Participant: Debora Hammond
Affiliation: Organization Development, Sonoma State University
Format: Plenary Speech

One of the foundational concepts in the emergence of systems thinking is the recognition of non-linear or circular causality. This address will explore the significance of recursive processes in human systems, particularly in terms of the challenges to decision making in an increasingly complex, fast-paced and globally interconnected world. Foundational work informing this inquiry will include James G. Miller’s concept of the “decider,” responsible for navigating the input, processing and output of matter, energy, and information; as well as his interest in the phenomenon of “information input overload.” Further inspiration is drawn from Einstein’s oft-quoted remark that insanity is doing the same thing over and over, and expecting different results, which is echoed to some extent in Kenneth Boulding’s caution against sub-optimization, i.e. finding the very best way to do something that shouldn’t be done at all. The human species has thrived because of its tremendous capacity for learning and innovation. More than any other species, we have apparently succeeded in overcoming the evolutionary imperative to adapt to our environment, instead dramatically altering the environment to suit our own needs and desires. And yet, we seem to have reached a crossroads, which calls for a new kind of learning. If we heed this call it may provide an opportunity for the emergence of a new phase in human evolution. This further iteration in the human experiment will require both serious reflection on our current situation and incorporating that understanding into the calculations of our future course.