REPLY Society Strategy Development (SD7169)

[SDMAIL Jack Homer]

Posted by  "Jack Homer" <jhomer at comcast.net>

More grist for Kim Warren's mill regarding society strategy development:

One thing that I believe has not come up in the discussion so far is the
question of our true current status as a field.  If we're talking about
visions and goals for the future, it's helpful to understand, based on real
evidence, where we currently stand.  One of the important things SD brings
to
strategic decision making is an insistence on distinguishing clearly between
perception and reality.  We should apply this principle to our own
self-analysis.  Jay Forrester presented his perceptions of the "endless
plateau" in his 50th Anniversary speech last year, but he, like all of us,
is
working not so much from hard data as from perceptions that are partial and
of the moment.  Before I'm asked to take part in radical surgery, I want a
complete history and all pertinent imaging and blood work.

Back in 1993, a fellow named Greg Scholl did a benchmarking study of the SD
community.  He got about 160 members of the SD society (out of 455 at that
time) to respond to a questionnaire asking about their academic backgrounds,
occupations, areas of SD application, model building approaches, use of
software and hardware, knowledge of SD history, publications read, and
authors cited.  There were plenty of other questions he didn't get around to
asking but thought were important:
- Do members of the SD society have the right kinds of background for real
world problem solving?
- Are there enough faculty and grad students to meet demand for SD modelers?
- Are there logical subcommunities in SD and is it important to distinguish
between them?
- What is our common core in terms of methodology?
- How can the SD Society and the SD Review shape development of the field?

These are questions we still ask.  But I would also ask some questions that
go beyond SD practitioners and go more to the marketplace.  I would ask
these
questions of general consulting firms, of government agencies, and of
foundations and other NGOs, and I would ask them in various industries and
departments:
- What fraction are aware of SD?
- What fraction have ever used SD?
- Of those who have not used SD, why not?
- Of those who have used SD, would they use it again?  If so, why?  If not,
why not?

This is just a start, just scratching the surface, but I hope my point is
clear.  Could we actually do a little objective scouting of our surroundings
before we launch off into the wilderness?

Jack Homer
Posted by  "Jack Homer" <jhomer at comcast.net>
posting date  Fri, 11 Jul 2008 21:44:06 -0400