systems thinking. Not just an analysis of the system and like I said, trying to pull a lever to get it to change or tinker to get it to change, is to collaborate and use many perspectives to understand the system, communicate about it and that type of systems thinking is the key to complexity. Now, the key to this type of systems thinking is patterns because the Dynamic patterns of organization that from how systems work and organizations and affect ourselves. How we work as complex systems shows up as patterns and once we learn to see these patterns of organization, our world changes. And we put aside our glasses that allow us to see the world in a whole new and more effective way. The key to these patterns is using them as a language because language is the key to culture. And in fact, culture — our beliefs, our values, our shared understandings; the things that motivate us collectively are actually what shape systems. At least in the PatternDynamics’ view and using patterns as a language is the power behind PatternDynamics because I mean, from the words of Peter Drucker: “Culture eat strategy for breakfast.” That is, you can employ all kinds of strategies to change the system instrumentally but unless you change the culture, in fact, unless you have a culture that helps create that change that change will be undone. That is the frustration I felt for years and years as a change maker. And once I learned to have a collaborative systems thinking that was a language that allowed us to create a culture together of systems thinking that valued exchanging our perspectives on a system, then I started to get some traction And that’s what’s so exciting for me about sharing PatternDynamics with you. We have warning outcomes that we hope to achieve and I’ll read them here. There are three levels of skill attainment and each level of PatternDynamics training.  Familiarity – where you can identify the relevant patterns in your life, work and world with reference to learning materials or a support from an advanced practitioners. Competency – in this level, this is the level where you can identify the relevant patterns consistently in most situations without reference to learning materials or at people. And there’s fluency – where you can identify and prioritize the levels of importance of relevant patterns consistently in all situations without reference or support and communicating about your perspective effectively to different people in different cont  This learning resource is designed to support the attainment of competency in the use of the source pattern and its three dimensions and familiarity with the other six first order patterns. We look at the chart behind me, those other six are: RHYTHM, POLARITY, STRUCTURE, EXCHANGE, CREATIVITY and DYNAMICS. And they represent different aspects of source well you know, the central purpose of any system on organization. They give us different dynamic patterns of organization that we can look at. What is looking familiarity with those? You can identify them with support from handbook or this resource or someone who knows more about the PatternDynamics system. But we’re looking for competency that is the ability to recognize the purpose at work as an organizing principle in any system — the purpose is strong, all the parts of the system seems to know what to do because they’re all aligned behind the aims of that purpose is pointing to. We have a learning method, and I’ll read the slide here because PatternDynamics and systems thinking in general requires different ways of learning. So, I’ll read it. Learning to think holistically about the dynamic patterns of organization and systems requires a different type of learning practice. This is different to how we usually learn about the parts of those systems. In PatternDynamics training you will notice; 1. A lot of repetition, a very similar pattern of explanation and each pattern module and multiple and closely related examples of ways of exploring each pattern. So, repetition is the friend of learning especially when we’re trying to learn something counter-intuitive because most of us if we’re trained in the western tradition and we’ve gone through school, we’ve been trained to learn about things — just trained to be analytical and look at parts. We haven’t really been trained to learn how to think necessarily unto our institutionalized learning about how things are put together, how whole systems work, the relationships, the dynamics, the patterns that help us think more holistically. So, repetition is really helpful. One of the reasons for that is that when we’re learning something that’s counter-intuitive the more times we’re exposed to the thing that we’re trying to identify, the better off we are. And we have a very, very similar structure through each training module because again that helps us with repetition and those elements are different but closely related ways at looking at the same thing. Now we think about the elephant example, you know, you got to look at all the different parts, the tail, the trunk, the side of the elephant, the ears, its tusks; these will all give us a different perspective on the system that makes up the whole elephant. Well, if you look at it as a whole biological living creature, and so taking multiple but sometimes very close perspectives, you know left leg might be very close to the right leg but in fact both of those perspectives are important because it’s actually left and right front and left and right back legs and they’re critical but very, very similar perspectives that are necessary for us to understand the whole elephant. We go to the slide, the reason for this is that learning to see in inverted commas, patterns of organization and systems requires that we look at each one for multiple perspectives as I just described, in multiple context and in a repeated fashion. The different types of learning content to practices that the support to this approach include: written material — which we encounter in the work book and other written resources, videos such as the one you are watching now, the charts and the graphic symbols which form the core intellectual property of PatternDynamics and then the key learning resources, exercises and practices you can do in everyday life and work, examples of patterns and different contexts; and these examples are very powerful because they help us see in the real world, and embodied exercises that include movements and group practices. And you may encounter these in the PatternDynamics workshop, which is an embodied process where we work as a collective and use our bodies to form a living system and experiment with some of these organizing principles and most importantly how to talk about them and adjust them and get a better outcome. Learning design states: the PatternDynamics learning system or what we call the learning practice is designed to start simply rebuild step by step towards more complex skills and understandings. So, with the introduction, what we call the source course which you will be exposed to in the PatternDynamics work book and also in this training module, we get started by learning about source the most central pattern in the PatternDynamics system and how to apply it simply and easily to get immediate results. And this is important you’ll see on the right of the slide there is the source diagram which I will explain in a moment. And there are three ways or three dimensions that help us think about our central purpose, our central organizing force or power as an organization as a system and it’s really simple. I’ll demonstrate that what in this video. It’s very quick and you can do it over and over again and get a result every time. Level one, then we move on to learn the other six first order patterns, which I just illustrated on the chart behind me, which form aspects of source. This provides a foundation for systems thinking and applications. So, this is where we move from understanding one systems principle to understanding a number of important systems principles — some of the most fundamental ones. And when we can do that, we can start to think about the systems as a whole. Not just one principle but many principles and we can start thinking about how they relate but most of it just learning different distinctions about the different dynamic organizing patterns that we can identify in the systems. Level two, you’ll be able to find the forty-nine-second order pattern and how to use them as an interrelated system for more advance system thinking and to help others learn introductory PatternDynamics skills. Now, level two you can see the yellow points to what we call the matrix chart. We don’t need to worry about that in any detail of this training module but it’s interesting and important for you to know the greater context of the system of PatternDynamics itself, where the next step is and put this training in that context. Level three, the final stage helps practitioners to use a total system of fifty-six patterns to craft their application effectively for different contexts and to use these patterns fluently to support the development of systems thinking skills in others such as decision making skills and complex problem solving. In level three you become very fluent and we can apply PatternDynamics in multiple contexts and ways to understand, are understandable by people very, very easily. PatternDynamics helping you create systems that thrive. Next: Getting Started with PatternDynamics Part 3: The Source Course Previous: Getting Started with PatternDynamics Part 1The post Getting Started with PatternDynamics™ Part 2 first appeared on PatternDynamics™.

