Simple Complexity

Validation and peer review is something we can all gain from, and conferences can be a great way to achieve that.? It does mean time out, of those all too often, busy schedules.? But pulling back from the important day-to-day operational delivery programmes, can be an important way to gain perspective and to recharge positive drive and motivation, checking-in with others to asses whether we’re on ‘the right path’ (or at least a brighter path to a more hopeful future).

Yesterday’s Angus Council hosted conference: Addressing Child Poverty & Inequalities workshop - a #wholesystems approach to health and well being - in #Angus, for me, did just that.

‘We all stand on the shoulders of others’ is an adage for good reason. Absolute originality is indeed rare – but even rarer if we think we work in splendid isolation.? The truth is that we can be much stronger, and more creative when we work together.? There are of course risks, such as ‘conformity bias’ or ‘Group think’, and there are undoubtedly frustrations in moving in groups - slowly... But that there are similar patterns in ‘new approaches’ shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. In a sense, it’s a structural part of that whole-systems / joined up approach which characterizes the current debate on hopeful ways forward.

‘What we owe the future’ – William McKaskill talks of ‘levels of contingency’, more nuanced than the heroic ‘genius’ or ‘hero’ we have been culturally accustomed to.? Farming didn’t emerge in one place, led by one genius, according to Macaskill.? It happened in multiple places across the globe, ‘form following function’ and ‘trial and error’ with multiple agents over time being highly significant in progressive change.

I wasn’t surprised by yesterday’s reference in the work shared by Dr James Nobles, Leeds Beckett University, to Donella Meadows – Thinking in Systems. In fact, I’d have been surprised, had her work not been one of the many references cited yesterday.

For me, the cross pollination of the late, great, Christopher Alexander and his work on fractals – repeating patterns found in nature, in math and often, hidden in pre heroic, classical ‘top down’, ‘master planned’ settlements and cities, is one of many networks of thinkers, learners and practitioners I continue to learn from. Perhaps Adam Grant’s ‘rethink’ should be compulsory reading for us all – but not least political decision-makers.? For rethinking based on new evidence coming forward, is central to progress.

But the most important takeaway for me yesterday, was the need to be pragmatic, to have the humility to simplify our collective work in complex systems and to have delivery for families at the core of our endeavors.? And to that end, our emerging work in #AngusCouncil is on the right track, in its ultimate goal; to help improve the lives of everyone – especially those most disenfranchised by a complicated system, desperately in need of change.

The image below was a stage diagram developed by Urbantu Ltd over the last 10 years. Wrapping services around families – and communities -at various scales. By better understanding complex needs, the complex pragmatics of places and those beautifully rich relationships between different people, makes it more likely than would otherwise be, that brighter futures can be a more grounded well-crafted and ultimately, more deliverable aspirations.? And that, simply, takes good old fashioned…teamwork.

Note on the author: Jonathan Clarkson is an interdisciplinary designer, teacher, gardener and urbanist practitioner with over 30 years of experience using design as a tool for, analysis, collaboration, solving problems and adding value.?Jonathan has publish a number of design articles, and is proud to serve in various Local Authorities, and is an occasional visiting lecturer and tutor at both Edinburgh School of Art, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, and the Mackintosh school of art in Glasgow.