A KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT SUCCESS STORY USING SOCIAL CYBERNETICS
Waldemar De Gregori
www.globaltriunity.net
wgregori@gmail.com
Introduction
The article presents the theory, the tools and the story of a group working to innovate the teaching/learning and administrative processes at this particular university: UCC- Universidad Cooperativa de Colombia. The service delivered has been denominated “Trans-Disciplinary Method for Teaching/Learning Teams” (TDM for TLT) its source being Dr. De Gregori's systems theory denominated Social Cybernetics whose core concept is “tri-unity” and the correspondent triune brain approach to knowledge. The story covers a period from 1997 to 2001 including some elements of an evaluation made by then. The main consulting steps were: to prepare the Social Cybernetics consultant/trainer team; to survey the University in its competitive context and establish a vision of future; to design the project along with its flowchart of implementation; to train teachers and administrative personnel until Module 6 (see below) before starting using the new methodology (the training could be done in 60 hours, outside the academic settings); to implement the new methodology step by step as established in a previous flowchart, while continuing the training of teachers and administrative personnel in the remnant modules as requirement for an academic degree; to support the implementation steps with periodic feedback; to evaluate the whole process; and design the iteration of the innovative process by faculty, administrative personnel, and students representatives meeting in an annual general assembly. Key words are: Social Cybernetics (social self-directing); TDM for TLT (see above); monadic (habit of perceiving reality as separate units); tri-unity and triune (habit of perceiving reality as sets of three forming a system nested in a larger triune systemic net); triune or tricerebral mental process (three sided brain and three differentiated mental processes); tricerebral innovative cycle (the full path of the three mental processes in complementary action); four operational factors (space, chronology, personnel and procedures as a system descriptors); triune or triadic games (interplay of three elements, parts or subgroups); law of proportionality or the golden mean (extreme and mean ratio better visible by the Bell Curve or as a repetitive scale of approximately 62% by 38). See Glossary.
History
The University for Cooperatives of Colombia – UCC - is 15 years old, born from the Educational Institute for Cooperatives with its solidarity philosophy, meant to expanding cooperation and driving individual or subgroups competition towards collective convergence. The UCC is committed with economic and social development through cooperatives as well as addressing political issues within the same solidarity philosophy, operating in 14 main cities of Colombia . Yet it had started with the same traditional structure and academic curricula as any other university devoted to theory and to the dominant competition model.
In search for innovation more akin to its solidarity philosophy, consultant services were hired from the Social Cybernetics Associates of Colombia. A team was selected and trained to meet the UCC's challenge under the coordination of Dr. Crisanto Velandia and Dr. Stella Bettancourt, assisted by Dr. De Gregori. After a semester, a proposal in eleven modules was presented and approved for teachers and administrative personnel to be trained in groups of forty participants each, in order to apply the Social Cybernetics “Trans-Disciplinary Method for Teaching/Learning Teams” (TDM for TLT):
01. A Trans-Disciplinary Method : Social Cybernetics triune map of reality.
02. Knowledge by the Tricerebral Approach : The use of the three brains cycle.
03. Communication : The three modes of communication in classrooms.
04. Research Methodology – Tricerebral Innovation Cycle : Research, innovation and projects based on the tricerebral approach.
05. “Teach/learnet” : Electronic support in the teaching/learning/communicating process.
06: Teach/learn Teams : A method for increasingly self-guided education.
07. “Anthropogogy” : Analysis of educational proposals referred to the triune brain.
08. Curriculum Design : A matrix for disciplines as nodes of a knowledge network.
09: Follow-up and Evaluation : The tricerebral upgrading and coaching.
10: The Innovative University : Strategies to keep up with social change and innovation.
11: “Electronic Educator” : Teacher's teach/learning innovations in a CD.
