raimo p. hämäläinen [email protected] systemsintelligence.hut.fi

S ystemsAnalysis LaboratoryHelsinki University of Technology 1

Systems Intelligence for Life Cycle Management

- Shifting the Focus from

Products to People

Raimo P. Hämäläinen

[email protected] www.systemsintelligence.hut.fi


Disciplines for coping with complexity

Operation Research / Management Science / Systems Analysis

Develop generic tools and methods for structured problem solving and decision support.

The “Science of Better”

Goals: Improve problem solving by learning, understanding and communication

Based on a systems thinking perspective


Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA)

Transparency in decision making– Integrated management of

objective data and subjective values

– Incorporation of risks and uncertainty

Well developed theory

Textbooks e.g.Belton, Stewart 2002; French et al. 2009

Increasingly used in environmental management

Introduced into Life Cycle Assessment literature

in the late 1990’s ( Miettinen, Hämäläinen 1997)


Steps in MCDA

• Problem structuring • Value focused thinking • Identification of objectives and alternatives• Interactive preference elicitation• Composition of overall preferences and rankings • Sensitivity analysis – what if

Result: Transparent recommendationTools and e-learning material available on the web:www.decisionarium.hut.fi


Todays TopicSystems Thinking in LCM

New lens:

Systems Intelligence (SI)

LCM is a systems approach

Shifting the focus from products to people makes human thinking the driver for improvement

SI + LCM = Ecological Intelligence

Key perspective in Environmental Leadership


Systems Intelligence(Hämäläinen and Saarinen, 2004)

• Intelligent behaviour in the context of complex systems involving interaction,dynamics and feedback

• Combines human sensitivities with engineering thinking

• Pursuing the idea of making things work


Systems Intelligence

A person with Systems Intelligence understands that she is always part of a system in her environment

• She perceives herself as part of the whole

- her own influence upon the whole

- the influence of the whole upon herself

- she realizes that others in the system can have different views of the whole

- she is able to act intelligently in the system


The SI perspective

• Helps to identify productive forms of action • It is a competence that can be improved

by learning• Systems Intelligence is a basic form of

human intelligence


Multiple Intelligences (Howard Gardner 1983)

• Linguistic • Musical • Logical-Mathematical• Spatial• Bodily-Kinesthetic • The Personal Intelligences – intra / inter• Plus higher-level cognitive capacities e.g.

common sense and wisdom


SI and Multiple Intelligences

• Systems Intelligence is another higher level cognitive capacity

• SI links intelligence with the concept of system and systemic thinking

• SI embedds Social and Emotional intelligence (Goleman 1995, 2006)

• Systems Intelligence is a survival asset we have as a species


SI relates to

• Systems Thinking

(Churchman 1968, Senge 1990,Checkland 1999,Jackson 2003) • Organizational theories and Action research

(Argylis, Schön , Schein ,Bohm 1980, Isaacs 1999) • Philosophy, Socratic tradition for thinking for good life • Positive psychology

(Bateson 2000, Goffman 1974, Seligman 2002)

• Theories of decision making and problem solving (Simon 1956, Keeney 1992, Kahneman, Tversky 2000)


Organizational learning

The Fifth Discipline

(Peter Senge 1990):• Personal Mastery• Mental Models• Shared Vision• Team Learning• Systems Thinking

Systems Intelligence is the link between

Personal Mastery and Systems Thinking.


Systems Thinking

• Emphasizes the importance of wholes and perspectives

• Models systems of interaction from outside• Can become a trap when one only sees the

system from outside and does not recognize herself being an active player in the system


Characteristics of systems

• Whole is more than the sum of its parts • “Whole” and “Part” are relative abstractions • Always subject to redefinition by changing the

perspective


How we see systems determines the model

• Beliefs about needs and goals• Framing: costs or benefits• Boundaries: fixed or flexible• Alternatives: fixed or flexible• Values: fixed or evolving and constructed in

the context.


Systems can take over

• People can get caught in systems that serve nobody’s interests

• People can feel helpless regarding their possibilities of changing the system

• People react to the system without seeing their effect on the whole


Systems Intelligence

• Becomes a challenge for personal learning• Trusts that people can influence complex

systems• The theoretical understanding of Systems

Thinking need not increase Systems Intelligence


1. What does the system generate – and to what extent is this what we want?

2. How does the system mold us as human beings?

3. What kind of in-between does the system endorse?

Ask first the System Questions


Change is not easy

• Mental change• Perceptual change • Individual behavioural change• Change in the system


Thinking about thinking

• Key to learning Systems Intelligence• One’s actions are a function of one’s thinking

(mental models, beliefs, assumptions, interpretations, etc.)

