Synergy feature photo of Falcons de Vilafranca in Barcelona by Pere Lopez 2007 CC-BY-SA-3.0 Creative Commons Home Axioms Systems Holons Models Uncertainty Complexity Art/Craft History Philosophy Practical wisdom Learning to learn Learning journeys Sense making models Synergy occurs when parts combine to produce a total effect that is greater than the sum of the individual parts. Words such as holism, synergy and systems are […]
What is there? What is the point? How do we think? How do we act? Routine thinking is everyday thinking where thinking and action are intimately related but without necessarily the need for explicit and reflective justification of the reasons for decisions. Reflective practice is serious deliberative thinking and continuous learning required of a professional […]
Corollaries Principles AXIOM: A1 of impelling purpose WHAT: A system, discriminated from its surroundings, is a set of models of our reality created by people for reasons which give meaning to and determine the purpose of the system WHY: We identify a system because we are curious and want to understand (science), […]
A brief history systems thinking The roots of systems-thinking go back a very long way. Aristotle (384-322BC) wrote ‘the whole is something besides the parts’ [Aristotle 2016] – in modern terms ‘the whole is more than the sum of its parts’. The even older Chinese book ‘I-Ching’ written around 1000BC -700 BC means ‘everything is […]
Why do we need to consider using an Italian Flag of uncertainty? Because we are collectively realising that the world is more complex than we previously thought. The Italian Flag can help in at least four ways:- to make better decisions to manage uncertainty to allow us individually and collectivelyto admit we don’t know when […]
What is there? How do we think? How do we act? What is the point? In the previous section What is there? we began with human purpose. We said that reality is knowable only through human apparatus. We referred to humans as thinking and living objects. We understand, know and learn about […]
Axioms Principles Next — Corollary: C1 regarding reality What: Reality is actual but only accessible through human cognition Why: We need to make explicit […]
We hope you find the site interesting, informative and useful. We welcome considered contributions of 1,000 words or less in the spirit of learning together about how to engineer desired outcomes. Particularly we welcome practical examples of good and bad experiences. Please feel free to make comments and ask questions about anything on this web […]
Models Axioms Processes Holons Uncertainty Tools Mind maps Italian Flags Systems is not a subject like the strength of materials or mathematics; rather, it is a way of thinking – a way of tackling problems. The three important features: holons, connectivity and a new view of process are […]
One of the seven habits of successful people identified by American academic Stephen Covey (1932-2102) is learning to improve or self-renewal. Practical wisdom, intelligence and rigour require reflective learning and development on that experience. Practice is a learning journey to evolve practical products and services. So how do we learn how to learn? Do you […]
A model is not what it represents but captures one or more aspects of an object just as a toy model car captures the form of a real car. A model is an interpretive description or representation of an object and is itself an object apprehended by a thinking object. In effect a model is […]
Complex systems are difficult to describe and predict because they have many interconnected parts with emergent properties. They may, under certain conditions, behave in a chaotic way. Chaos is normally understood to be a state of utter confusion or disorder but formal chaos theory is the study of non-linear systems, which show great sensitivity to initial conditions. Complexity theory […]
Home Engineering Synergy Glossary The purpose of this web site is to help us all improve how we learn together – to join-up our thinking to get the outcomes we each desire. It is about engineering joined-up thinking. We call it engineering synergy. By engineering we mean creating desired outcomes – ingenious problem solving. We […]
Wellbeing is about health, happiness, contentedness, prosperity or more generally human flourishing. Wellbeing is something we all want. Medical engineering is largely about wellness – from the medical chemical engineering of drug delivery systems, the medical electronics of pacemakers and scanners, the structural, civil, electrical and mechanical engineering of buildings such as hospitals or providing […]
