RE:SoPK & cybernetics

["Paul Hollingworth" <PH@4gm.com>]

Not an answer to your question Petter, but a missing link which you might
care to investigate.

In the late 1980's Deming was introduced (by Patrick Dolan, then Secretary
General of the British Deming Association) to the work of Stafford Beer, the
founder of management cybernetics. Beer's work influenced Deming's thinking
about systems and especially, system aims. In my opinion this contributed
significantly to the concept of SoPK.

It is quite well known that Beer was influenced by Weiner, Forrester and
Bertalanffy and greatly by Buckminster Fuller. What is less well known is
the influence which Shewhart had on Beer who was (like Box and Deming) a
student of RA Fisher.

In "How Many Grapes Went Into the Wine" (Wiley ISBN 0-471-94296-0) Beer
explores the beginning of cybernetics as a interdisciplinary application of
Operational Research to tangible problems. Chapter 3 exposes his technique
for 'Standardizing Massed Batteries of Control Charts'. Photographs show
that his device enabled upwards of 50 hand drawn SPC charts to be monitored
for production control purposes. This dates from the late '40s or early 50's
I think.

Beer, I know, was also a great admirer of Deming but despite my best
efforts, the two men never met.

To answer a question different from the one you pose. In my view, Beer's
Viable System Model (VSM) is more easily understood with a profound
knowledge viewpoint.

Paul Hollingworth    PH@4GM.com
4GM Consulting
UK


Could you please elaborate on Norbert Wiener.  From my understanding of
Deming, systems thinking (Ackoff, Churchman, Senge,...) is the first and
perhaps most important point in SOPK, but I have not yet found any clear
connections to Wiener apart from reading George Box on the combination of
SPC and APC (Automatic Process Control).

Do you propose that SOPK would be more easily understood seen from a
cybernetical point of view?

Petter Ogland