In this episode you’ll learn more foundational material for getting started with PatternDynamics and for putting it to work in your life and work. We cover the keys to understanding complexity itself, why collaborative systems thinking is a highly leveraged strategy for generative change, and why a pattern language can help create more robust organisational cultures. You also discover the step by step process we’ve developed for helping you learn to become a better systems thinker. Podcast: <a href="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/patterndynamics-blog-posts/PD+Blog+Post+1/PD+Blog+Post+1_PD+LI+Intro+Part+1_editor+Jonathan_audio_20150624+_v2.0.mp3" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Download</a> (Duration: 10:49 — 12.3MB) Subscribe to the Podcast <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/patterndynamics-create-systems/id1003581238?mt=2&amp;ls=1" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">iTunes</a> | <a href="http://app.stitcher.com/browse/feed/68597/details" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Android</a> <a href="http://patterndynamics.net/services/id-like-training/patterndynamics-training/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Join Our Forum Training Community</a> Topics Discussed: <code> 00:09 Keys to Complexity 02:27 Learning Outcomes 04:14 Learning Method 07:49 Learning Design</code> Tweetables: Do you know the 7 keys to complexity? <a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpatterndynamics.net%2F%3Fp%3D1796&amp;text=Do%20you%20know%20the%207%20keys%20to%20complexity%3F&amp;via=PatternDynamics™&amp;related=PatternDynamics™" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Click To Tweet</a> The key to patterns is using them as a language. <a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpatterndynamics.net%2F%3Fp%3D1796&amp;text=The%20key%20to%20patterns%20is%20using%20them%20as%20a%20language.&amp;via=PatternDynamics™&amp;related=PatternDynamics™" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Click To Tweet</a> A pattern language for creating systems that thrive. <a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpatterndynamics.net%2F%3Fp%3D1796&amp;text=A%20pattern%20language%20for%20creating%20systems%20that%20thrive.&amp;via=PatternDynamics™&amp;related=PatternDynamics™" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Click To Tweet</a> <a href="http://patterndynamics.net/services/id-like-training/patterndynamics-training" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Get access to more videos and training modules in our Forum Training Community</a> <a href="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/patterndynamics-blog-posts/PD+Blog+Post+2/PD+Blog+Post+2_PD+LI+Intro+Part+2_editor+Jonathan_transcrip_20150630+_v2.0.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Download PDF Transcript</a> Transcript: PatternDynamics helping you create systems that thrive. Well, the keys to complexity at least in PatternDynamics’ view, we have to look at the slide here, it said that: PatternDynamics is a unique systems thinking framework that enables a key strategy for managing higher levels of complexity. Now, the key strategy is that the key to complexity is a collaborative type of systems thinking. Not just an analysis of the system and like I said, trying to pull a lever to get it to change or tinker to get it to change, is to collaborate and use many perspectives to understand the system, communicate about it and that type of systems thinking is the key to complexity. Now, the key to this type of systems thinking is patterns because the Dynamic patterns of organization that from how systems work and organizations and affect ourselves. How we work as complex systems shows up as patterns and once we learn to see these patterns of organization, our world changes. And we put aside our glasses that allow us to see the world in a whole new and more effective way. The key to these patterns is using them as a language because language is the key to culture. And in fact, culture — our beliefs, our values, our shared understandings; the things that motivate us collectively are actually what shape systems. At least in the PatternDynamics’ view and using patterns as a language is the power behind PatternDynamics because I mean, from the words of Peter Drucker: “Culture eat strategy for breakfast.” That is, you can employ all kinds of strategies to change the system instrumentally but unless you change the culture, in fact, unless you have a culture that helps create that change that change will be undone. That is the frustration I felt for years and years as a change maker. And once I learned to have a collaborative systems thinking that was a language that allowed us to create a culture together of systems thinking that valued exchanging our perspectives on a system, then I started to get some traction And that’s what’s so exciting for me about sharing PatternDynamics with you. We have warning outcomes that we hope to achieve and I’ll read them here. There are three levels of skill attainment and each level of PatternDynamics training. <ul> <li>Familiarity – where you can identify the relevant patterns in your life, work and world with reference to learning materials or a support from an advanced practitioners.</li> <li>Competency – in this level, this is the level where you can identify the relevant patterns consistently in most situations without reference to learning materials or at people.</li> <li>And there’s fluency – where you can identify and prioritize the levels of importance of relevant patterns consistently in all situations without reference or support and communicating about your perspective effectively to different people in different cont</li> </ul> This learning resource is designed to support the attainment of competency in the use of the source pattern and its three dimensions and familiarity with the other six first order patterns. We look at the chart behind me, those other six are: RHYTHM, POLARITY, STRUCTURE, EXCHANGE, CREATIVITY and DYNAMICS. And they represent different aspects of source well you know, the central purpose of any system on organization. They give us different dynamic patterns of organization that we can look at. What is looking familiarity with those? You can identify them with support from handbook or this resource or someone who knows more about the PatternDynamics system. But we’re looking for competency that is the ability to recognize the purpose at work as an organizing principle in any system — the purpose is strong, all the parts of the system seems to know what to do because they’re all aligned behind the aims of that purpose is pointing to. We have a learning