Theory and Tools to Develop the Eleven Modules
Module 1 : The triune map of reality. Social Cybernetics theory claims that the core concept to understand and deal with the contents of present knowledge society and global complexity is “tri-unity” (everything is a compound and a play of three inter-constructive/destructive parts or participants) as the self-organizing principle of energy, of movement and of the whole life. Quantum physicist Murray Gell-Man (1994) scientifically demonstrated this principle as for the elementary particles. People, both in the academia and in business, are mostly used to take reality as a labyrinth of separate, unrelated units (monadic, unicist view, followed by individual and independent behaviour), or narrow sets of loosely related things without being aware of its underlying triune design and propulsive force. This triune binding and propulsive force is in action everywhere. It is a matter of being re-trained to perceive it and to act accordingly since we are players displacing around the three positions of its playfield. It can be seen in action at any stage of the planetary co-evolution, or different playing fields, better known as the market with its elements of conservatism, opposition and neutrality; or a dominant competitor struggling to maintain its position, a challenging competitor struggling to win a better position, and a third one willing to cooperate with one of the formers or both.
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Figure 1. The triune shape of energy and the triune games it displays
When it comes to knowledge, and to the use of the brain to produce, communicate and apply/commercialize it, the same principle requires a “triune brain” (Maclean, 1970; Luria, 1973):
Figure 2. The triune brain.
The three layers, the three stages or the three mental processes perform a three-phased cycle correspondent to the three minimum complementary stages of every sustainable entity: new knowledge, new strategy, and new product/service (Amidon, 2003). It means: the “tricerebral” or triune self-replicating organization of neurons is the co-creative or co-innovative “hidden” power acting upon the physical and social environment to mutually adjust, aiming at new individual and collective needs better satisfaction. Thus a triune brain represents and re-creates a triune reality as a chain of triune systems.
Figure 3. Net of triune systems.
The above is a synthesis of Module 1: moving from a monadic, unilateral or monopolistic approach or paradigm - reality perceived as separate or loosely related units - in politics, economics, environmentalism, and national security, towards a triune approach: things viewed as sets of three interdependent constructive/destructive parts, relating two “in cooperation” against a third one “in competition” acting carefully to keep some balance. This proposition should deserve more attention after September 11: Has the monadic/monopolistic knowledge society something to do with the creation of a terrorist anti-society?
Module 2: Tricerebral Cycle . This module deals with the three-sided phased brain and its three differentiated yet complementary processes. After becoming aware of the triple mode of functioning of one's brain, the challenge is how to train workers, teachers and students to assimilate the new way of using it, and how to get a collective tricerebral brain – the corporation mental process on line. Its main characteristics and its abbreviated model can be viewed as follows, under the denomination of “Tricerebral Transformation Cycle”, or “Tricerebral Innovation Cycle”, or “Tricerebral Feedback Cycle” (De Gregori, 1984) since the final operation of any system's cycle is one of feedback:
Figure 4. Tricerebral capital and Minimal Innovative Cycle.
The full “Tricerebral Innovation Cycle” has ten steps or operations, as an expansion of the three blocks or sets of operations: 1 - 4; 5 - 6; 7 - 10. Each step or operation runs a micro cycle, implying that each one is a replication or iteration of the larger one and vice versa, suggesting the existence of a common essential code or pattern as demonstrated by the cloning process:
Figure 5. The Tricerebral Innovation Cycle
The promising fact here is that the tricerebral capital can be assessed and re-developed for individuals and groups of any functional level. The tool is called TQ - “Tricerebral Quotient Detector” - presented in four levels of complexity, following this simplified map of tricerebral development:
Figure 6. Hierarchy of tricerebral capital in a corporation
The “Tricerebral Quotient Detector” will show the composition of an individual or corporation's “Tricerebral Innovation Cycle”, pointing out which of its three processes is the strongest, which the weakest and which is medium. This result makes clear which teams have a balanced and effective tricerebral composition, and which have not, thus enabling the coach/teacher or manager to re-train or re-distribute talents conveniently.
Module 3 : Communication . The tricerebral brain is an innovation factory. But factories, corporations and universities need a new approach - fast and pragmatic – to meaningfully organize and manage its actual multileveled tricerebral capital, to generate further innovative strategic knowledge, and to share and apply it in a profitable manner. To become a real asset it has to be turned more productive. To do so we need to know how to tune and use individuals' tricerebral capital as a tool, and how to connect each brain to build the collective brain working on line. The path is good human and electronic communication, several degrees above the one practiced today.
