Go for the good of the whole

 It is too easy to dive into the detail of one tiny sub-section of this thesis - particularly during this end stage of tidying up and connecting the literature research with the primary research and the conclusions.   Connecting two small dots leads easily to hours of (fascinating) reading but I need to remember that I'm not doing a PhD and the delivery deadline is only six weeks away.

Meadows said:

"spend part of your time from a vantage point that lets you see the whole system"

"don't maximize parts of systems or subsystems while ignoring the whole"

So with the first quote firmly in mind I'm going to take a couple of days off to find a vantage point from which I can see the whole thesis.

Changing the lens

Expand thought horizons 

Meadows said .. put people together from different backgrounds and disciplines ... learn from others and penetrate their jargons ... see through other lenses ... 

During the interviews with colleagues (who don't have a systems background) I have had many conversations about social learning and what it means. I've often described it as learning by osmosis rather than formal learning from a training course.   This caught my eye this morning on my Instagram feed and really resonated as a way of describing the difference between teaching and learning.

Thanks to Systems Thinking Daily (@systemsthinkingdaily) for the different lens

Stay humble. Stay a learner.

Donella Meadows said that systems thinking had taught her to trust her intuition more and her rationality less but still be prepared for surprises.  She reminds us that our mental models are incomplete; that the world is complex and how much we don't know.

Having just completed the first interview for my thesis this really rings true at the moment.  

Was I surprised?  Yes.  Is my mental model incomplete? Yes  Is the system more complex than I assumed?  Yes.

Which is ridiculous.  As an action researcher who is 'in the system' I had already identified (and written down) that there is a risk that I might let my worldview dominate; I might assume an understanding of the system and let these influence the analysis.  The intent is to manage this risk through reflexive practice - specifically by using Meadow's Systems Wisdoms.  I had expected the interviewees to have different views to me but had anticipated that these views would relate to an aspect of the system I was aware of.  What I hadn't honestly anticipated was that I would be surprised in the very first interview by a colleague expressing a view of an aspect of the system which I was unaware of and had never considered.

What did I learn and what will I do differently next time:

• my zoom only does automatic transcription if you record to the cloud so next time I won't save the recording to my desktop 😞
• In a semi-structured interview have one clear opening question then go with the flow - the additional questions I had as prompts really didn't help the flow of the conversation
• Have some specific points to check - it will make analysis easier if you specifically check these points
• Consider how to help the interviewee follow the flow of the interview - the chat function can provide a visual (written) prompt

It’s the social element

Last week I went into the office for a couple of days. It's the third time this year I've been in the office but unlike the previous visits this one wasn't for a pre-arranged event or workshop. This time I was going into the office to sit at a desk and work - just like I used to do what seems like a lifetime ago pre pandemic.

It really wasn't what it used to be like though. The main difference this time is that although Westminster has removed restrictions our team hasn't flocked back to the office and it felt like a ghost office. There are a number of contributory factors:

• Holiday season. Even though travel is still challenging it's school holidays, it's been a long year and many of my colleagues are taking time off work 
• I have many Italian colleagues and you just don't work in August .... 
• different rules in different places eg the Scottish government still have 'work from home if you can' in place 

These are all factual reasons but I wonder how much of the lack of presence in the office is due to the social system resisting a change and that what we have built over the last 16 months works and that we are now settled and comfortable in remote working. It certainly does feel unusual and worthy of remark when you meet colleagues in the flesh. Particularly when you've been working with them for a year and only even seen them on a computer screen in that time.

One person who was in the office, and is routinely in the office is a new team member who joined two weeks ago. With us she has never established the routine of remote working but started immediately into a hybrid model. She really enjoys being in the office and doesn't want to work completely remotely but does appreciate the ability to work from home a couple of days a week (mainly as it avoids the need to commute on the tube). In the office she particularly enjoys what she describes as the 'social element' of meeting people in person and chatting, getting to know people and building relationships on a personal level. These are spontaneous interactions - not planned or booked in advance for a specific purpose as happens on video. For her it is a really important element of working in the office and something she would be very reluctant to give up.

Donella Meadows talks about finding the appropriate point / lever to intervene in a system to effect change. I wonder how much our new team member will be a lever?

Get with the beat

 Early in my MSc I was introduced to Donella Meadows and was captivated by her paper on Dancing with Systems.   One of the objectives in my thesis is to increase my capability for reflexive practice and have decided to see if I can use her systems wisdoms to provide a framework for this practice.

The first system wisdom is to:

 Get with the Beat 

She recommends watching the system work to see how it behaves.  Ask people who have been around about what has happened and learn its history.  She also says to make a time graph to illustrate the behaviour of the system using actual data as memories are not always reliable.

