We are confronted by the complicated/complex division everyday in education. Do I want to know if a medical students has remembered the nine steps of a process of inquiry to work with a patient or do I want to know if they built a good raport? How often do we choose the thing that is easier to measure… simply because we can verify that our grading is ‘fair’. How often do we get caught in conversations around how ‘rigourous’ an assessment is when what we really mean is ‘how easy is it to defend to a parent who’s going to complain about a child’s grade’.
📑 Making Change in Education II – Complexity vs. Lean Six Sigma (learning isn’t like money)
dave (davecormier.com)We can’t talk about improved learning without considering the impact on teacher wellness.
Dave Cormier discusses the work of David Snowden around complicated and complex distinction. A complicated problem is one which can eventually be broken down into achievable parts and solutions, whereas a complex problem is one that cannot actually be solved. The danger of lean methodology is that there is a tendency to focus on the measurable over the meaningful.
TY for sharing Aaron, I hope all is well with you and your family. So much to consider, just reading about complex/complicated and have been through Improvement Science training with Carnegie. I also think a lot about technical problems vs adaptive challenges.(1/2)
There’s no perfect process, program, framework. But there are parts that can add to our work in positive ways & parts that are meaningless or negative to our work. It’s understanding those well enough to take what is good, and then finding ways to blend the various parts. (2/2)
Teaching for Complex Systems Thinking sounds like an important read Richard. It reminds me of a series of posts by Dave Cormier on complexity verses complicated in education.
Also on:
Doug, I have really enjoyed your current learning out loud with your Masters in Systems Thinking. This piece really stuck with me. I have been grappling a bit with project management and the agile methodology since been asked to complete a course as a part of my change of roles where I work. I think I had thought that I was being agile (maybe little a agile), but was left struck by the rigidity required in actually sticking to the process. (I am guess this is where your focus on being deliberate fits in?) The thing that has struck me is the conflicted nature of the push and pull. I agree with the intent, but unless everyone is onboard and clear about expectations, it all becomes a bit of agile-washing.
The other thing that has really struct me is the world of project management and the lived reality. It feels like a lot of people want to do project management, without actually doing the hard work. Lines are drawn, positions set, but when the game starts and chaos ensues, they are lost at sea. I have been left wondering if project management really exists and if so, what does it look like? I hear the successes and achievements, this pie chart and that bar graph, but the reality feels like something different. I am therefore intrigued by your discussion of system inquiry. It reminded me of Dave Cormier’s discussion of ‘complex’ versus ‘complicated’:
Source: Making Change in Education II – Complexity vs. Lean Six Sigma (learning isn’t like money)
Might be something I need to dive into further.