1. Conversations on Social Cybernetics
Prof. Raul Espejo
Social Science Centre
January-March 2016
Session 2

2. Themes for conversation
Action in organisations: the informational and operational domains
Human Activity Systems and Human Interaction systems
Variety and Complexity
Relationships and interactions

4. Individual’s operational complexity
uses incorporated practices
in his/her operational domain
as he/she interacts with others moment-to-moment
person
often experiencing
breaks
which may be construed as
distinctions in language in his/her
informational domain,
producing learning if
new practices are incorporated

5. Individual’s Complexity
Individual complexity is defined by the distinctions we can make in our multiple domains of action for which we have embodied practices.

6. Social operational complexity
are thrown into moment-to moment interactions
in their operational domain
Which may constitute them as roles of a social system (relationships)
Members of Collective
in which they often experience
breaks
which they construe as
distinctions in language in their
informational domain,
and may ground into
new practices

7. A participant’s complexity in a situation
A participant’s complexity, or operational complexity, is defined by the distinctions he/she is able to make in the situation for which we can produce differentiated responses (i.e., practices). This defines his/her complexity in that particular domain of action (i.e., a situation).

8. Situational Variety and Complexity
Variety of a situation is the number of possible states of the situation
For an observer the complexity of a situation is the number of distinctions that he/she can make in the situation. We call this informational complexity.

9. The Variety of a black box
(0,1)
(0,1)
Black Box (BB)
VBB= (Vo)(Vi)
(0,1)

10. Strategies to manage complex situations
VE= 28= 256
0,1
0,1
Black Box
VCN= 2256
VCN=VSVE
VS= 2
0,1
Fragmentation: we split the Black Box in two, each with 4 inputs and one output:
VCN=
= 217 +

11. Controlling the Black Box’s Complexity
Environmental
disturbances: (VD)
Regulator
Space of
Desirable
States:
(VT)
Controllable
Resources
Black Box
(process)
Outcomes (VO)
Error
Possible
Responses
(affordances)
with the
available
resources(VR)
Inquiry:
Model of the BB
VO ≥ VD / VR
and regulation
requires that:
VO ≤ VT

12. Requisite Variety and Negative Explanation
Negative explanation: RV tells us that the variety of the outcomes is larger (or equal) than the ratio between the varieties of the disturbances and responses. If the variety of the target set is smaller than the variety of the outcomes then we know that the target set is unachievable: we don’t know what will be case but we know that what is expected is not possible.
Hence the relevance of giving requisite variety to organisational systems, that is, giving to these systems viable structures with the capabilities to respond to unexpected disturbances