So thinking about the social system that I'm studying and about how that system has been impacted by events since its inception - both events arising from activity in the system itself but also external events which have impacted on the system I have plotted a time graph.  This shows how I perceived the level of perturbation in the system over a period of 20 months through set up, formal start, production of initial outputs and the impact of various Covid-19 restrictions.

In this newly established social system I perceive that there is an ongoing base level of perturbation generated from people learning how to produce outputs and understand how the system works.  In this initial period there has been a relatively high level of turnover of people all of whom need time to understand and learn how the system works.  Turnover has been high partly due to the project nature of the work but also because of the time to recruit and use of temporary staff covering roles while recruitment is in progress.

I perceived the impact of the original lockdown in March20 as high but having drawn the timeline its noticeable that subsequent lockdowns didn't have the same level of impact - potentially as these, in effect, extended what had become normal.  What did impact on the system was the creation of outputs and the prospect of the final easing of restrictions meaning another substantive change to ways of working as offices open up.

Surprisingly normal

 Last week I attended a workshop.  

It has been nearly a year since I sat in the same room as my work colleagues and while some of us have ventured into the office occasionally over the last month this was the first time we had purposefully come together with a shared agenda.  The event nearly didn't happen when the easing of lockdown in England was delayed to 19July but with careful consideration of appropriate social distancing measures (including 2 colleagues on video who were unable to travel) we did manage to meet.

Reflecting on the event:

• it was lovely to get out of the house and see different views
• I'd forgotten how tall some of my colleagues were
• it was so good to be in a room where multiple conversations were able to happen simultaneously - the digital enforcement of bilateral conversation was not missed!
• Being able to overhear many different conversations meant I could glean gems of information to add to the breadth of understanding
• it was lovely to return to the familiarity (security?) of my own home office desk

What did my colleagues observe:

• it felt surprisingly normal
• you have to be present at all times (and can't sit hidden by the screen and do your emails)
• really appreciated the opportunity to sit and chat with colleagues (and watch the football together) - the social element is so important and has been missing over the last year in spite of efforts to run social events on video

Broken or changed?

Donald Schon said that social systems resist change with an energy which is roughly proportional to the radicalness of the change that is being threatened

Last March (2019) the UK Government declared a national lockdown (Covid-19) and my workplace closed with immediate effect.  In fact from the internal announcement to the office being emptied only took a couple of hours.  There was no resistance - only a desire to get out and get home as quickly as possible.  So an extremely radical change happened (in effect) instantaneously with no resistance from the social system impacted.

Which could disprove what Donald Schon said.  But ...

• change wasn't 'threatened' so was it that the system didn't have time to react? (ie there wasn't time for a feedback loop from the 'change' to the 'system') - which would mean Schon's statement hold
• or did what happened break the social system? - which would mean Schon's statement holds

Thoughts?

Who knew the coffee machine played music?

Written Thursday 3 June 2021

Today I went into the office. After a 15 month gap it finally happened. And it felt surprisingly normal.

I don't have to go in as the guidance is still to go work at home if you can but have increasingly felt the desire to sit with colleagues, grab some post it notes and pens and co-create a solution using a white board. And the impetus came with the need to create a new business plan for my area of the business.

What felt normal:
- packing a bag to travel and heading to the train station
- being in the office
- seeing and working with colleagues

What was not expected:
- the amount of packaging round my lunch (this definitely doesn't happen in my kitchen when I make lunch from the fridge)
- motion sickness on the train travelling home
- the coffee machine playing music when it made coffee
- that it felt normal!

What was wonderful:
- meeting a colleague for breakfast
- hugging!

And I'm not the only one who was surprised it felt so normal... several colleagues commented that they had been really reluctant to come back to the office when it was proposed last summer but are now embracing the opportunity and reflecting that it feels normal

Instantaneous change?

 Just over a year ago on 17th March 2020 my office announced that, in line with government guidelines, the premises were closing and we should all go home to work.  Within a couple of hours I had packed and left the building.  Change was, to all intents and purposes, instantaneous: like breaking a leg. 

When leaving the building that day I had no idea that over a year later I would still be working at home with no immediate prospect of returning to the office.  There have been some conversations about the prospect and we did even develop a plan which never got implemented as further restrictions came into place.

Now, with the vaccine rollout in progress we have started thinking again about planning a return to the office ... but even more tentatively than before. 

Having broken a leg - the leg is still in plaster.  And until we know when the plaster gets removed we wont start planning on learning to walk again.  And we don't know how long it will take to learn to walk again

Its not all bad ...

