I got tired of writing blog posts that said “yet more family issues, so no real updates” so, although the issues haven’t gone away, just become more chronic, I waited until I had something to add.

I have changed the structure as well and have been using it enough in the last couple of months that I have more confidence that I won’t have to change it significantly. Instead of writing a bunch about tools before diving into workshops, I have incorporated the descriptions of tools into the workshops, just enough for each workshop, so that the complete picture of the tool will develop over time.

I am updating that complete picture in the tools reference section, after each workshop in which I use it. If some workshop shows that the tool needs improvement to the point the previous workshops are outdated, I will go back and fix them and say so in this blog.

I hope it is now easier to read.

The first entry in the tools reference section is is the use of definitions and dictionaries. More specifically how to disentangle the overlapping and possibly conflicting definitions that dictionaries give and how to clarify for the purposes of work like this.

This is not a criticism of dictionaries; their job is to distil the usage they find out in the wild into a few phrases and examples and if the public uses words in a muddled fashion, that is not their fault.

I introduced this tool in the workshop Sovereign States: Clarifying the Concepts.

Each tools reference section will end with links to each of the workshops that use the tools, so that it is easy to find examples of how it is used.

There is new workshop content. I have significantly changed the initial workshops to reflect the new structure; the content is the same. I have also added some new ones on sovereign states to introduce the first tool specifically for systems thinking rather than generic tools that apply broadly.

That is the System Environment Diagram. Although I use a lot of visual tools, I have done my best to make sure that the description of the diagram is sufficiently clear and complete that anyone who cannot use or prefers not to use visual representations will be able to get equivalent value.

I have not yet started the tool reference for that; it’s my next job. It was beginning to take more time managing all the links. When that happens I look for a tool to manage that and if I can’t find one, I make one. For now as simple spreadsheet of links and especially missing links is a big help in managing that.