SMELL THE ROSES

[John Maloney]

Saturday, June 27, 2009

 

Role of Value Network to Disrupt Healthcare - Chapter 6 of Clayton's book

 

http://bit.ly/CORBO

 

 

Value Network, in clayton's words "is the context within which a firm establishes its business model, and how it works with suppliers and channel partners so that together they can respond profitably to the needs of a class of customers".

[Jeff Lindsay]

Thanks, John. I love Clayton's writings on disruption. But I get nervous these days when I see "disrupt" and "healthcare" next to each other. ;) "Disrupt" and "energy" also make me nervous, especially when it's above 90 degrees and I need that A.C.

 

I do not have answers for how best to manage healthcare (or energy). I do not have answers for what services and products should best be provided at what price. In fact, no one does, and this is an important point that should have been made but rarely is in basic education in this nation. (What follows may be rather dogmatic, for which I apologize, but I recognize that logical alternative views exist and I have a call for response at the end to help me see the other side in terms of value network theory.)

 

I regret that a generation of Americans has grown up with no understanding of the powerful role that personal freedom plays in (1) driving an efficient distribution of goods and services based on the mechanism of price as a means of conveying a vast body information about supply and demand in the economic ecosystem, and (2) driving innovation as freedom plus incentives motivate people to take the risks required to find improvements in products, processes, and services, or to find alternatives or substitutes for goods that are scarce.

 

Adam Smith's unseen hand is far more efficient and effective than Darwin's unseen hand of nature designing and improving creatures through chance events. "Natural selection" in a free market is a much more rapid and efficient process of creating new species of products because design and intelligence can be overtly applied at every stage, misguided as it often is, with rapid market feedback that can send an extinction signal within a few months rather than eons. But this process requires efficient conveyance of countless packets of information based on the mechanism of price as consumers freely choose what to buy, and as sellers choose what prices to charge. When the mechanism of price and when the opportunity for extinction is fouled up by artificial means, such as subsidies, bailouts, price controls, government rationing, and other handcuffs on Adam Smith's unseen hand, the result is usually inefficiency and its attending demons of shortage and waste. There may be times for some of these, but I think we have neglected reason for far too long.

 

Today we are moving away from the unseen hand that brings prosperity to a free market and instead, we are facing the ever visible fist that commands what shall be offered and how. The unseen disruption of vast networks of intangibles spanning the ecosystem like nerves in a body can leave the ecosystem paralyzed in spite of all the injections and meds that are given, and in spite of more drastic measures such as amputation, transplants, and the ever popular leeches that are applied liberally when there is blood for the taking. Applying ever greater measures and forces to make the deadened body move becomes a senseless show causing more harm than good.

 

This is not meant to bemoan either political party, for almost no one in Washington these days seems to understand the role that personal freedom can play. The debates are often about which massive intervention in the free market is the best one, or whether we should embrace crushing debt quickly or very quickly. Eroding the freedom behind free markets and taking on the shackles of crippling debt can only hinder economic recovery and innovation, unless I'm missing something. I think that conclusion follows from considering the concepts of macro value networks across the economy and the important of intangibles for the health of an ecosystem.

 

I apologize for sounding dogmatic. In fact, I would appreciate perspectives from the other side in light of value network theory, for I recognize that there are other plausible views that one can take, and am interested in seeing how they would be presented here using concepts from VNA theory.

 

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---

From: Value-N...@googlegroups.com [mailto:Value-N...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of John Maloney
Sent: Sunday, June 28, 2009 11:19 AM
To: Value-N...@googlegroups.com
Subject: SMELL THE ROSES

[Stewart Levine]

Thanks Jeff…some thoughts with clear answer…

 

         were free markets really free your statement  would have more ballast…

         unfortunately the power imbalence is great and people game the system…

         I long for real dialogue between opposite knowledgeable perspectives, unfortunately we get diatribe and dogma

        

Please keep speaking and listening..

 

Stewart

 

Stewart L. Levine, Esq., Resolutionary

 

Author: Getting to Resolution

            The Book of Agreement

            The Cycle of Resolution in The Change Handbook 

            Collaboration 2.0

           

www.ResolutionWorks.com  510-777-1166   510-814-1010 cell  

 

If you knew the secret history of those you would like to punish

you would find a sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all your hostility

                                                                  - HW Longfellow

<BR

[John Maloney]

Hi –

 

“unfortunately we get diatribe and dogma”

 

This is wrong. The only ‘dogma and diatribe’ originates from the establishment and people wishing to preserve the status quo.

