Newsletter

1. Intro

• How our methods to organize companies, economies & societies evolved (approx. 2 dozen editions covering tribal formation through the sociological view of systems)

2. Foundational Philosophy and Mental Models

• How our methods to understand & solve problems evolved — the analytical approach vs. the systems approach
• Purposefulness as a systems behavioral principle
• How openness influences the dissolution & adoption of ideas

3. Behavioral Principles of Systems

• Multidimensionality and the relations between opposing tendencies
• Counterintuitive behavior of social systems
• Emergence — the difference between the properties of the whole and its parts
• Opinion: Why Friedman was wrong about the purpose of enterprise
• Opinion: The interplay between innovation and stability
• Self-organization — the essence of sociocultural systems
• Culture's role as an "operating system"

4. Understanding Sociological Systems

• Social learning — our difference to biological systems
• The development of social systems and the multidimensionality of its theories
• A systems view of how social systems are developed

5. Development of Sociological Systems

• Impediments to the development of social systems
• Holistic Thinking — iteration, verification of assumptions, dimensions of sociological systems
• Operational Thinking — feedback loops, delayed reactions, nonlinear effects

6. Modes of Thinking

• Design Thinking — rooted in Herbert Simon and Russell Ackoff; design as a systems method
• Why a system's boundary & environment are everything
• The role of purpose in designing an organization

7. Understanding & Formulating a Problem

In complex systems, problems rarely have a single cause. Across several editions, covering how to formulate problems in complex systems by mapping how they arise, persist, and interact — surfacing feedback loops, conflicting demands, and how structure, function, and process reinforce the current state.

8. Organizational Design

• On alignment of functions, structure and process
• Why organizational design is downstream of governance design
• The essence of governance design: decision-making operationalization
• The structural preconditions of organizational design
• The essence of governance design: decision-making operationalization
• The structural preconditions of organizational design

9 & 10. Analysis of Live Events & Closing Thoughts

After laying the foundations, the newsletter moves to analysis and commentary on current and live events, with cross-references to earlier editions. Guest authors from varied backgrounds will be invited to demonstrate how these disciplines play out in their own work.