To escape today's endless linear discourse we have to reframe our communication in a triadic mode, if we want to share the tricerebral corporate capital more efficiently. The tricerebral communication requires following and wisely connecting its three channels, and strictly obeying its three phases when a collective brain is at work:
Figure 7. Three communication channels
Figure 8. Corporate Brain Innovation Cycle
Individuals and knowledge communities, in their face-to-face meetings or in their electronic interchange, should use and apply the three communication modes and phases or cycle in order to avoid misunderstandings, loss of time and to proceed more orderly. The above models of communication and innovation cycle are abbreviations of the full Tricerebral Innovation Cycle. But to start with and impose some discipline to the mental chaos of a large group, we have to exercise the basic abridged model and then proceed towards the full innovation cycle.
Modules 4 - 5: Research and information technology. To deal with the avalanche and diversity of cross-professional communication, and to have a more effective and shared research, classification and storing/retrieving device, the key is using the Tricerebral Innovation Cycle in connection with some classification scheme or framework. The simplest and most used classification/storing scheme is the five “W”+“H”, here presented in a more elastic and technical model:
Figure 9. Four operational factors of any system (5 W+ H)
When individuals and subgroups of a corporation succeed in using their Tricerebral Innovation Cycle in connection with the Four Operational Factors as a research, innovation, communication and storing tool they will operate within this very highly and effective framework:
Figure 10. Tricerebral innovation cycle with 4 operational factors
This tool, shared by teachers and students, as well as by managers and workers, keeps their brains on line, using a shared map road and language to reach the so badly needed cross-disciplinary and cross-functional intercommunication. This is the key for the TDM for TLT – Trans-Disciplinary Method for Teaching/Learning Teams. This is also the general matrix for meetings, for classrooms as well as for electronic assisted teaching/learning, by use of the same mental and communicational framework and rules.
Module 6: Collaborative Teams. Working within a University devoted to solidarity, cooperation rather than competition, collective goals rather than individualistic ones should prevail. This subject was addressed as “Triune Games”, meaning games of three interplaying individuals, blocks or subgroups and their levels structure, with two of them in competition and the third one in cooperation with one of them or both:
Figure 11. Triune game and the name of the three interplayers
Aware of this governing dynamic of group life, the teach/learning teams establish leadership and rules to favor peace and collaboration, keeping competition and conflict within pre-established boundaries and rules defined as “proportional”. The source for such rules and also for the evaluation of the whole process of innovation and growth is the “law of proportionality” or the “golden mean”. It denies extreme equality/inequality and implies differences within elastic boundaries edging 62% by 38% in repetitive or fractal scales, so that the shares of the three subgroups of any successful systemic set would be “win-win-win” although proportionally differentiated. This means convergence or solidarity in a triune game. When failing to reach such convergence towards the success of the whole, it means that the individualistic, monadic, exclusive or private vested interests prevailed, and a new institutional or societal contract is in want.
Other Modules. Handling these tools, the teacher teams, during their training period, met weekly to study and renewing the delivery of their classes. And so did the administrative teams to deliver their services. After Module 6, the implementation flowchart was inaugurated: classes were organized in small learning teams, and gradually introduced to the Triadic Quotient Detector, the triune systems view, the abbreviated Tricerebral Innovation Cycle until reaching the full Tricerebral Innovation Cycle with Four Operational Factors, and the mastering of “triadic games”; ultimately aiming at more and more self-directing and self-educating students' and co-worker's teams.
Evaluation. The former evaluation system based mostly on the contents of the left brain (theoretical learning and quizzes) was enlarged accordingly, to include and balance the three brains and its four levels, weighting the three blocks proportionally suiting the nature of each discipline or matter of study. For example: Information technology should assign 62% of time and weight to the left, 25% to the central and 13% to the right brain; Marketing should assign 62% of time and weight to the right, 25% to the central and 13% to the left brain; and Management should assign 62% of time and weight to the central, 25% to the right, and 13% to the left brain.
Conclusion
Dr. Sigifredo Ospina conducted a validating research in 2001, after 2,172 teachers and administrative personnel, in 54 groups, had gone through the innovation process. A sample of 22% was chosen to answer questions about administrative support to the innovation proposal, the usefulness of the tricerebral approach, the “Trans-disciplinary Method for Teaching/Learning Teams”, the new tricerebral evaluation design, the cultural change within the university, and the push to projects and entrepreneurship, etc.
