Thriving Systems Theory And Metaphor Driven Modeling
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Thriving Systems Theory and Metaphor-Driven Modeling
Author: Leslie J. Waguespack
language: en
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Release Date: 2010-10-01
How is it that one system is more effective, appealing, satisfying and/or more beautiful than another to its stakeholder community? This question drove Christopher Alexander’s fifty-year quest to explain great physical architecture and gave birth to pattern-languages for building that underpin much of modern systems engineering. How is it that so many individual stakeholders consistently recognize the same quality, the same beauty in a system? This question led George Lakoff to research the role of conceptual metaphor in human understanding. What is essential to stakeholders’ satisfaction with systems? Fred Brooks, in his publications, addressed this question. This monograph fuses these diverse streams of thought in proposing Thriving Systems Theory by translating Alexander’s properties of physical design quality into the abstract domain of information systems and modeling. Metaphor-Driven Modeling incorporates the theory while examining its impact throughout the system life cycle: modeling, design and deployment. The result is holistic and innovative, a perspective on system quality invaluable to students, practitioners and researchers of software and systems engineering.
Designing Thriving Systems
This monograph illuminates a design mindset for systems, artefacts, that not only survive, but thrive. Of itself an artefact is devoid of design quality – until encountered in a specific social context by human attendants. Design quality is the affect of an intertwining of (a) an artefact’s structural and behavior properties, (b) an attendant humanly conception of quality, an appreciative system, and (c) the enfolding social context of their encounter. To pursue quality in design is to interweave these three strands bound as a durable cord that evokes a visceral satisfaction – or “the delight of a ringing musical chord.” The human consciousness of design quality is fundamentally metaphoric and dynamic – a perception of reality mediated by a personal value disposition. In the continuum of experience, living moment after moment, both the attendant’s metaphorical appreciation and their sense of quality evolve. And thus, design quality issues from perpetual, concentric cycles of design-construct-experience-learn-assess-calibrate over the life span of relationship with an artefact. Design-as-a-verb’s purpose is to service the life in that relationship, sustain its survival, and hopefully, raise that life to a state of thriving. Design quality manifests throughout the cycles of design-as-a-verb, rather than as a product of it. Such is the mindset in which the designer must indwell and that design education must nurture. While all artefacts are systems, the domain of artefact design of which I am most experienced is computing systems. Therefore, I will rest upon that domain to explore a theory and practice of design-as-a-verb – designing thriving systems.
Mastering the Art of Command
Honorable Mention for the John Lyman Book Award in the category of “U.S. Naval History.” Mastering the Art of Command is a detailed examination of Admiral Chester W. Nimitz‘s leadership during World War II. It describes how he used his talents to guide the Pacific Fleet following the attacks on Pearl Harbor, win crucial victories against the forces of Imperial Japan, and then seize the initiative in the Pacific. Once Nimitz‘s forces held the initiative, they maintained it through an offensive campaign of unparalleled speed that overcame Japanese defenses and created the conditions for victory. As a command and operational history, Mastering the Art of Command explores how Nimitz used his leadership skills, command talents, and strategic acumen to achieve these decisive results. Hone recounts how Nimitz, as both Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific Fleet (CINCPAC) and Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific Ocean Areas (CINCPOA), revised and adapted his organizational structure to capitalize on lessons and newly emerging information. Hone argues that Nimitz—because he served simultaneously as CINCPAC and CINCPOA—was able to couple tactical successes to strategic outcomes and more effectively plan and execute operations that brought victory at Midway, Guadalcanal, the Marshall Islands, the Philippines, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. As a study of leadership, Mastering the Art of Command uses modern management theories, and builds upon the approach in his award-winning Learning War. Trent Hone explores the challenge of leadership in complex adaptive systems through Nimitz‘s behavior and causes us to reassess the inevitability of Allied victory and the reasons for its ultimate accomplishment. A new narrative history of the Pacific war, this book demonstrates effective patterns for complexity-informed leadership by highlighting how Nimitz maintained coherence within his organization, established the conditions for his subordinates to succeed, and fostered collaborative sensemaking to identify and pursue options more rapidly. Nimitz‘s “strategic artistry” is a pattern worthy of study and emulation, for today‘s military officers, civilian leaders, and managers in large organizations.