Peter Senge
Background Slides for Morning Plenary
August 8, 2018
| had prepared a few slides for possible use in today’s presentation but ended up not using them.
They are included here in the hopes that they will be useful for attendees of the System Dynamics Conference. Here is a quick
summary, including some commentary on those that will be least familiar
1.
Systems thinking Iceberg (slides 2 and 3). Very familiar to many in the field. What is newer to many is the elaboration of
systemic structure in terns of habits (of thought, action an feeling) and artifacts. The basic idea is that these are the
constitutive elements of structure. Artifacts, a term used in social theory, are all the more tangible elements of structure,
like metrics, organization structures, formal procedures and policies, etc. We often use the classic seating arrangement in
a Classroom as a familiar example. The key idea in this version of the iceberg is that artifacts are always entwined with
“mental models,” habits of thought, action and feeling. For example, classrooms are set with all the seats facing the front
because the mental model is the teacher is the person in control. They are set in orderly neat rows to signify an orderly
learning process. The three types of habits are important to clarify that mental models are active — they shape how we act
and feel, not just how we ‘think” in a passive, purely cognitive sense.
Ladder of inference (slides 4-6). Also a tool familiar to many systems thinking practitioners, this tool has its roots in
anthropology where people sought to be more disciplined in making sense, especially of cultures highly different from their
own. This version highlights how our selection of what data (observable phenomena) we focus on is often shaped by our
beliefs — we often see what we are prepared to see (slide 5). The last slide(slide 6) includes a quote from a famous
Buddhist teacher to illustrate that the challenge of “getting stuck up the ladder” is not a new problem.
Slide 7, The Ladder of Connectedness, is newer, part of our “Compassionate Systems” project with MIT’s new J-WEL
(World Education Lab). The origins came from seeing over the years that the emotional underpinning for the ladder of
Inference were often not clear to people. Whenever any of us get stuck ‘up the ladder’ it is rarely because a simple
intellectual matter, but one where anger, fear, and other emotions of disconnection are strong. The ladder of
connectedness distinguishes different states of connection, to others or to a situation. The attached pdf file explains the
distinctions in more detail, but the basic aim is to provide a tool to distinguish our degree of connectedness in different
situations, much like the Ladder of Inference aspects of our sense making. Like the Ladder of Inference, lower on the
ladder is a simpler state, “neutral awareness,” where one is simply present to the “data of a situation” or to another. From
this state, moving “up the ladder” one connects to the other in terms of wishing well for them (altruistic empathy), to
appreciating their way of seeing things (cognitive empathy), to increasing degrees of disconnection. Like the Ladder of
Inference, it is important to not judge theses states as good or bad, but to use the distinctions to be simply more aware.
When one recognizes where you are at, the quieter state needed to do so naturally leads to coming “down the ladders.”
The Systems Thinking Iceberg
eo}
havior *
The Systems Thinking Iceberg
Illustrative tools for Compassionate Systems Project
Thinking: Ladder of Inference
about the wont
c m =
Lovaw '
Conclusions
£ alee.
Aspinpeions
i
based on
1} meanings | added
| Meaning |
| Aiea pavsenni) | i
Z Select
Data”
ae
Observable
“data” and exp evieuces
(AS 4 Videotape
vecorder 1 ae \
caphuve te) '
Illustrative tools for Compassionate Systems Project
Thinking: Ladder of Inference
L odraw
—
" The veflexive
‘00 p (our
Y ' bellers
tC ' aiest
based , eg
iS the meanings tai Z added ; rica
ener an Eee ' 1 next
+ Tadd 1 time)
pas S ,
—™~ Pt | J t
and pesona/) | | 7
CT 2 B
ic Z Select j | a
Data” i
pecans 2a Z “observe F
Cbcenable aN
“data” and €Xpevie.
iy (AS A shee ees
recorder ne. \
caphive x)
Illustrative tools for Compassionate Systems Project
Thinking: Ladder of Inference
“\f we take something to be the truth, we may cling to
it so much that even if the truth comes and knocks at
our door, we won't want to let it in...
We must learn to transcend our own views.
Understanding, like water, can flow, can penetrate.
Views, knowledge, and even wisdom are solid, and can
block the way of understanding.”
Thich Nhat Hanh,
“The Heart Sutra: Translations and Commentary
iS
I adopt
| Betiets
{ |
ie ~~ [Assumptio
cS basedon |
the meanings | added
[ eR
j IT add |
| Meanings
Se | (cultural | |
{ and pevsona/) a
C fees | 4 ¢
a | 4 [Select i
{
i
1 4
what L observe! 4
I Observable
“data” and €Xpeviences
oy (AS A Videotace L,,
vecorder migat \
caphuve 16)
%
?
