Dear Thomas,

The problem of knowledge silos and the nature of disciplines has always made it difficult to address these kinds of issues. There is a second problem involved. This is inherent in the nature of what we label wicked problems, in that many of these issues remain unsolvable due to political choices and desired outcomes.

Your last reply suggests a challenging problem: “Some additional references would be very helpful for future, but I really hope to think that it is time for action, not for further discussion.”

While the attribution of blame is a mistaken, the call to action is equally problematic.

What action is it time for?

What precisely are we to do?

The value of your video is that is offers a clear, concise analysis of a relatively well-understood problem. The fact that some of us understand the nature of the problem doesn’t mean that we have an answer. 

The fact that nations and organisations continue to blame these incidents on individuals without addressing systemic failure or its root causes suggest that many key actors in the chain of causation do not yet understand the nature of the problem.   

Societies and cultures determine the larger context within which these issues take shape. This involves ethics, and this involves phronesis: wise choice for practical action.

One interesting voice on these issues in the news is Pope Francis. His talks on catastrophic climate change, global capitalism, and social justice address these kinds of problems. Essentially, Francis says that we cannot solve many of our global problems because some groups of people benefit from the world financial system today. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/12/world/americas/in-fiery-speeches-francis-excoriates-global-capitalism.html?hpw&rref=world&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well

To change this requires social action and political decisions. It is often impossible even to discuss these issues in public because those who benefit from the systems in place control the governmental mechanisms through which systemic issues find public discussion.  

Some of these same issues came up over a century ago when Pope Leo XIII issued an encyclical in 1891 on the rights and duties of capital and labor, Rerum Novarum

http://w2.vatican.va/content/leo-xiii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_l-xiii_enc_15051891_rerum-novarum.html 
  
This was at the height of the Gilded Age, and few of the key decision-makers of the time paid proper attention.

Yesterday’s edition of "The Strip" in the New York Times captured the issue of systemic failures on Wall Street in a more humorous way than Thomas’s video — but the humorous statement of facts is equally significant:  

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2012/07/08/opinion/sunday/the-strip.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=Moth-Visible&module=inside-nyt-region&region=inside-nyt-region&WT.nav=inside-nyt-region#1

In most times and cultures, there have been many systemic rewards for doing the wrong thing, and few for doing the right thing. Even those who wish to do the right thing find themselves circumscribed by the inertia of culture and the slow grind of organisations in daily life. After reading Thomas’s note and watching the video, I read your comments.    

Don wrote, “Your animation makes the point brilliantly. Next step: Getting people to view it, digest it, and change behavior. I disagree with Richard in that this is a “new look.” This look is at least 40 years old: Reason, Rasmussen, Woods, (and Norman and Cook) have been preaching this for decades. We need to get this animation out to more people.

“Alas, each industry thinks they are different. So industrialists will look at the animation and say, yes, that is Korea, or Ferries, or Korean Ferries. But we are different. No they aren’t.”

This is not merely the case for special industries or Korean Ferries. The “we” who is not different is nearly any group of human beings who live and work within a society, a culture, or an organisation. 

Cartoonist Walt Kelly created a character known as Pogo. Pogo was an opossum who lived in the Okefenokee Swamp. Kelly created a poster for the first Earth Day in 1970, showing Pogo looking about at a damaged, garbage-laden landscape, saying, “We have met the enemy and he is us.”

We are all embedded within these systems. Even though we do not wish to do so, we keep the systems alive through the mechanisms of social and cultural engagement, and through the organisations in which we participate.

The nature of knowledge silos and disciplines is only part of the problem. 

I have followed this thread with real interest — I should very much be interested in knowing just how it is that we are to act to solve these kinds of problems, and I’d like to know what action it is that we should take.

I’ll agree that it is time for action, but I am not sure that anyone can actually prescribe useful action that solves the real problem that your video discloses.

Yours,     

Ken

Ken Friedman, PhD, DSc (hc), FDRS | Editor-in-Chief | 设计 She Ji. The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation | Published by Elsevier in Cooperation with Tongji University | URL: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/she-ji-the-journal-of-design-economics-and-innovation/

Chair Professor of Design Innovation Studies | College of Design and Innovation | Tongji University | Shanghai, China ||| University Distinguished Professor | Centre for Design Innovation | Swinburne University of Technology | Melbourne, Australia

--

Thomas Jun wrote:

—snip—

In a sense, I think knowledge silo is inevitable given the vast growth of knowledge production in recent years (hard to catch up). We can be better, but I understand challenges we face.

My intention of making this animation was to communicate the important knowledge to wider audience. As Don pointed out, I did not produce new knowledge, but tried my best to communicate it better. I am very glad to hear that I did not misrepresent some of important knowledge.

I had the privilege of reading, listening, discussing with many great system safety thinkers; Jens Rasmussen, James Reason, Erik Hollnagel, Richard Cook, Sidney Dekker, of course Don's work as well.

—snip—

Some additional references would be very helpful for future, but I really hope to think that it is time for action, not for further discussion.

—snip—


Don Norman wrote:

—snip—

But the responses seem to indicate a lack of awareness of the huge amount of work on the complexity of accidents and analyses (and hindsight bias). And the tendency to blame someone and think the problem is thereby solved.

But the design community doesn't seem to realize that many excellent people have been making this argument for years. The American Academies of science has a group on "Human System Integration" that has long been an effective leader in this enterprise, and decades ago I took part in a similar seminar held at the Royal Society in London.

--

it works the other way too: other disciplines do not know what work the designers have been doing.

I myself am equally guilty, as I recently discovered that one group of designers (which included me) was unaware of what other design groups were doing.

Ah, the research solos we find ourselves within.

—snip—
 


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