TB871: Getting the bigger picture and appreciating other perspectives
Note: this is a post reflecting on one of the modules of my MSc in Systems Thinking in Practice. You can see all of the related posts in this category.
Activity 1.2 asks us to list some phrases and practices associated with the two features of systems thinking shown in the images below. These are, as the title of this post would suggest, getting the bigger picture and appreciating other perspectives.
I’m going to continue with the example I used in TB872 in terms of my co-op’s work with the Digital Credentials Consortium (DCC). As I showed in previous posts, I think I have the ‘bigger picture’ of the different players and what’s going on in the ecosystem. What’s been important is to understand, through user research, their motivations.
For example, in terms of implementing Verifiable Credentials, it’s a cost/benefit decision for registrars in terms of ease of use and efficiency. For the DCC team it’s perhaps a more idealistic mission. And for organisations such as Credential As You Go it’s part of reforming assessment and student mobility. There are still more angles, of course, such as vendors looking to make money by providing products and services, and funders who have a larger objective in terms of changing ecosystems.
I’m fairly comfortable with this concept, as it’s similar to a post I wrote near the start of TB872 entitled Systemic praxis and epistemological devices. So I’ll leave this one here and move on.
