[Dialogue] Social Process Imbalance and Pressure Points

[R Williams]

Marilyn,
 
I too used Senge and Fifth Discipline and systems thinking, working at that time with a local chamber of commerce on the ways business could be a significant contributor in building and sustaining local community.
 
I do not remember that Senge talked about the feedback loops so much in terms of positive and negative, but rather as "reinforcing", i.e. amplifying, and "balancing" i.e. stabilizing.  I think of the reinforcing/amplifying process as "whistle points" as in "starts the avalanche"; and the balancing/stabilizing as "pressure points" as in "stops the bleeding."
 
I would be interested to know, at least briefly, how you related that to the social process.  By the way, did you see that Senge published an updated version of the book in 2006?
 
Randy

--- On Wed, 1/19/11, marilyncrocker at juno.com <marilyncrocker at juno.com> wrote:


From: marilyncrocker at juno.com <marilyncrocker at juno.com>
Subject: Re: [Dialogue] Social Process Imbalance and Pressure Points
To: dialogue at wedgeblade.net
Date: Wednesday, January 19, 2011, 2:51 PM



Steve,
 
This is similar to what struck me as I thought about the relationship of the "systems thinking" work Peter Senge introduced back in the early 90s in his book The Fifth Discipline.  I used both Senge's conceptual "archetypes" (negative & positive feedback loops etc.) and the conceptual framework of our social process triangles in a doctoral paper on the topic of teacher burnout.  
 
Marilyn
 

Marilyn R. Crocker, Ed.D
Crocker & Associates, Inc.
123 Sanborn Road
West Newfield, ME 04095
(207) 793-3711

On Wed, 19 Jan 2011 12:34:46 -0600 steve har <stevehar11201 at gmail.com> writes:

I believe the imbalance idea likely came from
General Systems Theory & Kenneth Boulding
The balancing is a notion in feedback/feed forward loop logic


For example 
one side of the teter-totter goes down the other goes up; or


if you add gas to your car the gas level in the car goes up and the gas level in the gas station goes down.


The idea is to represent change in a system  not a static model. There are moving parts in systems and "flows"


At a gas station...there is a pressure point -the valve at the pump - if you change the pressure point change happens and gas flows 


When you do this the car's gas tank is balanced to a new level when a valve in the gas pump notices the change in pressure.


Often systems have three [or more] parts for example the hot water heater, the bathtub, the kitchen sink [with related valves]


So imbalance triangles and pressure points were attempts to visualize ways to make change in a system... to rebalance an imbalance- in a 3 part system. 


Without pressure points, flows, imbalances  you are left with a static model in which there is no place for change. It seems to me we wanted to represent opportunities to make social change not stasis.


The establishment process  lives with or is the economic tyrant [to use the rather quaint terms of the time]; 


The disestablishment is the political ally [like a "loyal" political opposition], 


The transestablishment or the cultural process is the  meaning making dynamic that tells a new story and "re balances" the social order by changing the system.


The model is genius design and profound thinking for the 1970s; time marches on. There are tools and simulations that really are dynamic now not artful representations. It is a bit like comparing an old static photo to a new video. 


 It would be very interesting to update some of the social process triangle work with some of these new software tools like Stella & iThink.


It would be splendid piece of creative work to upgrade the social process triangles to current times;  something like this video clip where Twyla Tharp takes a dance step from long ago and makes a splendid ballet called "Bakers Dozen". See: http://poss.posterous.com/34574499. 


I think we could make a splendid "ballet" out of the social process triangles.
Taking brilliant models from the past and dusting them off for current times seems exactly what a new ICA era should do.


For a picture of how people seem to be making models like the social process triangles now see:http://www.systems-thinking.org/intst/int.htm


Thoughts? Steve Harrington
 


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