 

Quite to the contrary, as been said many times, this group is specifically anti-dogma since is does not trade in established principles or prescribed doctrine. Good grief. If you want that stuff please enroll in business school or get a job with Bermuda-based outsourcing company Accenture.

 

Rather, this group strives to create fundamentals advancements in how people see their world through the lens of value networks. The focus is squarely on creating the future. This makes claims of dogma illogical. The outcome is shared imagination. As been said many times, it is not for everyone!

 

Value network discovery can be unsettling to people (even value network practitioners and leaders!). Having your current mental models challenged and comfy networks reconfigured is not easy. When this is done with enthusiastic rhetoric some see it as diatribe. Utter nonsense. 

 

This is an intentionally low-traffic group with a modest population. It’s because the styles here are impassioned and may seems zealous precisely because they are NOT established principles, prescribed doctrine, empirical scholarship or fine prose! Like the future, ideas are often rough hewn, anecdotal, emergent. Panacea is not a member.

 

Again, the reaction of rigid, narrow-band people to these new, fresh ideas is always fear, loathing and polarization. That’s expected, and why people without an appetite for the future are always invited and encouraged to excuse themselves from this group. That’s all, it’s no biggie. Chacun à son gout. It is better than making claims of dogma.

 

To paraphrase a refrain from the 1960s, “If you don’t like the group, go create one of your own!”

 

Concerning specifics…

 

“were free markets really free your statement  would have more ballast…”

 

This common, worn-out statement is an insidious code phrase for people that fundamentally reject markets principles. It is pure baloney. Markets are simply social arrangements for the exchange of goods, services and revenues. They are not some bogeyman.

 

“unfortunately the power imbalence is great and people game the system…”

 

More plain nonsense. As complex adaptive systems markets are inherently non-deterministic, or in other words, imperfect. They correct themselves, eventually.

 

Markets are the greatest wealth-producing concept in the history of civilization. For example, just since the last deep recession in 1987, the NYSE is up over 300%. Everyone here benefited for sure. 

 

“I long for real dialogue between opposite knowledgeable perspectives, unfortunately we get diatribe and dogma”

 

Few valid perspectives are truly opposite. When they are dogma and diatribe can infect the discourse. It is not unfortunate, rather, more often, just ridiculous.

 

“I regret that a generation of Americans has grown up with no understanding of the powerful role that personal freedom plays”

 

What generation? Yes, Gen X is commonly considered ‘lost.’ However, Gen Y, the largest generation by far (>90M), craves liberty, has enormous entrepreneurial spirit and exhibits aggressive market sensibilities.

 

“Thirty-seven percent of Gen Yers expect to start saving for retirement before they reach 25, with 46% of those already working indicating so, according to a September survey by Purchase, N.Y.-based Diversified Investment Advisors. And 49% say retirement benefits are a very important factor in their job choices. Among those eligible, 70% of the Gen Y respondents contribute to their 401(k) plan.” (USA Today)

 

“The debates are often about which massive intervention in the free market is the best one…”

 

“Intervention,” massive or otherwise, is not a good thing. Market ebb and flow is a natural system. Recession is normal and necessary, and for the most part, predictable. Planned economies do not work. Liberty is a natural property.

 

Intervention in some markets, like illegal drugs, weapons and human trafficking, simply drives greater innovation, competitive pricing, supply/demand growth, etc. Market intervention is the WRONG approach.

 

Govt does not create jobs, wealth or prosperity.

 

Concerns about recent ardent govt initiatives like health care, energy, regulation, etc., are ill-founded because the current apparatus lacks pluralism and will fail with confidence. That has been shown to defeat or attenuate every kneejerk govt initiative known.

 

“ I would appreciate perspectives from the other side in light of value network theory”

 

There are no sides. It’s not chess or polo or mashed potatoes. There are simple, natural, immutable properties.

 

What is the “other side” of gravitation and general relativity, for example? There is only one side – the side of essential, pervasive qualities, immutable properties and innate disposition. They are called networks and markets.

 

“for I recognize that there are other plausible views that one can take, and am interested in seeing how they would be presented here using concepts from VNA theory.”

 

I do not know what “VNA Theory” is. VNA is whole-system visualization of tangible and intangible exchange using roles and links for networks and markets. It is not a theory. VNA is a lens that creates deeper comprehension for continuous optimization and growing prosperity.  

