POSIWID (the purpose of the system is what it does) is a way of thinking about complex systems, giving us a different perspective on a range of social and political issues.
When we understand the complex loops that maintain the status quo, we are better equipped to make positive changes in organizations and society.
The origins of POSIWID thinking
Diagnosing the System for Organizations
Amazon Price: (as of 11/23/2009) 
Have Fun at Work
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Friends in High Places
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New Plague
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Recent books that use POSIWID thinking
Trust and Mistrust: Radical Risk Strategies in Business Relationships
Amazon Price: $85.00 (as of 11/23/2009)
Systems Biology: Philosophical Foundations
Amazon Price: $130.00 (as of 11/23/2009)
Intelligent Organizations: Powerful Models for Systemic Management
Amazon Price: $129.00 (as of 11/23/2009)
The Ownership Solution: Toward A Shared Capitalism For The Twenty-first Century
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Articles and blogs exploring POSIWID
- Memetix
- "Although it is dangerous to use the POSIWID principle to infer intent on the part of individual actors in a system, it is useful for analyzing the emergent behavior of a system. It certainly cuts through a lot of crap about unintended consequences."
- The One Percenters
- "Learn to separate beguiling economic theory from real world facts by applying an acronym from systems theory: POSIWID. Taking America as a starting point, how has the consensus treated its wealthiest one percent? What has it done?"
- Life Support Systems
- Interventions in Complex Socio-Technical Systems,
by Michael Jacobs and Aidan Ward
Internet Resources
blogs and wikis
- POSIWID blog
- Topical applications of POSIWID thinking by John Smith, Richard Veryard and Aidan Ward
- POSIWID wiki
- Notes towards a POSIWID book by Amicus Rex
- POSIWID links
- various items tagged "POSIWID"
Approach
If a complex system produces a given outcome, or if a given outcome emerges from a complex system, then we may assume some purpose linked to this outcome.
This is a useful guide for investigation and interpretation. Ignore the official purpose of the system, ignore what the designers and custodians of a system say, and concentrate on its actual behaviour.
Conversely, if there is some unexplained pattern of behaviour, look for a system whose purpose this pattern reveals. (We often can't see the system directly, but we infer its hidden presence because this helps to make sense of some observed pattern of behaviour.)
Critique
Many users of the POSIWID principle seem to assume that system scope and behaviour is unproblematic - that outcomes can be unambiguously attributed to some system or other.
A complex system apparently produces a diverse set of outcomes. According to the POSIWID principle, all these outcomes may be identified as purposes. A complex system typically contains many conflicting or contradictory purposes.
Many of the purposes of a system cannot be observed in its normal behaviour because they are contingent purposes - the behaviours may only appear in extreme circumstances.
Furthermore, some behaviours are generated by the interference between many systems. It is of course possible to frame the interference within a larger system, whose purpose is presumably to generate this interference and its effects, but this framing is not generally a useful one.
Related Lenses
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Functionalism (design style)
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There are two sets of functionalist attitudes and working methods, some relating to how we understand the world (analysis), and some relating to how we change it (design). These are to some extent independent.
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Baroque (design style)
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"All manner of thing shall be well/ When the tongues of flame are in-folded/ Into the crowned knot of fire/ And the fire and the rose are one." -- T.S. Eliot, Little Gidding The Baroque Style has been popular at certain times in history....
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What are friends for?
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People sometimes say "what are friends for?" in response to thanks - as if to say "don't mention it". So the question "what are friends for" is a familiar one. But if we take it seriously, it is also an uncomfortable one. It carries the sug...
Logical Foundations of POSIWID
What makes backwards reasoning valid?
POSIWID represents a kind of backwards reasoning - - from effects to cause. Various philosophers and logicians have discussed whether this kind of reasoning can ever be justified. Vote here for your favourite backwardian.
Final Cause
Aristotle0 points
Engineering
Stafford Beer0 points
mini keg dispensers
Keg Accessories Depot is the source for high quali more...0 points
Reader Feedback
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Reply
- Chris Bird Chris Bird Mar 30, 2009 @ 8:06 am
- The "Purpose" in POSIWID is an unfortunate use of the term. Purpose implies a look forward a view into the future. However in POSIWID the idea is to look backwards. Just because someone uses a screwdriver to stir paint doesn't make paint stirring a purpose of a screwdriver. It does make it a use and it is interesting to explore why it is used that way, but that isn't a purpose.
Some reasons why people might choose a screwdriver to stir the paint include:
They didn't have anything else
The screwdriver was going to be harmed less than the pen
They were too lazy/inform to pick up the stirrer that was on the ground - the screwdriver was easier
They wanted to annoy the screwdriver's owner
Because the stirrer was dirty and the screwdriver clean
When wanting to understand the reasons why it is very valuable to go from effect to cause (think root-cause analysis appraaches), and don't expect to find only one.
Blog Posts from Google
this week's search term: "Unintended Consequences"
- RealClearPolitics - Awash in Unintended Consequences
- They invariably bring unintended consequences upon those they would guide to a better life. Ask Job. Or consider the case of Mahmoud Abbas, whose hurt and fury over foreign meddling has triggered his threat to quit as Palestinian leader ...
- Greg Mankiw's Blog: Unintended Consequences
- Unintended Consequences. A surprising effect of the minimum wage: Growing consumption of increasingly less expensive food, and especially ?fast food?, has been cited as a potential cause of increasing rate of obesity in the United ...
- The Unintended Consequences of Fed Policy-Minyanville
- From ghoulies and ghosties And long-leggedy beasties And things that go bump in the night, Good Lord, deliver us!-- Old Scottish PrayerWhere the Wild Things Are is a beloved children's book and now a.
- We The Free: Unintended Consequences (Part 83391)
- "I hope to persuade you that the decline of a print-based epistemology and the accompanying rise of a television-based epistemology has had grave consequences for public life, that we are getting sillier by the minute." ...
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