“Data” )
Illustrative tools for Compassionate Systems Project
Feeling: Ladder of Connectedness
I< * Emotional Disconnect
Rr}. * Empathic Distress
cas e In-group Empathy: “us” vs. “them;”
“sy I in-groups are the groups people identify themselves
as belonging to.
Kh
—
sy
ai «
¢ Neutral Awareness: non-judgemental, non-attached;
hy h equanimity
e Agape: ground of infinite connectedness; beyond form; pure
awareness of others as distinct yet connected (akin to “infinite pool
of data” in Ladder of Inference)
Mette Boell, Peter Senge
MIT J-WEL World Education Lab
* Cognitive Empathy: perspective taking
for the welfare of another.
H ¢ = Altruistic Empathy: perspective-taking plus unselfish regard
Zhang Zai Quote
Heaven is my father and Earth is my mother, and even such a small creature
as | finds an intimate place in their midst.
Therefore that which fills the universe | regard as my body and that which
directs the universe | consider as my nature.
All people are my brothers and sisters, and all things are my companions.
“The Western Inscription,”
Chang Tsai (Zhang Zai), 1020-1077
in Wing-tsit Chan, trans.,
A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1963), p. 497.
¢ Emotional Disconnect
e Empathic Distress
e In-group Empathy
© Cognitive Empathy
e Altruistic Empathy
e Neutral Awareness
e Agape
LADDER of CONNECTEDNESS
Garrison Global Collaboration for Integrated Learning ¢ 2016 ¢ Mette Miriam Boell and Peter Senge
LADDER of CONNECTEDNESS
Garrison Global Collaboration for Integrated Learning * 2016 ¢ Mette Miriam Boell and Peter Senge
e Emotional Disconnect
e Empathic Distress
e |n-group Empathy
© Cognitive Empathy
e Altruistic Empathy
e Neutral Awareness
e Agape
LADDER of CONNECTEDNESS
From Greek agapé "brotherly love, charity,
in Ecclesiastical use, "the love of God for
man and man for God". Also in selfless,
charitable, non-erotic (brotherly/sisterly)
love, spiritual love, love of the soul. Akin to
Maturana’s definition of love as “the act of
allowing the other to be a legitimate other.”
Agape
LADDER of CONNECTEDNESS
The term neutrality here does not imply
indifference, but more a suspended non-
GS attached and non-judgmental mode of
observing. Often a sense of spaciousness
or mental freedom accompanies this state
of being. In many spiritual traditions, neutral
awareness is associated with a state of
equanimity.
Neutral Awareness
LADDER of CONNECTEDNESS
—>
The perspective-taking that includes the
perspective of heart as well as mind or
intellect is altruism, which is the
unselfish regard for the welfare of another.
Recent findings in neuroscience show that
there’s a direct link between cultivating
compassion for oneself and others and
behaving altruistically towards strangers.
Altruistic Empathy
LADDER of CONNECTEDNESS
Also known as “perspective-taking’” is
the process of understanding the view of
another without necessarily connecting
with or attuning to the emotion associated
with that view. This state allows for a
—!_ rational relationship with the other but
differs from compassion since there is no
immediate wish to alleviate suffering of the
other, or an impulse to bring kindness and
happiness into the relationship.
Cognitive Empathy
LADDER of CONNECTEDNESS
The classical stance of us vs. them.
In-groups are the groups people identify
themselves as belonging to. They can be
gender-, culture-, race-, religion- or age-
based. In-groups are juxtaposed to “out-
groups,” which are composed of people who
do not belong to the identified in-group.
Scientifically speaking, it’s generally easier for
people to empathize with others who belong
to their in-groups than those who dco not.
\ In-group Empathy
LADDER of CONNECTEDNESS
Jew
Empathic behavior can come from feeling
uncomfortable and wanting to avoid other
people’s distress that one can’t handle. In
this state, one can try to console the person
in distress, but the intention behind the
seemingly empathic behavior is to alleviate
one’s own personal discomfort, and so the
gesture of empathy comes out of a selfish
need for ameliorating or managing an
undesired emotional state in oneself.
Empathic Distress
LADDER of CONNECTEDNESS
ia
When people shut down entirely and fail to
recognize others’ emotions there is a state
of disconnect. Rage, violence, loathing and
a depersonalizing of the other are amongst
the outcomes of this state.
Emotional Disconnect
