sociotechnical systems

Tutorial: Systems Theory in Strategic Practice

Tutorial: Systems Theory in Strategic Practice
This tutorial will help you use systems theory and mapping methods to understand and make change in the world around you. Instructor: SCOTT MATTER, Associate Director, Shaping Futures, Department of Premier and Cabinet New South Wales, Australia Overview This video has been edited to protect the privacy of participants in the live tutorial. Whether we work on new products and services, strategy, or wicked problems, we are intervening in complex systems. These systems can be surprising and frustrating—they often refuse to change in the ways we want them to, head off in unexpected directions, or just seem too collosal to influence or anticipate. Systems theory and methods give us tools to think and act with. Learning key vocabulary, core principles, and some simple mapping techniques can help you understand and influence systemic change. This tutorial introduces systems concepts and tools to enhance your strategic practice. Participants will apply theory and methods to map a system relevant to their work, then...

What Anthropology Brings to Innovation: John Sherry / A Profile

John Sherry
EPIC Profiles Series by HEATHER S. ROTH-LOBO, University of North Texas John W. Sherry, Director the Experience Innovation Lab at Intel Corporation, is a Keynote Speaker at EPIC2016—join us! “Anthropology is really undersold.” Dr. John Sherry’s words carry weight—he is Director of the Experience Innovation Lab at Intel Corporation. In addition to discovering ways to power innovation in this major multinational technology company, he works in Portland leading Oregon Smart Labs, an external business accelerator. I recently talked with John about innovation, big data, and lean startup. He has made it part of his life´s work to interpret the way markets move and ideas shift around, and his intimate understanding of these dynamics has been driven by his passion for solving social problems with a creative imagination. The mixture of these elements paved John’s successful career as an established anthropologist in a company known for and reinventing computing around the world. Anthropology is not only undersold,...

What Things to Teach Designers in Post-Industrial Times?

by CAMERON TONKINWISE, Director of Design Studies & Doctoral Studies, CMU School of Design Academics frequently argue for things that people do not yet acknowledge as existing. Compared to most other professions, where arguments are often between two or more things ‘on the table,’ academics profess things that they believe need to be ‘brought to the table.’ We say to students, ‘this thing you know nothing about yet, it is going to be really important for you to know (how to do) when you have a job, trust me.’ Or we say to industry, ‘believe this research, it demonstrates that you are missing a much better way to do things.’ So it can be very exciting when people in academia and industry are saying the same sorts of things. My colleagues and I at the Carnegie Mellon University School of Design shared Megan Neese’s article ‘What is a Product?’ with a sense of validation about our recent curriculum restructure toward interactions, systems of service and social innovation, and transitions to more sustainable...