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PreCedingsThree014

Donnella Meadows wrote an article titled "Places to Intervene in a System" that was published in Whole Earth Winter 1997.

It included the following points nine items.

  1. Numbers (subsidies, taxes, standards).
  2. Material stocks and flows.
  3. Regulating negative feedback loops.
  4. Driving positive feedback loops.
  5. Information flows.
  6. The rules of the system (incentives, punishment, constraints).
  7. The power of self-organization.
  8. The goals of the system.
  9. The mindset or paradigm out of which the goals, rules, feedback structure arise.

(the numbers actually go from 9 to 1, but I haven't figured out how to do this on the wiki.)

You can find a PDF copy of the entire article at http://www.donaldegray.com/Articles/PlacesToIntervene.pdf

It included the following points nine items.

#9. Numbers (subsidies, taxes, standards).
#8. Material stocks and flows.
#7. Regulating negative feedback loops.
#6. Driving positive feedback loops.
#5. Information flows.
#4. The rules of the system (incentives, punishment, constraints).
#3. The power of self-organization.
#2. The goals of the system.
#1. The mindset or paradigm out of which the goals, rules, feedback structure arise.
(Here's one way to make the numbers go from 9 to 1.) Your partner in crime, JerryWeinberg 2003.10.24

Wow, what an article. SherryHeinze 2003.10.26
Just reread an article which describe a process-adoption experience viewed by some as a success and others as not so successful. Those who saw the new process was a success felt that they had gone through a paradigm change, and the ones who didn't think it was so successful were still operating in the old paradigm. Their summary:

If you believe that quality comes from inspecting defects out, you don't need a tool for building quality in. If you believe that man-hours are the measure of success, you don't need a tool for delivering more value with fewer man-hours. If you believe projects are basically predictable, you don't need a tool for managing unpredictability. If you believe that social interaction is a small variable in project success, you don't need a tool for improving communication.

This paper is "Learning by Doing: Why XP Doesn't Sell" by Kay Johansen, Ron Stauffer, and Dan Turner, available at: http://averagecompany.com/pubs/LearningByDoing.pdf

--KeithRay 2003.10.30

Updated: Thursday, October 30, 2003