Batson and Janoff

This week I finished Gregory Bateson's An Ecology of Mind. It was an excellent read and really made me think about the role of the unconscious mind. After reading his book, I am thinking less about the need to make conscious all that is unconscious and see the unconscious as a part of the whole. I have already begun using his concepts of symmetrical and complementary systems in my vocabulary and work and my work team and I are thinking about strategic directions in those terms as well. Below is my concept map:










Also this week, Sandra Janoff, co-founder of Future Search, spent a few days with the EI team at work. She gave a brief history of systems theory from her perspective. Below are my notes:

Systems Theory according to Sandra Janoff
Discussion 4/24/08 with Education Initiatives Team of the Ball Foundation

Kurt Lewin
30s -40s
Group processes are patterned configurations of fields and all elements in fields are interrelated
Importance of context
Both whole and parts are equally real
Group behavior is separate and distinct from individual behavior
System and environment interact to determine behavior
Group is different than a collection of individuals

Bion
Also looking at groups as dynamically different from individuals who are its members (group has a dynamic)
Groups have internal conflicts that are different from conflicts in individuals
When energy of group is directed away from task, it isn’t random, it is organized and purposeful
4 basic assumptions about group behavior
Dependency (in relation to leader)
Counterdependency (in relation to leader)
Fight and flight (in relation to task)
Pairing (group elects two people to do work) (in relation to task)

Ludwig von Bertallanfy (60s)
Systems exist in hierarcy
Each level of system has increasing capacity
Organizing principles are same on all levels of system
Permeable boundaries
Energy transfer
Goals
Transformation
Everything is connected to everything else
(Complex Adaptive Systems are a way to understand Bertalanffy)

Gregory Bateson
Significance of cybernestic thinking
Self-regulation and feedback

Communication patterns can influence a system to change or decrease its ability to change

Miller
Translates Bertalanffy to organizations

System Elements
Goal
Roles
Boundaries
Context-relationship to environment