method, and I’ll read the slide here because PatternDynamics and systems thinking in general requires different ways of learning. So, I’ll read it. Learning to think holistically about the dynamic patterns of organization and systems requires a different type of learning practice. This is different to how we usually learn about the parts of those systems. In PatternDynamics training you will notice; 1. A lot of repetition, a very similar pattern of explanation and each pattern module and multiple and closely related examples of ways of exploring each pattern. So, repetition is the friend of learning especially when we’re trying to learn something counter-intuitive because most of us if we’re trained in the western tradition and we’ve gone through school, we’ve been trained to learn about things — just trained to be analytical and look at parts. We haven’t really been trained to learn how to think necessarily unto our institutionalized learning about how things are put together, how whole systems work, the relationships, the dynamics, the patterns that help us think more holistically. So, repetition is really helpful. One of the reasons for that is that when we’re learning something that’s counter-intuitive the more times we’re exposed to the thing that we’re trying to identify, the better off we are. And we have a very, very similar structure through each training module because again that helps us with repetition and those elements are different but closely related ways at looking at the same thing. Now we think about the elephant example, you know, you got to look at all the different parts, the tail, the trunk, the side of the elephant, the ears, its tusks; these will all give us a different perspective on the system that makes up the whole elephant. Well, if you look at it as a whole biological living creature, and so taking multiple but sometimes very close perspectives, you know left leg might be very close to the right leg but in fact both of those perspectives are important because it’s actually left and right front and left and right back legs and they’re critical but very, very similar perspectives that are necessary for us to understand the whole elephant. We go to the slide, the reason for this is that learning to see in inverted commas, patterns of organization and systems requires that we look at each one for multiple perspectives as I just described, in multiple context and in a repeated fashion. The different types of learning content to practices that the support to this approach include: written material — which we encounter in the work book and other written resources, videos such as the one you are watching now, the charts and the graphic symbols which form the core intellectual property of PatternDynamics and then the key learning resources, exercises and practices you can do in everyday life and work, examples of patterns and different contexts; and these examples are very powerful because they help us see in the real world, and embodied exercises that include movements and group practices. And you may encounter these in the PatternDynamics workshop, which is an embodied process where we work as a collective and use our bodies to form a living system and experiment with some of these organizing principles and most importantly how to talk about them and adjust them and get a better outcome. Learning design states: the PatternDynamics learning system or what we call the learning practice is designed to start simply rebuild step by step towards more complex skills and understandings. So, with the introduction, what we call the source course which you will be exposed to in the PatternDynamics work book and also in this training module, we get started by learning about source the most central pattern in the PatternDynamics system and how to apply it simply and easily to get immediate results. And this is important you’ll see on the right of the slide there is the source diagram which I will explain in a moment. And there are three ways or three dimensions that help us think about our central purpose, our central organizing force or power as an organization as a system and it’s really simple. I’ll demonstrate that what in this video. It’s very quick and you can do it over and over again and get a result every time. Level one, then we move on to learn the other six first order patterns, which I just illustrated on the chart behind me, which form aspects of source. This provides a foundation for systems thinking and applications. So, this is where we move from understanding one systems principle to understanding a number of important systems principles — some of the most fundamental ones. And when we can do that, we can start to think about the systems as a whole. Not just one principle but many principles and we can start thinking about how they relate but most of it just learning different distinctions about the different dynamic organizing patterns that we can identify in the systems. Level two, you’ll be able to find the forty-nine-second order pattern and how to use them as an interrelated system for more advance system thinking and to help others learn introductory PatternDynamics skills. Now, level two you can see the yellow points to what we call the matrix chart. We don’t need to worry about that in any detail of this training module but it’s interesting and important for you to know the greater context of the system of PatternDynamics itself, where the next step is and put this training in that context. Level three, the final stage helps practitioners to use a total system of fifty-six patterns to craft their application effectively for different contexts and to use these patterns fluently to support the development of systems thinking skills in others such as decision making skills and complex problem solving. In level three you become very fluent and we can apply PatternDynamics in multiple contexts and ways to understand, are understandable by people very, very easily. PatternDynamics helping you create systems that thrive. Next: <a href="http://patterndynamics.net/getting-started-with-patterndynamics-part-3-the-source-course/" rel="bookmark nofollow" target="_blank">Getting Started with PatternDynamics Part 3: The Source Course</a> Previous: <a href="http://patterndynamics.net/getting-started-with-patterndynamics-part-1/" rel="bookmark nofollow" target="_blank">Getting Started with PatternDynamics Part 1</a>The post <a href="https://patterndynamics.net/getting-started-with-patterndynamics-part-2/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Getting Started with PatternDynamics™ Part 2</a> first appeared on <a href="https://patterndynamics.net" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">PatternDynamics™</a>.

