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Systemic intelligence refers to behavior in
complex systems that involves interaction and feedback, both within the system
and with the environment. Systemic intelligence is not a sum of individual
intelligences, it rather reflects the available knowledge and relationship
flexibility of a system.
This is an advanced article for helping professionals.
Available Intelligence
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Intelligence is not the simple
expression of a simple
principle; intelligence is the complex expression of a complex set of
principles. Intelligence is a supersystem composed of many mutually
interdependent subsystems ...
Levels of Organization in
General Intelligence Eliezer Yudkowsky |
When a problem threatens a human system, the
leaders' actions can increase or decrease the available intelligence
of both the individual members and the overall intelligence of the
system. If the leaders promote brainstorming, for example, more members
can contribute to finding creative solutions.
If the
leaders merely reinforce their own prejudices, then the intelligence of
individual members may not contribute to solutions - or to their overall
survival.
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If people are punished for
being perceived as intelligent, people may support their survival by hiding
their intelligence! Hidden intelligence has no advantage over
stupidity!
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In some human systems, members hide their intelligence
to avoid unpleasant consequences. In some teams, intelligent team
members may hide their intelligence from leaders with less intelligence.
In some countries, intelligent women may hide their intelligence from their
husbands and families. In some organizations, duration of membership, not
intelligence, qualifies you as a decision maker.
As an extreme example, in Cambodia's
Khmer Rouge organization, being perceived as intelligent could mark
a person for rapid execution. Many intelligent people pretended to be stupid -
to survive.
Systemic Intelligence = Survival Potential of a System
We recognize systems thinking as a Fifth Discipline
necessary for learning organizations, and we acknowledge Peter Senge,
who showed that people's innate systems capabilities are wider than was
previously recognized.
Systems intelligence refers to intelligent behavior in
complex systems - usually involving interaction and feedback. People with
active systems intelligence perceive themselves as interdependent parts of
larger systems. As human systems emerge, develop and change (like other living
organisms) systemically intelligent action can respect whole systems, even
while those systems are unfolding.
In systemic coaching, survival potential
reflects your ability to cope with biological, physical or emotional
stress. Individual intelligence plays a relatively minor role in the
intelligence of a human system. Systemic intelligence more often focuses
on the environment, energy and food management, relationships, habits
and stored knowledge than on the individual intelligence of members.
We find that, in human systems, this ability to cope with
internal stressors (e.g. addicts, thieves, lawyers) and external stressors (e.g.
climate, oil, food production) primarily reflect the quality of relationships,
and secondary factors such as age, culture, education and genetic heritage.
Human systems can enhance or impede the intelligence of
individual members - and the way those members apply their
intelligence can enhance or impede the survival potential of the system.
People's values
govern their beliefs and behavior ... and strongly affect their
survival potential.
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Morals — all correct moral laws — derive
from the instinct to survive. Moral behavior is survival behavior above the
individual level. Robert A Heinlein |
Systems intelligence can create solutions for problems in
such a way that not only are problems resolved but that members of the system become
more skilled at solving similar types of problems.
How to solve a problem AND make a human system smarter?
Groups of experts engaged in solving particular problems often lock
themselves into concepts that experts believe. A non-expert or a visitor
from another discipline is more likely to see discrepancies and opportunities
that the experts cannot imagine to be possible.
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Parts of our systemic coaching is based
on
noticing discrepancies
and opportunities that violate what experts
believe. |
Appreciating the diversity of human
experience can empower systemic problem solving.
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Scott Page (University of Michigan), ran a series of computer models pitting
all-smart groups of agents against groups of more diverse agents ranging
from not-so-smart to smart. The group with the lower average intelligence
was almost always better at solving problems than the smarter groups. |
At the same time, people with a wide variety of diverse
opinions requires a leader or moderator, otherwise problem solving can
become lost in a confused mess of unfocussed discussions.
Applying Systems Intelligence
In our systemic coaching, we perceive people as
representatives of complex networks of interacting relationships. Everyone
in each network can contribute to solving problems. Some questions that
encourage this systems-intelligent perspective are:
- Multiple Perspectives.
Can you see yourself, your roles and your behavior in the system from
multiple perspectives?
- Multiple Futures:
Can you envision and identify different productive behaviors for yourself in
the system while perceiving the potential consequences of your choices?
- Multiple Choices: Can you consider productive
ways of behaving within the system?
- Management: Can you encourage systems-intelligent
behavior over a long time frame?
- Leadership: Can you
initiate, found and lead systems-intelligent teams?
Systemic Thinking ... Clare Graves
Level 7
Clare Graves was a post-doctoral student of the more well
known Abraham Maslow. Clare Graves created a hierarchy of values which we find
extremely useful to predict the behavior of human systems (as opposed to the
individual behavior of the members of those systems).
After interviewing over a thousand students to find what they
perceived as a healthy adult, Clare Graves postulated that human values develop
in response to environmental conditions - which are molded by at least seven
types of human values in a developmental hierarchy.
Level 7 refers to people who are sensitive to
subtleties, implied meanings and who explore alternative ways to understand and
behave. They value appropriate solutions for the same problems in different
contexts and can "see the big picture", long range strategies and
consequences while providing original solutions to specific problems.
For them, any obsession with team leadership is a relic of the
past! Team leadership should be accepted by the most appropriate person for the
current task according to their abilities/ knowledge/ networks. Systemic
intelligence may be an asset to the survival and success of organizations if
the team members can:
- manage emotions
- learn from other perspectives
- investigate possibilities of reciprocity
- accept systemic intelligence as part of individual
development
- dismantle organizational blocks that
distance people from their own
wisdom
- avoid obsession with pre-systemic (mechanistic /
statistical) cause-effect thinking
Developing our systemic coaching often required
that we
ignore older ideas.
Many of our innovative methods grew in the fertilizer of "I don't know".
Do You Want Results?
Plagiarism is theft. Copyright © Martyn Carruthers 2006-2012 All rights
reserved |
