In the workshop, I introduced the first of a tool designed specifically for thinking about systems. Since it was adapted from an international standard system for this purpose, I was not surprised that it worked, to the extent of suggesting some interesting questions.
I did confirm that it was a better fit than Donella Meadows’ assertion that “a system must consist of three kinds of things: elements, interconnections, and a function or purpose”[ Thinking In Systems,] is not correct. Countries do not have a well-defined purpose that everyone would agree to, but the various interested parties may each have their own interests in what it does, but there is no specific purpose for either countries in general or for any particular country.
I’m not quite sure what to do with “Interested parties” just yet. I was wondering whether they are a person or other system, or the role they play. But on reflection, I think external parties are a person or other system, whereas internal parties need to be distinguished by role, so I will show that in the next workshop on the internals of countries and in another model I have under construction for use in a later workshop. Once I’ve tried it out, I’ll explain it in that later workshop. I have another section under construction for the tools reference to explain what I mean by “model”, in more detail.
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