Self-coordination

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The Whole Course

1. Systems Thinking
2. Self-regulation
3. Self-coordination
4. Living systems
5. Team consciousness
6. Team synergy
7. Team sizes
8. Team diversity
9. Lucky Teams
10. Team Evaluation

Self co-ordination

1. It is important to consider how well your team would cope if left unsupervised.
2. Many self-regulatory systems are working simultaneously in a living organism.
3. But, to remain viable, a living system must ensure they all work together.
4. E.g. In higher lifeforms, a brain acts as the coordinator for the rest of the organism.
5. But this is still uncanny, as it describes a circular process of cause and effect.
6. So all of the parts co-sustain the whole (i.e. the brain is just one of many parts.)
7. This way of thinking about living systems is called autopoiesis (literally: self-creation)
8. It is also known as the Santiago Theory of Cognition (Maturana & Varela, 1980).

Regulating the Regulators

1. Cybernetics explains how negative feedback enables a self-regulating stability
2. For example, when driving a four-wheeled vehicle, the logic of steering remains constant.
3. However, self-coordination requires more complex processes than simple self-regulation.
4. When reversing, drivers of articulated lorries must coordinate a changing rule system.
5. In order to steer the trailer backwards the lorry driver must also steer the cab.
6. As cab and trailer use different steering logic, this will seem counterintuitive at first.
7. It requires feedback from the road and from the angle of the cab.

Self-coordinating Teams

1. Sports and singing in choirs are healthy forms of teamwork.
2. In both cases each member can influence the collective destination of the team.
3. Unlike solo activities the main feedback is from the team, not from you.
4. This makes it a second order cybernetics process.
5. In human terms, it can be really useful to watch other team members with empathy.
6. Being able to imagine how others see things will help you anticipate what they do next.
7. Once everyone observes empathetically, the team's self-coordination should improve.

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