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In a few days a PSL course will start in Stockholm with me as one of the participants. PSL means Problem Solving Leadership and this is what it’s all about.

For 34 years, Jerry Weinberg has continuously kept improving the Problem Solving Leadership workshop, which he invented together with his anthropologist wife Dani Weinberg back in 1974. The almost week-long (sunday to friday) workshop is about how to think and act clearly, creatively, and congruently – even in chaotic situations. Johanna Rothman and Esther Derby are co-hosting the PSL workshop with Jerry. Esther and Johanna are both internationally renowned consultants and writers; but most importantly for this workshop: they are the best facilitators there are for this setting. One thing should be stated early about PSL: there are no powerpoint slides, there is not even a projector. The PSL workshop is about simulations, observations, and reflections, while solving hard problems with others. This is multichannel communication. This is experiential learning.

Sounds exciting, doesn’t it! Jerry Weinberg wrote the book Introduction to General Systems Thinking and I know that he as well as the other leaders on this course are people that apply systems thinking.

A while ago I finished reading Weinberg on Writing – The Fieldstone Method by Gerald Weinberg. I have always been interested in storytelling. When my children were small, we dreamed up stories and fantasy creatures, each one crazier than the other. I used to have secret plans of making children’s books. Writing has for a long time been on my list of personal development areas.

Since I have read other books of this author and like them, I bought The Fieldstone Method. In it, Weinberg manages to clearly describe the creative process of writing, step by step. The writing style is very practical, with a lot of exercises in each chapter. He has regular training seminars on this subject.

Fieldstone process

Weinberg uses the metaphor of building with fieldstones to illustrate the process. When you build with fieldstones you first walk around in the fields and gather a lot of stones. After that you line them up for inspection. Every stone is rough, uneven and unique as nature made them. When building, you take them one by one and try to find a fitting place. Sometimes you have to do some trimming or even cutting to get a smooth wall. Perhaps after a while, you must go out collecting stones again to fill some obstinate holes. The result is a unique wall that’s not as boring and predictable as a brick wall.

Writing process

Gathering fieldstones is catching the ideas that pop up in your mind. You catch them by writing down phrases or key words that carries the idea. Ideas can come haphazardly or in any order, but you just hang on to what is coming. Don’t try to organize or trim them at the same time. After a while you have a pile of interesting thoughts and reflections that might end up in several articles. As next activity, go through your ideas and organize; see how they can fit together and arrange them in some order. Lastly trimming is necessary; looking at the flow of language.

The metaphor he uses is spot-on. Weinberg states that creativity is a non-linear process. Reading is a linear process; most of the time you read a book from beginning to end, but creating a book is different. There is an inherent randomness in creating, because of how our brain works. Weinberg talks about different activities in the writing process; briefly he calls them gathering, organizing and trimming. You stay with one activity for as long as you have ideas. When the flow stops, you change to some of the other activities. Don’t force yourself to continue. Different activities need different states of mind. Gathering is unlike organizing and organizing is unlike trimming; the focus is different.

Software development process

I can’t help comparing Weinberg’s method to the prevalent way of creating programs. In software development we talk about working incrementally and with many iterations. That means that we build little by little and go back and forth between different phases, instead of first doing all the analyzing, after that all the design and lastly all the implementation. Software industry has found out that this way of working is consistent with man’s creative abilities and is the best way to handle complexity and the ever changing requirements.

Precious stones

Here is another word of wisdom from the book; Look for stones with emotional energy. Weinberg discusses how you can use your inner being to find the real gems. Watch your own emotional response to your stones. Don’t look so much at the exterior, you will trim and polish them later. Go for stones that awaken something in you.

Understanding through writing

To me writing is very much part of the process of understanding a subject. I don’t wait to write about something until I have fully understood. I write, and during the writing process, during the gathering, organization and trimming the deeper understanding comes. Rearranging and rephrasing becomes a powerful tool of reflection.

Weinberg’s book made explicit the way of working that I partly already used. It has deepened my understanding and enhanced my creativity. Now, I can “go with the flow” in a better way. If I would summarize with a sentence I would say “practical wisdom”. I really recommend it.

