2020-09-16: Systems Engineering the Conditions of the Possibility (Willett)
Date: Wednesday, Sept 16, 2020
Speaker: Dr. Keith D. Willett
Presentation: Traditional systems engineering inclination is on cause-and-effect. When we turn a wheel, pull a lever, or flip a switch we expect certain outcomes. This rules-based approach is where stimulus-response is expected as deterministic, well-defined, well-bounded, finite, and predominantly rigid in its nature. If there is deviation from expected, there are simple systemic structures (logic gates) or simple rules (if-then-else) that provide optional courses of preplanned actions. Human intervention provides the intelligence and actions that are necessary for dynamic adjustment to a negative event (adversity, avoid loss); or, to detect and dynamically adjust to a positive event (opportunity, seek gain). The now and future discipline of systems engineering (SE v2.0) has tools to transcend this cause-effect approach and effectively embrace the nondeterministic, the openly defined, the blurred-boundary, the highly combinatorial if not infinite, and the adaptable. Systems engineers must design solutions to adapt to predictable and unpredictable change in order for the system to remain viable in the face of adversity (loss-driven) and relevant in the face of obsolescence (opportunity-driven). In addition to cause and effect, SEv2.0 is systems engineering the conditions of the possibility.
Dr. Willett's focus was on Systems Philosophy - such as Paradigm Models… what’s different from traditional systems that SE needs to address Worldview Principles. Some of these thoughts will appear in an article to appear in INSIGHT Oct 2020 dedicated to Loss-Driven Systems Engineering (LDSE).
Watch the video of Dr. Keith Willett's Lecture
A few of our 17 attendees for our Monthly Zoom Meeting
We raffled off the book - Systems Thinking: Managing Chaos and Complexity by Jamshid Gharajedaghi
Winner is Dr. Kari Lippert (Who never wins anything.) We await anxiously for her book report.