Family time for solar new year and lunar year, otherwise at home writing a journal manuscript for a deadline, and focused on improving wellness.
Toronto, Ontario.
Riverside neighbourhood: Delivery of new double bed for the new year, ordered online on Boxing Day sale. Had previously tried out store model in person, referred by salesman towards a firm old-style bed like they used to make. Not a fan of the pillow top style that we had brought down from Gravenhurst in 2019, when we were closing out the store. (Riverside neighbourhood, Toronto, Ontario) 20230104Queen Street Dental Centre: New tech in real-time 3-D dental scanning, assembling images captured from moving a wand around the mouth. Cracked molar yesterday, scheduled for new crown this morning. Resetting expectation that original teeth eventually wear down for elders. (Queen Street Dental Centre, Queen Street East, Toronto, Ontario) 20230111Market Square: Lunar New Year of the Black Water Rabbit party, featuring @MikeHansen on okonomiyaki grill. Venue and inari sushi by @KellyOkamura, leading the toast of a New Moon in the evening, although the official time was late afternoon. Contributions to the buffet by some from #Systems Thinking Ontario regulars who we’ve only seen virtually for many months, and some east side neighbours whose kids attended the same schools of our sons. (Market Square, Front Street East, Toronto, Ontario) 20230121Oma Chiropractic: Updated technology with chiropractic drop table, where a segment is fastened in a raised position, so that when doctor applies thrust, the table releases and patient’s body continues past the point of rest. Also receiving localized impacts from an activator adjusting instrument, rather than manual spinal adjustments. Loosening up lower back muscles from sitting at the computer too much last month. (Oma Chiropractice and Wellness Centre, Munro Street, Toronto, Ontario) 20230123Maha’s: Overdue weekday social lunch taken as opportunity to sample homestyle Egyptian cooking at a family-owned east end restaurant that doesn’t serve in evenings. Conversations about multi-year authoring projects with some pressures to come to a close. Leisurely midday break, but then back to homes for more writing. (Maha’s, Greenwood Avenue, Toronto, Ontario) 20230124McCleary Playground: South of Queen Street East, on the east side of the GO train tracks, the wall looks bare not only because it’s winter, but because trees were removed, presumably for the installation of future noise barriers. Entrances to the Riverside-Leslieville station on the Ontario line will be on the west side of the tracks, not this side. Beginning of a snowy afternoon rush hour, schoolchildren are walking home, not playing in the yard. (McCleary Playground, McGee Street, Toronto, Ontario) 20230125
Congee Queen Agincourt: Lunar New Year lunch, deferred by one week due to schedules, even with only half of our sons in town. Convened via three cars from scattered locations downtown, because crosstown traffic gets snarled. Early into the Year of the Rabbit, prospects are looking up. (Congee Queen, Sheppard Avenue East, Scarborough, Ontario) 20230128
Beyond city-building as urban planning is the idea of a Music City. This sees development of cultural life across a wide variety of arts, alongside economic benefits brought to the region. At the 119th meeting of Systems Thinking Ontario in March 2024, socio-cultural designer Adam Hogan and musician-designer Ziyan Hossain joined moderator Zaid Khan in conversation. […]
Having reached year 6 of an espoused 10-year journey, the Systems Changes Learning Circle is (again) convening monthly Dialogues on Social Innovation at the Centre for Social Innovation in Toronto. Starting up in 2019, the Circle was convening regularly in the Climate Ventures space at 192 Spadina Avenue. The pandemic interrupted in-person meetings, and the […]
EQ Lab runs Dialogic Drinks, “the kind of philosophical discussion you have in a coffee shop or bar”, twice per week. Wtih this group interested loosely in questions on leadership, I was invited to host an online session on March 12 (evening in Hong Kong and Singapore, really early in Toronto) and on March 14-15 […]
At the 118th meeting of Systems Thinking Ontario in February 2024, behavioral scientist Cameron D. Norman and design strategist Tara Campbell were invitied for a conversation guided by Zaid Khan. The panelists are both alumni of the Strategic Foresight and Innovation program at OCADU. Some time ago, they had conducted a research project on evaluation […]
