COP27: The Reasons for a Failure
The COP27, in itself, wouldn’t deserve a comment. It is over, and that’s it — been there, done that, and nobody cared. But I think it is a good occasion to reproduce this text by Stuart B. Hill that nicely explains why we make mistakes all the time when trying to manage complex systems. The COP27, indeed, has been a good example of the concept of “pulling the levers in the wrong direction” as Jay Forrester, the creator of System Dynamics, explained to us. So, here it is. h/t Thorsten Daubenfeld.
10 Common ‘Mistakes’ to Avoid, & ‘Needs’ to Meet, When Seeking to Create
Because of the holistic nature of the approach being advocated, all of the areas below overlap & are highly interactive & interrelated. This was written in response to the Commonwealth Government’s announcement of the Australia 2020 Summit in Canberra, ACT (19-20 April, 2008: http://www.australia2020.gov.au/); downloadable as a PowerPoint presentation from: www.stuartbhill.com
- Getting the usual ‘experts’ (mostly older males) together to talk & plan
– always leads to tinkering with existing (flawed) plans – [‘rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic’]; & being trapped in dominant paradigms
– excludes most, including those affected by such plans & their ‘fresh’ ideas
Need
– involve mostly ‘different’ people, including (if possible) those most affected
– start by focusing not on plans, but on values, beliefs, worldviews & paradigms
– then feelings & passions
– then, emergent from these, hopes, dreams, visions, imaginings, & creative thoughts
– only then can ‘design/redesign-based plans’ be enabled to emerge (these proactively enable systems [structures & processes] to meet long-term to short-term, & broad to specific, goals, & to make systems as ‘problem-proof’ as possible)
– then critically analyse, integrate, & flesh these out, etc
– detail participatory opportunities, responsibilities, time lines, resource & support needs, means for monitoring outcomes (feedback), tracking progress, & for ongoing redesigning & fine tuning
…click on the above link to read the rest…
