Systemic Refocusing

Abstract

The initial formulation of Systemic Refocusing Strategy (SRS) was intended as an attempt to provide the system (at that time through the agency of the strategic decision makers of the system) with a tool for stepping beyond its own boundaries “thinking outside the box”. The notion in our initial papers was, that systems were (in general agreement with Checkland (1981)) linguistic devices through which decision makers cognized the world and how, through these devices, systems were able to move toward enhanced self-sustainability. Recursive applications of systemic principles in the work of, for example, Beer (1974; 1985), Bogdanov, (1996) Jantsch (1980), Lovelock (1995a and 1995b) and Prigogine (1980), suggest that systems are not able to exist in an isolated bubble of self-sustainability and, contrary to the precepts of traditional systems theory, the actions of the system can affect its environment in more than a merely trivial way. Therefore systemic decisions regarding self-sustainability (whether through the agency of strategic decision makers or not) must, in some way, be cognizant of the needs of their environment — in short, should its environment collapse, the system cannot survive.