Evolutionary Change & Cybernetics

Interesting post about organisational change by Simon Parker on his Medium blog. As someone with prior success in organisational change, he’s now doing his Master’s and reflecting on what he didn’t know he knew about change when he succeeded at it.

Resonated with my own “Cultural Aspects of Change” 1991 MBA dissertation. Especially the cultural evolutionary systems view which sparked this two-decades-and-counting research blogging project.

His 7 propositions pretty well cover it, and sure enough Cybernetics (Stafford Beer) gets acknowledged.

“… I have absorbed but not fully understood some Stafford Beer along the way. This comes largely from the marvellous book Cybernetic Revolutionaries about Beer’s time in Chile, but also from my engagement with folk like Ben Taylor on twitter. I am aware there is deeper archaeology here, from writers I am only dimly aware of …”

This archaeological angle resonates with me too. Nothing (well, not much) new under the sun is a recurring impression – pretty much everything that needs saying has already been said. It’s mostly about attending to the right things. Worth a read.

(Hat tip to Ben Taylor for sharing on Twitter.)

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