A living collection of notes, ideas, and reflections from Doug Belshaw.
Photo taken by me in Bluebell Wood, Morpeth
While I haven't got ages to write one today, I decided over the weekend that I would get back into the habit of writing weekly updates. I haven't written a weeknote since archiving my blog and spinning up Substrate.
…In my first note on OrgLens I asked whether an AI agent could diagnose an organisation using Stafford Beer’s Viable System Model (VSM). The answer was yes, more or less.
The reports were written for someone like me using terms such as System 3*, algedonic channels, and requisite variety. Those terms can be useful if you know VSM, but most people who might benefit from an organisational health check do not, and shouldn't need to.
…Systems thinking is a way of looking at organisations as sets of connected parts rather than as collections of individuals or departments. The Viable System Model, or VSM, is one approach within it. It asks whether an organisation has the parts it needs to keep going: people doing the work, ways of coordinating that work, checks on whether the work is happening, people looking ahead, and a way of agreeing what the organisation is for.
…You got to, as they say, have a system. And one of mine is to, by default, wear shorts between April and September. That means today is the last day of default shorts-wearing in 2026, as we enter six months of much darker days here in the North East of England.
…Most organisations don't work systemically. They deal with problems one part at a time, and then are surprised when they find the same issues returning time and again.
For mission-driven organisations such as charities, co-ops or public service institutions, it can be hard to picture what working systemically would even look like. Instead of a bunch of theory, people first need a quick sense of systems practice, in terms that make sense for their own organisation.
…I'm going to use the term 'affordance' in what follows, and I know from experience over the years that people misunderstand this term:
In psychology, affordance is what the environment offers the individual. In design, affordance has a narrower meaning; it refers to possible actions that an actor can readily perceive.
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A few months ago, I published a note about installing Android on my Rabbit r1. This post is about going a step further to create carrot:
A voice-first home screen for the Rabbit r1. Hold the side button, ask something, let go, and hear the answer. Point the camera and ask "what's this?". Set reminders, keep lists, and check the weather and your day, all by voice, on a black and orange screen made for the r1.
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After a great Day 1 I had high hopes for the second day of SCiO's annual conference. Although the opening panel session on Systems Thinking in Government inexplicably didn't get beyond introductions and positioning statements in the time allotted, the rest of the day was fantastic.
…About 10 days ago, I discovered that SCiO's annual conference was happening this week down in Cranfield. After checking that I had air cover from my better half, I booked my place and so I find myself down here after a ~4 hour drive from Northumberland.
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