Getting Started with PatternDynamics™ Part 2

Welcome to the first post in our blog podcast series. Start here to begin learning how to use PatternDynamics in your life, organisation, or community as a form of purpose-driven collaborative systems thinking that will help you learn to create systems that thrive in an increasingly complex world. In this episode you’ll learn about the context in which PatternDynamics was created, what it is, how it functions as a pattern language, and some of its features and benefits.  Podcast: Download (Duration: 15:50 — 18.1MB) Subscribe to the Podcast iTunes | Android Join Our Forum Training Community Topics Discussed: 00:50 Welcome Message 01:38 Introduction to PatternDynamics 03:32 Step by Step framework for learning purpose-driven, collaborative systems thinking. 05:07 A social technology for improving decision making and complex problem solving. 07:27 Benefits of Learning PatternDynamics 10:42 Facilitates the application of collective intelligence. 11:10 The Challenge: Complexity Tweetables: Purpose-driven collaborative systems thinking solves 'wicked' problems.Click To Tweet Pattern languages emerging as key to thrivability.Click To Tweet Social technologies for improving decision making and complex problem solving.Click To Tweet Get access to more videos and training modules in our Forum Training Community Download PDF Transcript Transcript: Hi, I’m Tim Winton creator of Pattern Dynamics. – A system thinking framework designed to foster purpose driven collaboration. PatternDynamics is designed to help you learn to create systems that thrive. Behind me, are seven simple patterns that are the key to using the pattern dynamics framework effectively. In this introductory module we’re going to learn about the PatternDynamics system, its patterns, the principles behind them, and how to start using them to make a difference in your life, your work and in your world. Let’s go to the first slide here. So, we are starting Level One training and I’ll read the bullet points.   This material provides an introduction to PatternDynamics Training. It will help you begin learning  a systems thinking framework that assist with:  Better decision making Improved complex problem solving   And, we get you started quickly and easily with a systems thinking tool that can make an immediate difference for the ability of system in your life, your work, and your world to thrive.  So, this introductory material, this is how we get started with PatternDynamics training and how you can use it in your life. We focus on two primary skills because decision making is the basis for complex problem solving. And as we  see, our world is getting more and more complex and the skill of good decisions that can help us be complex to challenges is now a critical one. And this is the basis of how PatternDynamics works and provides value for you, and for organizations you may be a part of and more importantly we get you started really quickly. So, right away in this module, this introduction module we’re going to introduce you to a technique —a tool that you can use based on one PatternDynamics pattern that will get you a result every time. Quick, easy, very simple and you can start getting results. So, now I’d like to introduce you to PatternDynamics and the way to refer to it officially and what it is — PatternDynamics is a pattern language for creating systems that thrive. Before I go on, I just want to explain about pattern languages and why they’re relevant and why they’re now important. Because there’s a number of them that are starting to emerge and they’re being seen as an excellent strategy, an excellent way for us to start thinking about complexity and for communicating, more importantly, for communicating about the complex world that we live in. And a language made out of patterns that help us see more holistically, is something that has not really been a part of the western tradition of learning. This course will help us solve problems. But more and more of the systems sciences, and the practices and disciplines of ecology and the more holistic conceptions and understandings that we know, we now need in our world. One of the very, very effective ways of thinking about that and communicating is through these things called Pattern Languages. And Christopher Alexander, an architect and Mathematician, developed an architectural pattern language. It really started of using patterns to communicate about something and how we design things or improve them. And from there, there have been pattern languages that had been developed for computer science and computer code creation or software code creation. There’s been pattern languages for education now in group work and other pattern about languages or the concept about a pattern language is starting to emerge as a powerful, new way for us to start solving our problems together collectively and creating better situations for ourselves. We should go back to the slide here, the second bullet, the first bullet point says, and now that we stall the features I’ll read the bullet points.  An intuitive systems language based on natural principles. – and again ,” natural principles” looking at ecologists and biological systems provides a really great foundation of understanding how systems work, they’re easy for us to see, they’re systems that many of us are used to. And therefore, it provides more intuitive basis for systems thinking because often systems thinking, complexity theory, chaos theory can be quite technical due to some of the disciplines  more academic disciplines surrounds systems thinking but PatternDynamics is very naturalistic and very intuitive and easy to use. The second bullet point says: it’s a step by step framework for learning purposedriven, collaborative systems thinking. Being able to collaborate or communicate with each other about what we see going on in the system is an excellent way to get a better result because the systems are complex things and if individually we only have one or limited perspective, but if we coordinate other perspectives —  if we collaborate based on this, we get a better result. And even more important, if we have strong purpose — if we’re all aligned around achieving some  aim and that is another very, very powerful organizing dynamic that we can use. And PatternDynamics is a step by step process where you can learn to do this. The third bullet point states: it’s a social technology for improving decision making and complex problem solving. So, a social technology is really just a way of doing things together that’s been qualified — where there’s a process and a method so, we call that a social technology. And one of the first applications of the PatternDynamics social technology is in decision making, your own and in groups, and solving complex problems better both of these are very important in the world that we’re living in now and as it unfolds. The fourth bullet point states that a practice that forms the basis of a simple but effective operating system for individuals, groups, organizations and businesses.So, once you’ve learned PatternDynamics, you can start applying it as a, what we call an operating system. A way, again, a method that is really reliable, that’s easily learned, that you can apply in any situation to help at those better decisions to solve your challenges better and to make your organizations better. In fact, in our words, to help them thrive, become healthy more vigorous and for them to flourish and become great environments to be in. The last point is PatternDynamics is a method for shifting organizations from a mechanistic operating structure to a living systems operating model. And this is a really important frame or a way that we could start thinking about the changes that we need to make organizationally and individually. And in society at large, as our world become more complex and the challenges around that greater complexity become a more and more over and we are more motivated to change them. So, you know the old approach was very hierarchal demanding control type of organizational style based on the machine, a model of the machine — a mechanistic model. And now we are shifting, and this is a broad trend that’s helping us with complexity to move to what’s called the living systems model.  