The results indicate an encouraging rate of approval. Just as an example: The question “How have you been evaluated by supervisors and students after implementing the TDM for TLT” reached 97% of A and B, and 3% otherwise. The question “Did Social Cybernetics paradigm and tools condensed as TDM for TLT bring about any personal improvement” reached 90% of A and B and 10% otherwise. The question “How much did you improve in communication fluency, sharing, in the use of technology, and in negotiation abilities” reached 96% of A and B, and 4% otherwise. In general, the results were very positive leading to better interrelationship, more cooperation, higher discussion quality, more creativity and closeness to practice and initiatives.
The TDM for TLT is based more in models and/or tools rather than in large discursive explanations. This perception of this peculiarity led to the decision of transferring it to virtual or electronic mode for availability at distance, with this special remark: The receiver will not be individuals but always TLT – Teaching/learning Teams equipped with TDM – Trans-disciplinary Method for self-guided education.
References
Amidon, D. M. (2003). The Innovation SuperHighway. Boston : Butterworth Heinemann.
De Gregori, W. (2002). Construcción familiar-escolar de los tres cerebros. Bogotá: KIMPRES, 3 th Ed.
De Gregori (1988). Cibernética Social. São Paulo: Cortez Ed., 1984.
Gell-Mann, M. (1994). The Quark and the Jaguar. New York , W. H. Freeman.
MacLean, P. A. (1970). The Triune Brain, Emotion, and Scientific Bias . New York , Schmitt Ed..
Luria, A. (1973). Working Brain – An Introduction to Neuropsychology. Basic Books.
Ospina, S. (2002). Especialización en docencia universitaria por el método triádico del Dr. De Gregori. Bogotá: UCC.
Piaget, J. (1963). The Psychology of Intelligence. New York : Routledge.
Glossary
Dyadic , dualistic (see monadic) - When talking of mental paradigm or way of perceiving, is the habit of counting and matching the components of reality in pairs or two parts in opposition, in contradiction. When talking of a dyadic use of the brain it refers to reasoning by opposites as a sequence of thesis-antithesis.
Factual - reality, the realm of facts, deeds, actions, work, money, day to day life, differentiated from the abstract realm of symbols, words and theories, as well as differentiated from the imaginary realm of arts, plays and dreams.
Feedback - short for the full Tricerebral Feedback Cycle or Tricerebral Innovation Cycle – knowing, strategizing and implementing what a system needs innovating to proceed successfully.
Four operational factors (see “frame of reference”) - infographic framework composed of these inter-related concepts: Space, chronology, personnel, and procedures, popularly known as the 5 “W” plus one “H”.
Fractal (see “recurrence”) - it refers to the waving contour of everything that can only be described by fractions or fragments of curbs replicating in different scales. Taken from Mandelbrot's “Fractal Geometry of Nature”.
Framework - Frame of Reference , and taxonomy chart or taxonomy table - a set of concepts organized to function as a classificatory scheme, as a guideline or checklist when thinking or writing. If it is laid down as a diagram or an infograph it works also as a relational and processing device. See “Four Operational Factors”.
Futurition - Step number 5 of the Feedback Cycle, directing the mind towards prospecting or “creating” the future, calculating the evolution of present situations (forecasting, foreseeing scenarios, prophesizing).
Golden mean, Proportionality – Shortly: 62% per 38%. To get the proportions of a Golden Mean, we divide a line so that its shorter part is to the longer part as the longer part is to the whole or full line (A = b + c).
Figure 12. A : b = b : c (shorter part c is to b , as b is to A.
The Law of Proportionality can be illustrated with the parts of one's arm or finger as well as by the Bell Curve, or as a fractal/iterative scale of approximately 62% by 38.
Levels - There are different positions in an organization as a consequence of division/specialization of labour, knowledge and power, which can be reduced to four from top down: Executive, consultant, supervisory, and operational. All of them have important yet differentiated contributions to innovation as they move within a playfield of constructive/destructive triadic games.
