paper 6: a structure for performance (dudley)

The Trialogic Imagination:Re-Thinking Beer’s “3-4-5” Homeostat for Social Systems

The Trialogic Imagination

Pete Dudley

Most systems theories from Bogdanov onwards propose the existence of an equilibrial or homeostatic state which a system, if perturbed, will ‘attempt’ to re-approximate.

By introducing a notion of ‘self’ the “ultrastable” system developedin the work of Ashby and Beer also enables the active avoidance of disequilibrial or counter-homeostatic states.

Pete Dudley



However, more recent work following the development of self-organization, chaos and complexity theories suggests thatentities that are able to function in this way are necessarilyalready “far from equilibrium”.


Pete Dudley



However, more recent work following the development of self-organization, chaos and complexity theories suggests thatentities that are able to function in this way are necessarilyalready “far from equilibrium”.

Both of which make sense – but each appears to contradict the other


Pete Dudley

The ‘bifurcation graph’, one of the iconic images of chaos and complexity theories, can be interpreted as representingsustainable trajectories for systems pushed further andfurther from their formal equilibrium state.

Each time the graph splits it can be interpreted as a systemiccrisis, a point at which additional and different structural characteristicsbecome both possible and necessary.


Pete Dudley



Prigogine’s work on the self-organization of inorganic materialsled him to the definition of “dissipative systems”, systems thatappeared to spontaneously re-structure in response to their current (and far from equilibrium) state and then maintain thisstructured state in the face of increased ‘pumping’ until another boundary was crossed.


Pete Dudley

Prigogine’s work on the self-organization of inorganic materialsled him to the definition of “dissipative systems”, systems thatappeared to spontaneously re-structure in response to their current (and far from equilibrium) state and then maintain thisstructured state in the face of increased ‘pumping’ until another boundary was crossed.

Structure (i.e., ‘systemness’), it would seem, is a spontaneous response to far from equilibrium conditions.




Pete Dudley

The range of possible structures being a functionof the ‘physics’ of the constituent parts and the range of feasible structures being a sub-set determined by environmental conditions.

Energy in Energy out

The interesting thing about this is that it suggests that any emergent dissipative structure be a function of the relationship its constituent parts have with its environment.


Pete Dudley


Which suggests:a) the primacy of the relationship over the structure; and,


Pete Dudley

b) that systemic viability (“persistent” structure) requires that the ‘far from equilibrium’ conditions - and therefore the relationshipbetween the constituent parts and the environment - also persist in order to maintain it.


Which suggests:a) the primacy of the relationship over the structure; and,


Pete Dudley

Therefore:

Metabolism must be a special form of “dissipation” - mirroring the energy degradation process and using the autopoiesis of the living system as the mechanism of self-organization inorder to maintain its existence in its far from(absolute) equilibrium state.


Prigogine and Stengers categorized living things as archetypal dissipative systems,their nature and ubiquity being such that the existence of life is probably “inevitable”.


Pete Dudley

And therefore:

Autopoiesis, as a form of self-organization, must provide the ability to recreate the system as an approximation rather than a direct replication in response to, or in anticipation of, changes in environmental conditions.


If metabolism is accepted as the biological form of dissipation autopoiesis (as the “self-creation” of biological structure) must also give primacy to the maintenance of the relationship between the system and its environment over the absolute maintenance of its structure.


Pete Dudley


And therefore that

systemic identity is plastic


Performance Loop

Whole EnvironmentPerformance Loop

5

4

323*

Local Activity

Beer’s Viable System Model (VSM), and its predecessor Ashby’s ultrastable system, both contain an identity function – System 5 in the VSM and the Essential Variables in the ultrastable system.

However both these ‘identities’ are fixed – that is they facilitate adaptive behaviour as a function of the maintenance of the relationship between ‘identity as it is’ and the environment.

Pete Dudley


5

4

323*

Performance Loop


4

323*

Local ActivityThis means that any change in the identity of the system constitutes the creation of a new, and different, system.

Whilst this discontinuity in identity and system is not problematic in the biological realm – because, to a great extent, it mirrors the accepted processes of speciation – it is more so in the socio-cultural and psychological spheres.

5

Pete Dudley


Pete Dudley

The difficulty in applying this type of model to the study of change in socio-cultural and psychological systems is that, with few notable exceptions, there is a presumption of continuity.

Gould, however, suggests that such systems are Lamarckian – they retain useful characteristics across generations – and are not, therefore, necessarily subject to the discontinuity implicit in Darwinian speciation.


Pete Dudley

If utility is a ‘selection active’ factor in socio-cultural and psychological change it follows (in the cybernetic model) that identity must be subject to pressure from both environmental demand and structural capability.