An article on “sciencing and philosophizing”, coauthored by Gary S. Metcalf and myself, has been published in the Journal of the International Society for the Systems Sciences, following the ISSS 2023 Kruger Park conference in South Africa, last July. There’s a version cacned on the Coevolving Commons. This article started in a series of conversations […]
For the January 2024 Systems Thinking Ontario session, educational game designer Scott DeJong and innovation designer Geoff Evamy Hill joined a conversation moderated by Zaid Khan. Mutual interests in the new field of educational design and games were at the core of the discussion. This was an opportunity for systems thinkers to expand their knowledge on […]
David L. Hawk (American management theorist, architect, and systems scientist) has been hosting a weekly television show broadcast on Bold Brave Tv from the New York area on Wednesdays 6pm ET, remotely from his home in Iowa. Live, callers can join…Read more ›
Following the first day lecture on Philosophy of Chinese Medicine 1 for the Global University for Sustainability, Keekok Lee continued on a second day on some topics: * Anatomy as structure; physiology as function (and process); * Process ontology, and thing ontology; * Qi ju as qi-in-concentrating mode, and qi san as qi-in-dissipsating mode; and […]
The philosophy of science underlying Classical Chinese Medicine, in this lecture by Keekok Lee, provides insights into ways in which systems change may be approached, in a process ontology in contrast to the thing ontology underlying Western BioMedicine. Read more ›
In conversation, @zeynep with @ezraklein reveal authentic #SystemsThinking in (i) appreciating that “science” is constructed by human collectives, (ii) the west orients towards individual outcomes rather than population levels; and (iii) there’s an over-emphasis on problems of the moment, and…Read more ›
In the question-answer period after the lecture, #TimIngold proposes art as a discipline of inquiry, rather than ethnography. This refers to his thinking On Human Correspondence. — begin paste — [75m26s question] I am curious to know what art, or…Read more ›
How might our society show value for the long term, over the short term? Could we think about taxation over time, asks @carlotaprzperez in an interview: 92% for 1 day; 80% within 1 month; 50%-60% tax for 1 year; zero tax for 10 years.Read more ›
Finding proper words to express system(s) change(s) can be a challenge. One alternative could be diachrony. The Oxford English dictionary provides two definitions for diachronic, the first one most generally related to time. (The second is linguistic method) diachronic ADJECTIVE Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. “diachronic (adj.), sense 1,” July 2023, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/3691792233. For completeness, prochronic relates “to […]
The selection of readings in the “Introduction” to Systems Thinking: Selected Readings, volume 2, Penguin (1981), edited by Fred E. Emery, reflects a turn from 1969 when a general systems theory was more fully entertained, towards an urgency towards changes in the world that were present in 1981. Systems thinking was again emphasized in contrast […]
In reviewing the original introduction for Systems Thinking: Selected Readings in the 1969 Penguin paperback, there’s a few threads that I only recognize, many years later. The tables of contents (disambiguating various editions) were previously listed as 1969, 1981 Emery, System Thinking: Selected Readings. — begin paste — Introduction In the selection of papers for this […]
In a recording of the debate between Michael Quinn Patton and Michael C. Jackson on “Systems Concepts in Evaluation”, Patton referenced four concepts published in the “Principles for effective use of systems thinking in evaluation” (2018) by the Systems in Evaluation Topical Interest Group (SETIG) of the American Evaluation Society. The four concepts are: (i) […]
How might the quality of an action research initiative be evaluated? — begin paste — We have linked our five validity criteria (outcome, process, democratic, catalytic, and dialogic) to the goals of action research. Most traditions of action research agree on the following goals: (a) the generation of new knowledge, (b) the achievement of action-oriented […]