Linear/non linear or analogical - the flow of any system is unstable and moving with ups and downs, shifting right and left, fast and slow, with regular and irregular cycles, with more orderly or disorderly transition phases between cycles.
Maximocracy – It refers to the spur of the triune principle, pushing any system further and further without stopping or getting at the end. It is an eternal, unattainable carrot on the stick.
Monadic, monistic - When talking of mental paradigm or way of perceiving, is the habit of counting and operating the components of reality as separate, unrelated units. This mindset is conducive to individualism, apartheid, exclusiveness, monopoly and dictatorship. When talking of a monadic use of the brain, it refers to people reducing everything to one of the three brains. This could also be called unilateral, fundamentalist or fanatic use of anyone of the three brains.
Paradigm (see “world-view”) - thinking/imagining/acting pattern, model or matrix. The more fundamental and crucial point about paradigms is using a monadic, dyadic or triadic way of perceiving. After this choice as a starting point, people develop secondary, tertiary affiliated paradigms as it is done in every specific field of knowledge.
Proportionality (see “golden mean”) – It is keeping rights and duties, or work and compensation around 62% per 38%, among the three subgroups and their levels.
Recurrence (see “fractal”) - replication, repetition, projection or surfacing of a previous pattern. The three brains are moulded after the triadic nature of energy: They are a replication, repetition or recurrence of this pre-set underlying pattern. Cycle after cycle, evolution reiterates the same basic pattern with some subtractions or additions. Our brain also “creates”, projects or reflects more or less the same initial family and career unconscious patterns. To innovate we need to detach from those initial or past patterns, not be repetitive, and striving to move toward new frontiers, ideas and products.
Social cybernetics - Social self-directing based on triune systems theory, and on feedback from cybernetic theory.
TDM for TLT – Trans-Disciplinary Method for Teaching/Learning Teams. Educational method based on Social Cybernetics and it's Tricerebral Innovative Cycle.
TQ (Tricerebral Quotient Detector) - a questionnaire to unveil the actual performance of the three mental processes (intellectual, emotional, and operational) going beyond I.Q. and E.Q. (Emotional Quotient).
Triune gains (win-win-win) – Since everything has to be viewed in its triple matrix or three braided factors at least, there are gains more typical of the central brain (money, power, technology); gains more typical of the left brain (knowledge, know-how, academic degrees); and gains more typical of the right brain (friends, satisfaction, happiness, fame). Correspondingly, there are also three costs, three kinds of evaluation, three kinds of motivation at least. Every trio requires hierarchy or priority relations abiding by the law of proportionality and optimization, otherwise one of the three elements will race monadically toward maximocracy and unbalance.
Triune game – It's a new concept covering any kind of interaction between three (or more that can be reduced to three) mutually constructive/destructive players or actors, where the dominant one is named official side or subgroup, the challenger is named anti-official , and the in-between is named wavering , each one with different interests and behaviours. The official interests are mostly work, money, power, and its behaviour is mostly authoritarian, solemn and conservative. The anti-official interests are the same but are preceded by concerns with analysis, truth, knowledge, innovation, and its behaviour is mostly nonconformist, spontaneous and sometimes anarchic and rebel. The wavering interests are the same as the official one although moderate by its concerns with cooperation, altruism and everyday enjoyment, and its behaviour is mostly submissive, conformist and a neutral follower.
Tricerebral innovation cycle - Tricerebral Transformation Cycle, Tricerebral Feedback Cycle - Is the functioning of the three brains together: information-creativity-action - proceeding either in a lineal, or non-lineal or re-iterative mode as in a recurrent and growing spiral.
Tri-unity, triune principle - The basic assumption about the mode of existing, working, or self-transforming of energy, which states that energy is a three-sided self-organizing and self-propulsive system at any level of complexity. This implies that beings are triadic energy systems in motion, forming nets within the whole ecosystem net. Other words for tri-unity or triune concept are: triplets, triads, tripods, triangles, trigonal, triplicity, trilateral, trifocal, trinal, trimorph, tridimensionality.
World-view, or mental mapping of the world (see paradigm) - set of first basic assumptions and mental rules through which we perceive, think and operate the world or our reality.