Along the way we will get to ecologists and biological systems and the way they self organize and they able to be and adapt to extremely complex challenges, extraordinary complex systems and why is that we don’t quite understand in full, or what we’re beginning to understand but we do not yet fully apply in our own organizations and in our own society but we’re beginning to and PatternDynamics is a part of that project of a great shift and transition to a living systems world. Now we move on to the Benefits of learning PatternDynamics: Well, as we stated,  It helps you create systems that thrive. That’s our over-arching goal. Systems that have what we call generated health where there are great places to be, everything works well, there’s a robust health, a resilient and they can meet challenges and adapt, grow and evolve. That’s what we call Five Ability and that’s our central commitment. And another benefit is it improves understanding of organizational, social and business systems. Systems literacy or sometimes call pattern recognition — being able to understand how the whole systems work, you know, not just having expertise on the part but understanding how all those parts relate and how those parts form dynamics systems that it can achieve some goals in a healthy way. And, it facilitates organizational change at the systems level. So, if you want to make change, and you want to be at the systems level, and you don’t want to be frustrated because you change the part but because the greater system has an impact on that part the change gets unraveled. If you want to make change at a systems level, the pattern dynamics is very helpful. And, it makes it easier to have difficult conversations. It does that because we can start talking about the systems dynamics. And most of the time, people have genuine perspectives they like to contribute. Now, sometimes we can interpret those as things that are negativities, we don’t agree with them, we can get into conflict with them, when in fact we can use the systems thinking mentality we can see what part of the system or what perspective is being brought on the system and we can coordinate those because ultimately people’s perspectives are often about one dynamic in a system and another person’s will be about another dynamic or another pattern and they’re complementary but we’re just looking at other, you know different parts of the elephant in that  parable where the blind men are feeling different parts of the elephant and arguing about who’s right about the part of their feeling. Where In fact, if they can coordinate those perspectives they would have better opportunity to understand the whole elephant. So, in PatternDynamics we are trying to understand the whole element and help you do that. And sometimes those difficult conversations can be very generative if we can get over the conflict and start to figure out how to coordinate the perspectives for the greater whole. The PatternDynamics shifts power and politics to a liberating new level. It does that through how we have the conversations because political conversations can be liberated from conflict to generatively through being able to understand what perspectives we are each bringing to try and create a healthy system. It improves decision making and complex problem solving, is a social process and it is through the social process the communication that we get better decision making and better problem solving because we’re getting more perspectives on board and we know how to coordinate those perspectives to get us a better idea about the whole system. And that’s the kind of collective intelligence — the last point on the slide, is that the PatternDynamics facilitates the application of collective intelligence. That’s how we actually get traction with it. We coordinate our perspectives through understanding the system better and then we can make an adjustment that gives us the outcome, that’s the application.  You know, the central challenge that we are talking about in the PatternDynamics system is designed to meet is what I call ‘complexity challenge’ or some people call it the ‘complexity crises’. And, for over twenty years I’ve been working as a leader in sustainability initiatives of various sorts. And for a great period of time, many years in fact, I struggled because I didn’t have tools for making effective changes to complex systems. Now I didn’t realize that at the time I was just frustrated because I couldn’t make changes to, you know forestry and help that practice to be more sustainable or agriculture help that undertaking be more sustainable. These are great big complex systems and I was trying to have an effect on parts of them and it change parts for a while but then the greater system would unwind some of that change. While even within my own organizations has a complex system, I would try initiate change but I didn’t understand how to do it at a systems level and I was frustrated. And then I discovered the power of what I call ‘collaborative systems thinking’. Now, these isn’t just instrumental systems thinking such as looking at the system and try to pull some lever and some kind of mechanism to get it to work differently. This is having collaborative conversations, using other people’s intelligence, forming better relationships around how we see our system and how we can make change. Now that starts to get traction. I didn’t know what I was doing at first or how it worked but I developed the PatternDynamics framework as a way to make it easier for other people to learn how I was thinking and for me to note down how I was actually thinking. And now I have reliable method for working more effectively with complex challenges. The PatternDynamics framework, as I’ve learned to understand it is packed by substantial research now and that’s because collaborative types of system thinking. The research have shown that it gives us more perspectives and that’s a good way to understand systems and if we can inquire from each other as to how each of us are seeing the system we have more intelligence on board. And that really relates to this diagram on the right hand side of the slide called the ‘Complexity Crisis’ and that is researched by our good friends Lectica and supported by other research. That, as the complexity of our tasks grows; our ability to deal with them becomes less affective.  