The Wider Context Matters

Wider context? This chapter sets out the third stage of the five-stage Adaptive Learning Pathway for Systemic Leadership, focusing upon the importance of considering a wider context. Work is undertaken in a contextual and dynamic way, rather than being formulaic and static, with periods of interruption for change programmes. There are six suggested resources signposted for thinking about the wider context. These include Strategic Choice Approach, Strategic Options Development and Analysis, Causal Loop Mapping, Viable System Model, Fitness Landscapes and the Cynefin Framework. These approaches consider the importance of ‘stepping back’ from action alone and adopting a viewpoint which is broader and dynamic. The operational principle for considering the wider context is dynamic diagnostic: the chapter concludes with the associated key facet of systemic leadership for this principle.

[1]  K. Lewin.  Frontiers in Group Dynamics , 1947 .

[2]  R. Geyer,et al.  Applying the tools of complexity to the international realm: from fitness landscapes to complexity cascades , 2011 .

[3]  Jon Walker,et al.  Complexity management in practice: A Viable System Model intervention in an Irish eco-community , 2013, Eur. J. Oper. Res..

[4]  Robert Geyer,et al.  Complexity and Public Policy: A New Approach to 21st Century Politics, Policy And Society , 2010 .

[5]  C. Eden,et al.  Making Strategy: The Journey of Strategic Management , 1998 .

[6]  C. Eden,et al.  ‘Joined-Up’ Policy-Making: Group Decision and Negotiation Practice , 2014 .

[7]  Göktuğ Morçöl.  Complexity of Public Policy and Administration: Introduction to the Special Issue , 2008 .

[8]  E. Trist,et al.  Towards a Social Ecology: Contextual Appreciation of the Future in the Present , 1973 .

[9]  David C. Lane,et al.  Blending systems thinking approaches for organisational analysis: Reviewing child protection in England , 2016, Eur. J. Oper. Res..

[10]  J. Bryson,et al.  Visible Thinking: Unlocking Causal Mapping for Practical Business Results , 2004 .

[11]  Jonathan Rosenhead.  IFORS' Operational Research Hall of Fame Stafford Beer , 2006, Int. Trans. Oper. Res..

[12]  T. Bovaird.  Emergent Strategic Management and Planning Mechanisms in Complex Adaptive Systems , 2008 .

[13]  Jon Walker,et al.  A Complexity Approach to Sustainability - Theory and Application , 2011, Series on Complexity Science.

[14]  Norbert Wiener,et al.  The human use of human beings - cybernetics and society , 1988 .

[15]  Fran Ackermann,et al.  Cognitive mapping expert views for policy analysis in the public sector , 2004, Eur. J. Oper. Res..

[16]  M. Boisot.  Knowledge Assets: Securing Competitive Advantage in the Information Economy , 1998 .

[17]  Colin Eden,et al.  The practice of making strategy a step by step guide , 2005 .

[18]  Cynthia F. Kurtz,et al.  The new dynamics of strategy: sense-making in a complex and complicated world , 2003, IEEE Engineering Management Review.

[19]  Tim Coles,et al.  Tourism and the public sector in England since 2010: a disorderly transition? , 2014 .

[20]  Stephen Jackson,et al.  Connecting the Dots: Applying Complexity Theory, Knowledge Management and Social Network Analysis to Policy Implementation , 2008 .

[21]  Patrick Hoverstadt.  The Fractal Organization: Creating Sustainable Organizations with the Viable System Model , 2009 .

[22]  I. Janis.  Victims of Groupthink: A psychological study of foreign-policy decisions and fiascoes. By Irving L. Janis. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1972. viii + 276 pp. Map, illustrations, chart, notes, sources, bibliography, and index. Cloth, $7.95; paper $4.50.) , 1973 .

[23]  D. Snowden,et al.  A leader's framework for decision making , 2007 .

[24]  R. W. Revans,et al.  ABC of Action Learning , 1998 .

[25]  S. Kraemer.  Steps to an Ecology of Mind: Gregory Bateson , 1993, British Journal of Psychiatry.

[26]  M. Rhodes,et al.  Complexity theory and public management: a ‘becoming’ field , 2018 .

[27]  Raul Espejo,et al.  Organizational Systems: Managing Complexity with the Viable System Model , 2011 .

[28]  R. Mauborgne,et al.  Procedural justice, strategic decision making, and the knowledge economy , 1998 .

[29]  C. Dowling,et al.  ‘What insights do fitness landscape models provide for theory and practice in public administration?’ , 2018, Complexity Theory in Public Administration.

[30]  Eric K Van Beurden,et al.  Making sense in a complex landscape: how the Cynefin Framework from Complex Adaptive Systems Theory can inform health promotion practice. , 2013, Health promotion international.

[31]  Frederick P. Wheeler,et al.  The Viable System Model: Interpretations and Applications of Stafford Beer's VSM , 1990 .

[32]  Bryan Robert Jenkins.  Water Management in New Zealand's Canterbury Region: A Sustainability Framework , 2018 .

[33]  G. Bateson,et al.  Mind and Nature: A Necessary Unity , 1979 .

[34]  G. Kelly.  The Psychology of Personal Constructs , 2020 .

[35]  Colin Eden,et al.  Messing about in problems , 1983 .

[36]  G. Midgley.  Systemic Intervention: Philosophy, Methodology, and Practice , 2000 .

[37]  K. Lewin.  Frontiers in Group Dynamics , 1947 .

[38]  J. R. Beaumont.  Diagnosing the System for Organizations , 1985 .

[39]  W. Ashby,et al.  An Introduction to Cybernetics , 1957 .

[40]  John N. Warfield,et al.  World dynamics , 1973 .

[41]  J. Bartunek,et al.  First-Order, Second-Order, and Third-Order Change and Organization Development Interventions: A Cognitive Approach , 1987 .

[42]  Renée Mauborgne,et al.  Procedural justice and managers' in-role and extra-role behavior: the case of the multinational , 1996 .

[43]  Colin Eden,et al.  Strategic Options Development and Analysis , 2010, Systems Approaches to Making Change: A Practical Guide.

[44]  T. Stern,et al.  Long-Range Forces , 1948 .

[45]  Erik-Hans Klijn,et al.  Complexity Theory and Public Management , 2008 .

[46]  Colin Eden,et al.  Analyzing cognitive maps to help structure issues or problems , 2004, Eur. J. Oper. Res..

[47]  Michael W. Mehaffy,et al.  At Home In The Universe The Search For The Laws Of Self Organization And Complexity , 1996 .

[48]  David C. Lane,et al.  IFORS' Operational Research Hall of Fame Jay Wright Forrester , 2006, Int. Trans. Oper. Res..

[49]  K. Lewin.  Action Research and Minority Problems , 1946 .