The “Trialogue” is a three way conversation between:

Pete Dudley


Managing the

PresentThe “Trialogue” is a three way conversation between:The management of current activities;

Pete Dudley


Creating the

Future

Managing the

PresentThe “Trialogue” is a three way conversation between:The management of current activities; The creation of future opportunities (and the avoidance of threats); and,

Pete Dudley


Identity

Creating the

Future

Managing the

PresentThe “Trialogue” is a three way conversation between:The management of current activities; The creation of future opportunities(and the avoidance of threats); and,Identity – the basis of internal rationality and theprinciple of organization.

Pete Dudley


Identity

Creating the

Future

Managing the

Present

Pete Dudley

It is an extension of a line of reasoning that runs fromAshby’s “ultrastable system”


Identity

Creating the

Future

Managing the

Present

Pete Dudley

Reacting System



Identity

Creating the

Future

Managing the

Present

Pete Dudley

Reacting System

Second Feedback Loop



Identity

Creating the

Future

Managing the

Present

Pete Dudley

Reacting System

Second Feedback Loop

EssentialVariables



Identity

Creating the

Future

Managing the

Present

Pete Dudley

Through Beer’s “3-4-5” homeostat


Identity

Creating the

Future

Managing the

PresentSystem 3

Pete Dudley



Identity

Creating the

Future

Managing the

PresentSystem 3

System 4

Pete Dudley



Identity

Creating the

Future

Managing the

PresentSystem 3

System 4

System 5

Pete Dudley



Identity

Creating the

Future

Managing the

PresentAnd although it shares some of the characteristics of itspredecessors, e.g.:

It is one of the ubiquitous “trinities” (thanks Gerald); and,for the most part, “Identity” contextualizes or controls the interaction between “Present” and “Future” orientedactivities

Pete Dudley


Identity

Creating the

Future

Managing the

PresentAnd although it shares some of the characteristics of itspredecessors, e.g.:

It is one of the ubiquitous “trinities” (thanks Gerald); and,for the most part, “Identity” contextualizes or controls the interaction between “Present” and “Future” orientedactivities

It is different in one important respect …Pete Dudley


Creating the

Future

Managing the

Present

Pete Dudley

Identity

Because identity is now conceived as an emergent entity, contingent upon the interaction of environmental factors and structural capability …


Creating the

Future

Managing the

Present

Pete Dudley

Identity

Because identity is now conceived as an emergent entity, contingent upon the interaction of environmental factors and structural capability …

… the trialogue can explicitly recognize the “Plasticity of

Identity”


Creating the

Future

Managing the

PresentWhich means that the system’s (theoretical) viability is extendedto include the ability to change the internal rationality used to drive adaptation …

Pete Dudley

Identity


Creating the

Future

Managing the

Present

Pete Dudley

Identity


Which means that the system’s (theoretical) viability is extendedto include the ability to change the internal rationality used to drive adaptation …

… an ability which can now include a full range of adaptive and evolutionary effects, with specific instances such as cultural change, discontinuous speciation or psycho-active therapy as special cases.

Performance Loop


23*

Local Environment

Identity

Creating the

Future

Managing the

Present

Pete Dudley


And which, when re-inserted into the VSM, creates an adaptive model that is able to contain socio-cultural and psychological as well as biological evolutionary abilities

– without transgressing Beer’s original rules of viability.

ProductiveActivity

ValueExchange

The Organization in Society

Organizations survive via a ‘value-exchange’ with society;

This value is is determined by society (not the organization) and may change over time.

StructureInformationBehaviour

RenewalSocialChange

Pete Dudley


Part of the value the organization receives is used to fund further productive activity;

And part to sustain or renew the organization (autopoiesis).

ProductiveActivity

ValueExchange

RenewalSocialChange


Pete Dudley


To survive and prosper over time the organization must be able to:

a) align its capability to the social context (adaptation);

b) so that it can continue to create social value and renew itself - within the constraints of the organizational value it receives,

ProductiveActivity

ValueExchange

RenewalSocialChange


Pete Dudley


Which means that the organization must be able to:

a) Understand the value context – society’s notion of what is valuable;

b) Understand and manage its identity – so that it knows what it is attempting to renew, and why;

c) Manage its productive activity – so that it can deliver value into society;

ProductiveActivity

ValueExchange

RenewalSocialChange


Pete Dudley

Managing Value

Defining What Value Means to

Us

Understanding the Value Context

Managing the Creation of

Value

Strategy

So that strategy is the area of management responsible for ensuring that ‘productive’ activity delivers organizational value by being able to deliver societal value – it provides an operational context aligned to the societal context.

Pete Dudley

The Trialogic Imagination:Re-Thinking Beer’s “3-4-5” Homeostat for Social Systems

paper 6: a structure for performance (dudley)

Technology

formal equilibrium state

complexity theories

thisstructured state

equilibrium conditions

social systems

trialogic imaginationwhich

trialogic imaginationprigogine

archetypal dissipative