And what we mean by complexity is that we have more things in our world increasingly having more and more elements in it. There is more relationships between those elements, more communication and there’s more activity, it’s faster. And that all three of those interrelated dynamics are continuing to increase and are overwhelming us, sometimes it’s called being in over our heads. We have a very, very complex situation and as you go up in the levels of leadership, the challenges that you face are greater relative to the people in entry level leadership roles. And I think this is displayed throughout society. Anyone, and if you’re working in sustainability, or an organizational life or you’re a change maker, you’re working in a complex space now. And that means that the gap between most people’s capability to deal with complexity and the complexity you’re faced with is high and closing that gap is a way that we can get better results, be less frustrated instead of having dysfunctional systems and organizations in our lives we can create much more functional ones, and in fact ones that can thrive, that have a kind of super health, that if we can learn to deal with complexity better. And systems thinking are a big part of that. Especially purpose driven collaborative systems thinking like PatternDynamics is advocating. We can close that complexity gap and that’s what makes it so practical. The PatternDynamics framework is a tool that people can learn and I can share, that I can introduce to people to help shrink the complexity gap for everybody. When we do that collectively, we get even better results. And now I don’t feel so isolated, because I have a way of communicating my not-holistic perspective. Whereas before people used to give me blank looks because I didn’t explain myself very well. I now have a very consistent, step by step way I can introduce people to this way of thinking and I have a much more effective way of communicating it. I’m using words, and principles, and I have ways of structuring that and making myself really clear through learning the PatternDynamics principles. Next: Getting Started with PatternDynamics Part 2The post Getting Started with PatternDynamics™ Part 1 first appeared on PatternDynamics™.

Welcome to the first post in our blog podcast series. Start here to begin learning how to use PatternDynamics in your life, organisation, or community as a form of purpose-driven collaborative systems thinking that will help you learn to create systems that thrive in an increasingly complex world. In this episode you’ll learn about the context in which PatternDynamics was created, what it is, how it functions as a pattern language, and some of its features and benefits. Podcast: <a href="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/patterndynamics-blog-posts/PD+Blog+Post+1/PD+Blog+Post+1_PD+LI+Intro+Part+1_editor+Jonathan_audio_20150624+_v2.0.mp3" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Download</a> (Duration: 15:50 — 18.1MB) Subscribe to the Podcast <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/patterndynamics-create-systems/id1003581238?mt=2&amp;ls=1" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">iTunes</a> | <a href="http://app.stitcher.com/browse/feed/68597/details" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Android</a> <a href="http://patterndynamics.net/services/id-like-training/patterndynamics-training/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Join Our Forum Training Community</a> Topics Discussed: <code>00:50 Welcome Message 01:38 Introduction to PatternDynamics 03:32 Step by Step framework for learning purpose-driven, collaborative systems thinking. 05:07 A social technology for improving decision making and complex problem solving. 07:27 Benefits of Learning PatternDynamics 10:42 Facilitates the application of collective intelligence. 11:10 The Challenge: Complexity</code> Tweetables: Purpose-driven collaborative systems thinking solves 'wicked' problems. <a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpatterndynamics.net%2F%3Fp%3D1734&amp;text=Purpose-driven%20collaborative%20systems%20thinking%20solves%20%27wicked%27%20problems.&amp;via=PatternDynamics™&amp;related=PatternDynamics™" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Click To Tweet</a> Pattern languages emerging as key to thrivability. <a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpatterndynamics.net%2F%3Fp%3D1734&amp;text=Pattern%20languages%20emerging%20as%20key%20to%20thrivability.&amp;via=PatternDynamics™&amp;related=PatternDynamics™" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Click To Tweet</a> Social technologies for improving decision making and complex problem solving. <a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpatterndynamics.net%2F%3Fp%3D1734&amp;text=Social%20technologies%20for%20improving%20decision%20making%20and%20complex%20problem%20solving.&amp;via=PatternDynamics™&amp;related=PatternDynamics™" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Click To Tweet</a> <a href="http://patterndynamics.net/services/id-like-training/patterndynamics-training" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Get access to more videos and training modules in our Forum Training Community</a> <a href="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/patterndynamics-blog-posts/PD+Blog+Post+1/PD+Blog+Post+1_PD+LI+Intro+Part+1_editor+Jonathan_transcrip_20150630+_v3.0.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Download PDF Transcript</a> Transcript: Hi, I’m Tim Winton creator of Pattern Dynamics. – A system thinking framework designed to foster purpose driven collaboration. PatternDynamics is designed to help you learn to create systems that thrive. Behind me, are seven simple patterns that are the key to using the pattern dynamics framework effectively. In this introductory module we’re going to learn about the PatternDynamics system, its patterns, the principles behind them, and how to start using them to make a difference in your life, your work and in your world. Let’s go to the first slide here. So, we are starting Level One training and I’ll read the bullet points. <ul> <li> This material provides an introduction to PatternDynamics Training.</li> <li>It will help you begin learning  a systems thinking framework that assist with: <ul> <li>Better decision making</li> <li>Improved complex problem solving</li> </ul> </li> <li>And, we get you started quickly and easily with a systems thinking tool that can make an immediate difference for the ability of system in your life, your work, and your world to thrive.