 I wrote in an earlier post about how my 'system' had been impacted by Covid-19.  While many aspects have been impacted negatively (eg not being able to meet in person) there have been some that have been some positive impacts and some new aspects introduced which would never have happened without Covid and its associated lockdowns and restrictions.

In what feels like another lifetime I would meet a friend (Joan) every week and we would enjoy playing music together.  Tea and chat were also involved. And then the first lockdown happened and it stopped.  Then Joan dropped me a note to say that Trish who ran the cello workshops at Glasgow Fiddle Workshop was running some informal zoom classes - would I be interested?  I jumped at the chance - I'd looked at the classes GFW ran on many occasions but living in central Scotland and working in London meant evening classes in Glasgow had never been an option.  But virtual classes and working at home meant that it suddenly became feasible.  So I signed up.

The Monday night classes quickly became the highlight of my week.  Meeting and seeing people, chatting, learning new tunes and playing with others who love traditional Scottish music was eagerly anticipated.  Something to look forward to in the middle of the pandemic became not just a morale boost but a solid anchor for my mental health and wellbeing.  And I got to learn too!

Three things in particular stand out:

• learning by ear
• the video
• Christmas party with tune bingo

I've played music for most of my life learning piano in primary and branching out into woodwind and choirs at secondary.  When my son tried to learn violin I joined in to help - he gave up but I stuck with it.  Playing trad tunes with other people is much easier on the violin than the clarinet.  And then someone let me try the viola.  That was it - I was enraptured - hook line and everything.  I had found MY instrument.  All of this experience was rooted in the classical tradition and I struggled hugely to learn by ear in spite of many attempts.  But in this class I finally found a teacher who has succeeded in helping me to learn by ear.  Most of the time I more or less manage the tune but need promting with the music after a coupe of days.  But there are a couple of tunes that I have really learned by year (Leaping Lulu being my first success) and actually prefer not to have the music.  Finally 50 years of classical training being supplemented by a aural tradition.

Then came the video.  Trish challenged us to learn Shetland Times and Tatties and video ourselves.  Trish edited us together.  For the first time I could hear everyone else in the class - the hairs on the back of my neck stood up.  I'd only ever heard one person playing at a time until that point.

The third highlight of the year was our Christmas bingo night.  The winner of the bingo (unfortunately not me) won a free music lesson with Trish's son.  He joined us that night to play a couple of tunes - suddenly I was playing along with two other people.  The first time in nearly a year that I'd done more than a duet.  The feeling of playing in that trio was indescribable.  

Looking ahead - it would be great if I could continue to play with the cello class even when my working life in London resumes.

Reviewing Literature (or attempting to)

 I spent a considerable amount of time this week starting to get to grips with the first draft of my research proposal.  Having put some words on paper for the aims and objectives I decided to spend the Sunday afternoon focussing on the literature search.  Jeez - what a potential minefield!

Starting point was relatively easy - my supervisor had advised to include a couple of items from the core course modules and I used those familiar items to draft some text for the literature review section using the OU PROMT guidance for reviewing material.  So far so good ... although it was interesting trying to write up the provenance of one of the uni text books

Then I went searching (google scholar is definitely easier to use than the university library) and looked to see what was returned using the search terms - Covid-19 impact remote working - and got 1.3 million items returned.

Think I might need to find a better set of search terms ...

My purposeful Covid-19 system

 Over the past year people in the UK have become familiar with government advice: 

Then I saw some of my systems thinkers on twitter (@hw29x and @SystemsNinja) suggested we should re-arrange this using Checklands PQR structure to give a purposeful system:

P (What)	A system to …	Protect the NHS
Q (How)	By …	Stay at home
R (Why)	In order to …	Save lives

 

Which got me to thinking - what does my purposeful Covid-19 system look like?

Note that this is my January 2021 version - it has varied significantly over the last 9 months.  Also I've been drawing this in my head for months and only actually drew it (wrote this) when I'm supposed to be writing my thesis proposal - avoidance technique at its best!  

And to continue on the avoidance path (and prove there really is a bird feeder which forms part of my work system:

Mixed messages

 I've always valued the time before a module starts to get ahead on the reading and get my head round how a module is structured.  The research module has a long gap between the end of the previous module and its start as the OU advise that there is pre-work required - with the implication that the pre-work is substantive and too much to do while finishing another module.

This messaging is being reinforced on the forum where I'm told this module isn't like other modules where there are peaks (for TMAs) and troughs.  Its a consistently high level of input needed for the full 12 months and that I should make a start in advance of the official start by beginning to flesh out my proposal using the templates 

But none of the material has been released to enable me to actually do this ...