635
edits
Expanded with explanations
(Created page) |
(Expanded with explanations) |
||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
The concept of '''appreciative systems''' was developed by Sir [[Geoffrey Vickers]], a retired civil servant who spent the last twenty years of his life trying to make sense of his own life experience. | The concept of '''appreciative systems''' was developed by Sir [[Geoffrey Vickers]], a retired civil servant who spent the last twenty years of his life trying to make sense of his own life experience. | ||
An appreciative system is not a description of reality but a way for humans to make sense of their experiences, i.e., apply systems to the process of inquiry itself (Checkland, 2005). | |||
The core ideas of the appreciative system (Checkland, 2011), were: | |||
* People are always dealing with multiple, mutually inconsistent aims, none fully attainable | |||
* People must generate options to meet a mix of those aims and choose from among them | |||
* Those choices were framed by the history of the appreciative system itself, i.e. it is groundless | |||
* Over one’s life, these ideas and actions interact and flow through time | |||
[[File: GeoffreyVickers_AppreciativeSystems.png|400px]] | |||
The idea of the flow of time was important for Vickers, and an appreciative system can be sequentially structured: | |||
# People notice (bound) some part of the flow; this is a situation | |||
# People judge the facts and values of the situation | |||
# People generate options of ideas and actions | |||
# People evaluate them in their relational context (Checkland, 2011) | |||
(Source: https://wiki.usask.ca/display/HIC/Geoffrey+Vickers+and+appreciative+systems) | |||
==References== | |||
* Checkland, P. (2005). Webs of significance: The work of Geoffrey Vickers. Systems Research and Behavioral Science, 22(4), 285-290. doi: 10.1002/sres.692 | |||
* Checkland, P. (2011). Autobiographical retrospectives: Learning your way to 'action to improve' - the development of soft systems thinking and soft systems methodology. International Journal of General Systems, 40(5), 487-512. doi: 10.1080/03081079.2011.571437 | |||
[[Category:Systems concepts]] | [[Category:Systems concepts]] | ||