</li> </ul> So, this introductory material, this is how we get started with PatternDynamics training and how you can use it in your life. We focus on two primary skills because decision making is the basis for complex problem solving. And as we  see, our world is getting more and more complex and the skill of good decisions that can help us be complex to challenges is now a critical one. And this is the basis of how PatternDynamics works and provides value for you, and for organizations you may be a part of and more importantly we get you started really quickly. So, right away in this module, this introduction module we’re going to introduce you to a technique —a tool that you can use based on one PatternDynamics pattern that will get you a result every time. Quick, easy, very simple and you can start getting results. So, now I’d like to introduce you to PatternDynamics and the way to refer to it officially and what it is — PatternDynamics is a pattern language for creating systems that thrive. Before I go on, I just want to explain about pattern languages and why they’re relevant and why they’re now important. Because there’s a number of them that are starting to emerge and they’re being seen as an excellent strategy, an excellent way for us to start thinking about complexity and for communicating, more importantly, for communicating about the complex world that we live in. And a language made out of patterns that help us see more holistically, is something that has not really been a part of the western tradition of learning. This course will help us solve problems. But more and more of the systems sciences, and the practices and disciplines of ecology and the more holistic conceptions and understandings that we know, we now need in our world. One of the very, very effective ways of thinking about that and communicating is through these things called Pattern Languages. And Christopher Alexander, an architect and Mathematician, developed an architectural pattern language. It really started of using patterns to communicate about something and how we design things or improve them. And from there, there have been pattern languages that had been developed for computer science and computer code creation or software code creation. There’s been pattern languages for education now in group work and other pattern about languages or the concept about a pattern language is starting to emerge as a powerful, new way for us to start solving our problems together collectively and creating better situations for ourselves. We should go back to the slide here, the second bullet, the first bullet point says, and now that we stall the features I’ll read the bullet points. <ul> <li>An intuitive systems language based on natural principles. – and again ,” natural principles” looking at ecologists and biological systems provides a really great foundation of understanding how systems work, they’re easy for us to see, they’re systems that many of us are used to. And therefore, it provides more intuitive basis for systems thinking because often systems thinking, complexity theory, chaos theory can be quite technical due to some of the disciplines  more academic disciplines surrounds systems thinking but PatternDynamics is very naturalistic and very intuitive and easy to use.</li> <li>The second bullet point says: it’s a step by step framework for learning purposedriven, collaborative systems thinking. Being able to collaborate or communicate with each other about what we see going on in the system is an excellent way to get a better result because the systems are complex things and if individually we only have one or limited perspective, but if we coordinate other perspectives —  if we collaborate based on this, we get a better result. And even more important, if we have strong purpose — if we’re all aligned around achieving some  aim and that is another very, very powerful organizing dynamic that we can use. And PatternDynamics is a step by step process where you can learn to do this.</li> <li>The third bullet point states: it’s a social technology for improving decision making and complex problem solving. So, a social technology is really just a way of doing things together that’s been qualified — where there’s a process and a method so, we call that a social technology. And one of the first applications of the PatternDynamics social technology is in decision making, your own and in groups, and solving complex problems better both of these are very important in the world that we’re living in now and as it unfolds.</li> <li>The fourth bullet point states that a practice that forms the basis of a simple but effective operating system for individuals, groups, organizations and <a href="http://businesses.So" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">businesses.So</a>, once you’ve learned PatternDynamics, you can start applying it as a, what we call an operating system. A way, again, a method that is really reliable, that’s easily learned, that you can apply in any situation to help at those better decisions to solve your challenges better and to make your organizations better. In fact, in our words, to help them thrive, become healthy more vigorous and for them to flourish and become great environments to be in.</li> <li>The last point is PatternDynamics is a method for shifting organizations from a mechanistic operating structure to a living systems operating model. And this is a really important frame or a way that we could start thinking about the changes that we need to make organizationally and individually. And in society at large, as our world become more complex and the challenges around that greater complexity become a more and more over and we are more motivated to change them. So, you know the old approach was very hierarchal demanding control type of organizational style based on the machine, a model of the machine — a mechanistic model. And now we are shifting, and this is a broad trend that’s helping us with complexity to move to what’s called the living systems model.</li> </ul> Along the way we will get to ecologists and biological systems and the way they self organize and they able to be and adapt to extremely complex challenges, extraordinary complex systems and why is that we don’t quite understand in full, or what we’re beginning to understand but we do not yet fully apply in our own organizations and in our own society but we’re beginning to and PatternDynamics is a part of that project of a great shift and transition to a living systems world. Now we move on to the Benefits of learning PatternDynamics: Well, as we stated, <ul> <li>It helps you create systems that thrive. That’s our over-arching goal. Systems that have what we call generated health where there are great places to be, everything works well, there’s a robust health, a resilient and they can meet challenges and adapt, grow and evolve. That’s what we call Five Ability and that’s our central commitment.</li> <li>And another benefit is it improves understanding of organizational, social and business systems. Systems literacy or sometimes call pattern recognition — being able to understand how the whole systems work, you know, not just having expertise on the part but understanding how all those parts relate and how those parts form dynamics systems that it can achieve some goals in a healthy way.</li> <li>And, it facilitates organizational change at the systems level. So, if you want to make change, and you want to be at the systems level, and you don’t want to be frustrated because you change the part but because the greater system has an impact on that part the change gets unraveled. If you want to make change at a systems level, the pattern dynamics is very helpful.