REPLY Subjective and objective synthesis (SD6660)

[SDMAIL Bill Harris]

Posted by  Bill Harris <bill_harris at facilitatedsystems.com>

"SDMAIL Jean-Jacques Laublé" <jean-jacques.lauble at wanadoo.fr> writes:
> Up to what point is it in interesting to explore a problem with successive 
> more and more elaborate questions, starting with a very simple question at 
> first? 

Hello Jean-Jacques,

I think iterations are generally quite useful.  For one thing, the
modeler has probably gone through multiple iterations to get to a
"final" model; it seems presumptious to assume that others can always
immediately make the mental leap from their current state to the final
solution without seeing at least some of the intervening thought
processes.  That's not to say you need to involve the client in each and
every step along the way, of course.  It's a bit of a judgment issue.

  There was an old computer science article whose title fascinated me,
  something to the effect of "Rational Development Processes: When and
  How to Fake Them."  The essence of the article was that one develops
  software in one sometimes messy approach, but, because someone has to
  maintain that software later, one has to restructure the work in a way
  that others can make sense of it.  It's the same with modeling, I
  think.  Perhaps writings on making presentations or teaching would
  give some ideas.

No matter what you do, it's a collaborative affair. Sometimes you'll
think a leap from one model (or one step) to the next is trivial, and
the other party will be totally confused, and other times you'll want to
work through the details only to find the other party already at the
end.  Flexibility and listening count.

> Second: how to aggregate the mixed subjectivity generated by group
> modelling?

> It is maybe one of the reasons of not acceptation of the owner of solutions 
> proposed by a model if he finds out too lately that his own objectives are 
> not enough represented in the definition of the problem. 

I think I've more seen the opposite problem, although maybe there are
cultural specifics at work.  I'm more likely to worry about lack of
acceptance if all the pertinent stakeholders were not involved than if
too many were.  Good facilitation and good consulting skills count.
Peter Block's Flawless Consulting comes to mind as a potentially useful
reference.  

> The understanding of this relation between subjectivity and
> objectivity have, I am sure, plenty of other concrete applications.
>
> Does anybody know of books, articles, papers that have explored that
> problem?

If I understand what you're seeking, I suspect that good books on
facilitation might also be of help.  Roger Schwarz' The Skilled
Facilitator and Bob Dick's Helping Groups to Be Effective come to mind.

That might be an interesting question to pose on the GRP-FACL list, too.

Bill
- -- 
Bill Harris  
Posted by  Bill Harris <bill_harris at facilitatedsystems.com>
posting date  Sat, 17 Nov 2007 11:48:03 -0800