 

The unseen disruption of vast networks of intangibles spanning the ecosystem like nerves in a body can leave the ecosystem paralyzed in spite of all the injections and meds that are given, and in spite of more drastic measures such as amputation, transplants, and the ever popular leeches that are applied liberally when there is blood for the taking.

 

Yup. Here some more on that thread…

 

“Below is a brief essay on Victorian practices that sound exactly like

today's management, e.g., layoffs = amputations, the Senate's Bad Asset

Relief Fund or BARF = puking, Obama's 'spendulus' package = phlebotomy

(bleeding taxpayers) and plastering (throwing money at problems), faith in

govt = faith in God, etc.”

 

http://bit.ly/uhTmX

 

 

Finally, this Summer marks year three for this group. It was initiated, operated through corporate sponsorship. Deliberate industry transformations on the scale of vale networks take about 60 months +/-. Since then, enormous progress and advancement has been achieved w/value networks and VNA, including widespread deployments, great new technology and global practitioner networks. You are right on track!

 

Keep up the good work!

 

-j  

[Stewart Levine]

Thanks for all of your passion John!

[David Meggitt]

A beauty yet to be revealed is a small selection from some 400 poems
by Stewart.
http://www.resolutionworks.com/index.php?name=Sections&req=listarticles&secid=5

Enjoy these as well as John's passion.

> www.ResolutionWorks.com<http://www.resolutionworks.com/>   510-777-1166   510-814-1010 cell  

>
> If you knew the secret history of those you would like to punish
>
> you would find a sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all your hostility
>
>                                                                   - HW Longfellow
>
> From: Value-N...@googlegroups.com [mailto:Value-N...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Jeff Lindsay
> Sent: Sunday, June 28, 2009 7:46 PM
> To: Value-N...@googlegroups.com
> Subject: RE: SMELL THE ROSES
>
> Thanks, John. I love Clayton's writings on disruption. But I get nervous these days when I see "disrupt" and "healthcare" next to each other. ;) "Disrupt" and "energy" also make me nervous, especially when it's above 90 degrees and I need that A.C.
>
> I do not have answers for how best to manage healthcare (or energy). I do not have answers for what services and products should best be provided at what price. In fact, no one does, and this is an important point that should have been made but rarely is in basic education in this nation. (What follows may be rather dogmatic, for which I apologize, but I recognize that logical alternative views exist and I have a call for response at the end to help me see the other side in terms of value network theory.)
>
> I regret that a generation of Americans has grown up with no understanding of the powerful role that personal freedom plays in (1) driving an efficient distribution of goods and services based on the mechanism of price as a means of conveying a vast body information about supply and demand in the economic ecosystem, and (2) driving innovation as freedom plus incentives motivate people to take the risks required to find improvements in products, processes, and services, or to find alternatives or substitutes for goods that are scarce.
>

> Adam Smith's unseen hand is far ...
>
> read more »

[tonyj]

I am reluctant to wade into this debate, but I am afraid that John is
oversimplifying the nature of complex adaptive systems in his remark:

>
> “unfortunately the power imbalence is great and people game the system…”
>
> More plain nonsense. As complex adaptive systems markets are inherently non-deterministic, or in other words, imperfect. They correct themselves, eventually.
>

A CAS is inherently non-deterministic, but does that make them
imperfect? Aren't biological entities imperfect? It may well be a
tolerance of imperfection that provides the resilience that is life.
Mandelbrot sets are self-similar but intricately detailed at any
scale. This is due to a mathematical, infinitely recursive feedback
loop that is the control algorithm.

This is not the same as correctness, which is I suspect a very human
term. I don't believe there is evidence that a CAS will "eventually
correct" itself. Indeed, the evidence from social systems suggest the
opposite. The system will maximize to local optimums which favor
certain people at the expense of most of the rest of us.

People game the system, constantly, and rather inventively too.
Consider email, a simple IT system. It is a CAS based on a small set
of rules. Despite highly sophisticated filter and control software,
with multiple feedback loops (automated and manual); email is beset by
spam to such an extent that many consider it useless and have sought
out other alternatives. Yet, for those organizations that invest in
the filtering software, email is amoung the most robust and reliable
communications systems that we can obtain. The reliability of message
delivery probably exceeds 8 sigmas.

Perfection is an intangible. Correctness is too, maybe not in
economics, but certainly in social systems.
regards, tony

[John Maloney]

Hi Tony,

Good post.