</li> <li>And, it makes it easier to have difficult conversations. It does that because we can start talking about the systems dynamics. And most of the time, people have genuine perspectives they like to contribute. Now, sometimes we can interpret those as things that are negativities, we don’t agree with them, we can get into conflict with them, when in fact we can use the systems thinking mentality we can see what part of the system or what perspective is being brought on the system and we can coordinate those because ultimately people’s perspectives are often about one dynamic in a system and another person’s will be about another dynamic or another pattern and they’re complementary but we’re just looking at other, you know different parts of the elephant in that  parable where the blind men are feeling different parts of the elephant and arguing about who’s right about the part of their feeling. Where In fact, if they can coordinate those perspectives they would have better opportunity to understand the whole elephant. So, in PatternDynamics we are trying to understand the whole element and help you do that. And sometimes those difficult conversations can be very generative if we can get over the conflict and start to figure out how to coordinate the perspectives for the greater whole.</li> <li>The PatternDynamics shifts power and politics to a liberating new level. It does that through how we have the conversations because political conversations can be liberated from conflict to generatively through being able to understand what perspectives we are each bringing to try and create a healthy system.</li> <li>It improves decision making and complex problem solving, is a social process and it is through the social process the communication that we get better decision making and better problem solving because we’re getting more perspectives on board and we know how to coordinate those perspectives to get us a better idea about the whole system.</li> <li>And that’s the kind of collective intelligence — the last point on the slide, is that the PatternDynamics facilitates the application of collective intelligence. That’s how we actually get traction with it. We coordinate our perspectives through understanding the system better and then we can make an adjustment that gives us the outcome, that’s the application.</li> </ul> You know, the central challenge that we are talking about in the PatternDynamics system is designed to meet is what I call ‘complexity challenge’ or some people call it the ‘complexity crises’. And, for over twenty years I’ve been working as a leader in sustainability initiatives of various sorts. And for a great period of time, many years in fact, I struggled because I didn’t have tools for making effective changes to complex systems. Now I didn’t realize that at the time I was just frustrated because I couldn’t make changes to, you know forestry and help that practice to be more sustainable or agriculture help that undertaking be more sustainable. These are great big complex systems and I was trying to have an effect on parts of them and it change parts for a while but then the greater system would unwind some of that change. While even within my own organizations has a complex system, I would try initiate change but I didn’t understand how to do it at a systems level and I was frustrated. And then I discovered the power of what I call ‘collaborative systems thinking’. Now, these isn’t just instrumental systems thinking such as looking at the system and try to pull some lever and some kind of mechanism to get it to work differently. This is having collaborative conversations, using other people’s intelligence, forming better relationships around how we see our system and how we can make change. Now that starts to get traction. I didn’t know what I was doing at first or how it worked but I developed the PatternDynamics framework as a way to make it easier for other people to learn how I was thinking and for me to note down how I was actually thinking. And now I have reliable method for working more effectively with complex challenges. The PatternDynamics framework, as I’ve learned to understand it is packed by substantial research now and that’s because collaborative types of system thinking. The research have shown that it gives us more perspectives and that’s a good way to understand systems and if we can inquire from each other as to how each of us are seeing the system we have more intelligence on board. And that really relates to this diagram on the right hand side of the slide called the ‘Complexity Crisis’ and that is researched by our good friends Lectica and supported by other research. That, as the complexity of our tasks grows; our ability to deal with them becomes less affective.  And what we mean by complexity is that we have more things in our world increasingly having more and more elements in it. There is more relationships between those elements, more communication and there’s more activity, it’s faster. And that all three of those interrelated dynamics are continuing to increase and are overwhelming us, sometimes it’s called being in over our heads. We have a very, very complex situation and as you go up in the levels of leadership, the challenges that you face are greater relative to the people in entry level leadership roles. And I think this is displayed throughout society. Anyone, and if you’re working in sustainability, or an organizational life or you’re a change maker, you’re working in a complex space now. And that means that the gap between most people’s capability to deal with complexity and the complexity you’re faced with is high and closing that gap is a way that we can get better results, be less frustrated instead of having dysfunctional systems and organizations in our lives we can create much more functional ones, and in fact ones that can thrive, that have a kind of super health, that if we can learn to deal with complexity better. And systems thinking are a big part of that. Especially purpose driven collaborative systems thinking like PatternDynamics is advocating. We can close that complexity gap and that’s what makes it so practical. The PatternDynamics framework is a tool that people can learn and I can share, that I can introduce to people to help shrink the complexity gap for everybody. When we do that collectively, we get even better results. And now I don’t feel so isolated, because I have a way of communicating my not-holistic perspective. Whereas before people used to give me blank looks because I didn’t explain myself very well. I now have a very consistent, step by step way I can introduce people to this way of thinking and I have a much more effective way of communicating it. I’m using words, and principles, and I have ways of structuring that and making myself really clear through learning the PatternDynamics principles. Next: <a href="http://patterndynamics.net/getting-started-with-patterndynamics-part-2/" rel="bookmark nofollow" target="_blank">Getting Started with PatternDynamics Part 2</a>The post <a href="https://patterndynamics.net/getting-started-with-patterndynamics-part-1/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Getting Started with PatternDynamics™ Part 1</a> first appeared on <a href="https://patterndynamics.net" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">PatternDynamics™</a>.

Getting Started with PatternDynamics™ Part 1

Cutting edge insights into systems thinking, wiser decision making, and how the principles of nature can help us solve the more complex challenges required to create 21st Century communities and organisations.

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