Gerald Weinberg posted a comment about musicians and systems thinking recently. Here are my thoughts about this subject:

Music can be played and created in solitude, but an extra dimension is added when musicians meet and play together. You don’t have to improvise; even playing a familiar song is a greater experience when played together with other musicians. Add an audience and you have yet another dimension. An enthusiastic crowd can inspire you and make you play like you never before. There is more to listening than just consuming. Listening can be participation and interaction. That makes such a difference. Of course each musician has to take his responsibility, but the whole is surely greater than the sum of the parts.

Music has much to do with relationships. It is said that international sports promotes understanding and fellowship, but think about it, competition is a main ingredient in sports. Imagine a musical movement where people from different countries meet and play together without competition and create music together. There you have some promotion of fellowship. Especially Jazz music is an universal concept that crosses all cultural boundaries. In fact, I believe all creative Arts promote connectedness.

Some of today’s music is produced like on assembly line, barren and without lasting impact. It is commercialized fast-food.

I had worked in the computer industry for some 15 years when I started playing myself. I had a rather analytical and left-brain approach to my work and life in general. Along this path I eagerly developed the technical and solitude side of playing bass. I soon discovered the other side; the need to play with awareness, to be connected with myself and with others. Music is to be played together with other people, whether they play or just listen. Being the person I am, I began to reflect over this new perspective and started to hunt for more information along this path. I found a way of thinking that felt natural. This is the way the world operates. If you let loose your artistic right-brain side, it will teach you connectedness.

You may live by these principles more or less, but perhaps you are not aware of the system or how things fit together. I have found that the better I understand the system, the better I can direct my steps, and maximize my musical learning and experiences. There are always problems along the way that needs to be solved and if you can see the principles, you have a better chance of finding a solution. Thankfully, often intuition comes to our help.

We, as citizens of this earth, should strive for wholeness. Only then can we break the downward spiral of destruction. We cannot afford to live in our own egoistic, disconnected world. I believe musicians and artists have an important role to play for us and for the future.

A week ago I completed “An Introduction to General Systems Thinking” by Gerald Weinberg. What a book!

During Christmas I read the novel “The Aremac Project” by the same author. That book is a sci-fi thriller about two software developers. Since Gerald Weinberg is a consultant in the computer industry, I became curious about it and bought it. It was well written and exciting with all the details interestingly and correctly described. Anyway I sensed he was a good writer with depth and I wanted to read more. I am constantly hunting for books and resources that are food for thought, about software development, project management or life in general. Finding a good book is like finding a treasure. The past year systems thinking and lean thinking have been on my mind. So all this lead me to “An Introduction to General Systems Thinking”.

What is systems thinking? Wikipedia says:
“Systems thinking is a framework that is based on the belief that the component parts of a system will act differently when the systems relationships are removed and it is viewed in isolation. The only way to fully understand why a problem or element occurs and persists is to understand the part in relation to the whole. Standing in contrast to Descartes’, scientific reductionism and philosophical analysis, it proposes to view systems in a holistic manner. Consistent with systems philosophy, systems thinking concerns an understanding of a system by examining the linkages and interactions between the elements that comprise the entirety of the system.”

We have concentrated on and optimized components and forgotten the interaction between them, perhaps because of the complexities involved. We have exaggerated the apparent independence of the parts of a system. Science has been very successful, but the consequences or side effects as seen today are scaring. Look at the effects on nature for example. Systems thinking study the process of defining models and making assumptions to find the optimum necessary ingredients in a systems model for a specific purpose that is possible to handle and solve.

The book was originally published in 1975 and has been reprinted many times. It has become a classic. Weinberg uses clear writing and basic algebraic principles to explore new approaches to projects, products, organizations, and all kinds of system. He unravels the scientific defining of systems and the assumptions and simplifications made. Weinberg discusses the science of mechanics and the science of large populations and how the underlying philosophies and the simplifications made have been used inappropriately for systems that should have been handled in a different way.

The book requires some concentration and energy to read, but is indeed food for thought. To me, systems thinking really improves my thinking as a project manager, application developer, general problems solver and as someone who cares for the environmental issues and for people around me.