Yes, I was using the phrase, "they correct themselves, eventually" quite
loosely and subjectively, of course. It is in specific reference to the
enormous, 'eventual' long-term benefits of an open market orientation to
pervasive wealth-creation, overall prosperity, health and peace for all.

Concerning social systems, particularly organizational social systems, there
is an inexorable shift to a more open market enterprise, versus
authoritarian and hierarchical, orientation. It is very encouraging.

Other open and free market CAS being deployed broadly include smart power
grids, health care, innovation, the environment ("cap 'n' trade")
forecasting, and so forth. Again, encouraging and long overdue.

Concerning forecasting, in particular, here below is a good example of one
of a number of enterprise start-ups I'm working with that are deploying
these powerful and effective idioms to achieve fundamental advancements.

Start-Up's Software Goes to Employees for Company Forecasts

Source: NYT --

http://bit.ly/Xq7GH

-- June 25, 2009, 1:39 pm

You can learn more about this crucial transformation here...

http://www.pmcluster.com/


Finally, value networks play a central role in the social and market
reorientation of work.

Cheers,

-j

-----Original Message-----
From: Value-N...@googlegroups.com
[mailto:Value-N...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of tonyj
Sent: Wednesday, July 01, 2009 5:40 PM
To: Value Networks
Subject: Re: SMELL THE ROSES



I am reluctant to wade into this debate, but I am afraid that John is
oversimplifying the nature of complex adaptive systems in his remark:

>

> "unfortunately the power imbalence is great and people game the system."

[JT Maloney]

David -

Thanks. Great link, very prescient and timely.

Stuart. Wow! Excellent. Everyone must have a look! Use this link.

http://bit.ly/2NSzC

BTW, I’m active in SFIPF --

http://sfipf.org/

You (and others) may wish to track it. It is terrific.


I have spoken often w/ Verna, other value networkers about the sheer
poetic power of VNA. VNA offers the same economy for sense making and
meaning as poetry. To paraphrase St. Exupery…

“VNA (and poems) has reached perfection not when there is nothing left
to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”

Less is more. For VNA, poetry (and listservs posts), less is a LOT
more!

Value network narratives and VNA visual assets are disarmingly concise
and potent. Also, simplicity is an important advantage of network and
complexity science.

Cheers!

-j


P.S. Here is a very cool site…

http://www.nli.ie/yeats/

[Stewart Levine]

Thanks John! I have almost 500. After sitting on them for five years I am
having
them transcribed and will publish as a book of "Daily Practice" including
some
reflective questions. At least that's my current plan.

Stewart

-----Original Message-----
From: Value-N...@googlegroups.com
[mailto:Value-N...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of JT Maloney
Sent: Wednesday, July 01, 2009 6:39 PM
To: Value Networks
Subject: Re: SMELL THE ROSES

[Sergej van Middendorp | Miles Ahead]

Hi all,

Intriguing conversation.

In organizational improvisation, an emerging culture of inquiry, the term "aesthetic of imperfection" is used for the continuous improvisational evolution of the music. See: http://www.leader-values.com/Downloads/FrankBarrettJazzImprovisation.pdf page 611 - left column.

Ralph Stacey, a complexity scientist who is also moving in the direction of organizational improvisation prefers "Complex Responsive Processes' over 'Complex Adaptive Systems'. See: Shaw, P., & Stacey, R. D. (2006). Experiencing risk, spontaneity and improvisation in organizational change: Working live. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.

Cheers, Sergej

[Stewart Levine]

Thanks Sergej…it's not unlike the "self-organizing" systems work of Meg Wheatley now almost 20 years old. For me this points to the essential "skill" of self reflection / self awareness (the foundation of emotional intelligence) that enables essential meta conversations so people can talk about what is going on without all the drama of personal investment. When we can do that with real dialogue we (as a species) might surprise ourselves at how resourceful we can be in solving and resolving the major challenges we face.

 

Best thoughts,

 

Stewart

From: Value-N...@googlegroups.com [mailto:Value-N...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Sergej van Middendorp | Miles Ahead
Sent: Thursday, July 02, 2009 1:20 AM
To: Value-N...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: SMELL THE ROSES

 

Hi all,

[Sergej van Middendorp | Miles Ahead]

Thanks David for pointing that out.

Stewart. That's very powerful stuff.

I just read Beauty. And beauty does what beauty does best, it's beautiful! (Lyric by an emotional fish, 90's punkband.)

Poetry as metaphor for organization. See: http://tinyurl.com/lbcyan

Lightly, Sergej