• Challenge my mental models by meta-level thinking regarding my own thinking


Invisible system

• We often perceive systems only through a mechanistic perspective

• We see materials, products and costs

When people are considered:– the true system often includes hidden

subsystems – such as processes of trust or fear generation


Seeing oneself in the system

• With the eyes of the others• The impact of my behaviour upon the

behaviours of others• The impact of the current system on all of

us


Managing the invisible

• To understand the system, it can be more important to know what is not produced than what the standard output is

• SI tries to understand both the visible and the invisible part


Perceptual and behavioural change

• Seeing both the organizational/physical and the human parts

• SI looks for productive inputs to impact both parts


Change in the system

• People adjust to systems instinctively. • If a system is changed, people also change

their behaviours. This leads to further change• A small change in my behaviour might trigger

a chain of changes in the behaviours of others


In experimental games :People choose co-operative strategies with Systems Intelligence. They do not take everything for themselves.

Evolution gave us SI


1. Seeing oneself in the System – Ability to see ones roles and behaviour in the system. Also through the eyes of other people and with different framings of the system. Systems thinking awareness.

2. Thinking about Systems Intelligence – Ability to envision and identify productive ways of behaviour for oneself in the system and understanding systemic possibilities.

3. Managing Systems Intelligence – Ability to personally work with systems intelligence.

4. Sustaining Systems Intelligence – Ability to continue and foster systems intelligence in the long run .

5. Leadership with Systems Intelligence – Ability to initiate and create systems intelligence culture in one’s organization.

5 step ladder of SI


So What?

Is there a role for

Systems Intelligence in LCM?


LCA is Systems Thinking

• Describes a product system and assesses the inventories and impacts.

• LCA is not enough• The Systems Thinking trap lurks in LCA.• Life Cycle Management takes LCA into action


Life Cycle Management(UNEP/SETAC LMC Definition Study 2003)

Integration of

life cycle perspective and economic, social, environmental considerations

into overall

strategy, planning and decision making of

organization’s product portfolio

System oriented platform

Improvement and sustainability driver


The system questions

• What does a product system produce?

- satisfaction of needs – what else?

- environmental costs – is this what we want? • How does the product system mold us?• How does the product system influence

our in - between?

- does it endorse environmental responsibility

and sustainability culture


Happiness as an indicator in LCA(Hofstetter, Madjau, Ozawa, 2006)

Does the system produce happiness ?

A weighted sum of happiness enhancers and rebound effects?• set achievable important non-materialistic goals (weight = 2.5)• become an outgoing personality (1.5)• focus beyond self (1)• ……….

But - happiness is systemic


Systems can take over

• People can be caught in environmentally harmful systems that serve nobody’s interests

• People in the system can feel helpless regarding their possibilities of changing the system

• We live in consumption systems without seeing the cumulative overall effects


Social Life Cycle Management

• Impact categories are expanded• Social evaluation of companies is not enough• Expanding the product / service system

boundary with a social perspective?–involve the stakeholders

–re-evaluate needs


Stakeholder involvement with SI

• Invisible elements, emotions / trust are important in the process

• The way people are encountered can be more influential than the issue itself

• Dialogue not conflict resolution• Beliefs about the expected beliefs and goals

of others do matter


Redefinition question:

What other possibilities

are there to meet

people’s needs?

Goal and Scope in LCA


Consuming in Virtual Second Life


Can we see the drivers of our needs

related to our consumption ?

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs


Invisible systems

• What is not produced (happiness /sustainability) can be more important than the material output of the products system

• The process of achieving a social goal can matter more than the end product:

-buying a bread or home baking the bread


• My priorities in the satisfaction of needs over my own life

• Rethinking values can lead to revision of needs = a change in the system

• Where can I make value based trade-offs?• Can I learn to manage consumption in a more

sustainable way• Change is not easy

Personal Life Cycle Management


1. Seeing oneself in the Environmental System – Ability to see ones impacts on the environment. Environmental awareness.

2. Thinking about Environmental Systems Intelligence – Ability to envision changes in one’s consumption

3. Managing Environmental Systems Intelligence – Ability to personally change consumption patterns.

4. Sustaining Environmental Systems Intelligence – Ability to continue personal systems intelligent LCM in the long run .

5. Leadership with Environmental Systems Intelligence – Ability to initiate and create systems intelligent LCM culture in ones social network/ organinzation.

5 Levels of SI in personal LCM


• Underlying philosophy in Life Cycle Thinking?• Awareness of SI makes people want to have

more of it • It is systems intelligent for companies and

people to use LCM• Formula for Ecological Intelligence:

EI = SI + LCM

Systems Intelligence in LCM


Systems Intelligence Research GroupCo-directors:Professors Raimo P. Hämäläinen andEsa SaarinenDownloadable articles and books on SI:http://www.systemsintelligence.hut.fi/


References

Belton Valerie and Stewart Theodor J. 2002. Multiple Criteria Analysis, An Integrated Approach. Massachusetts, Kluwer

Churchman C. West. 1968. The Systems Approach. New York, Delta

French Simon, Maule John and Papamichail Nadia. 2009. Decision Behaviour, Analysis and Support. Cambridge, University Press

Gardner Howard. 1983. Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences, Tenth anniversary edition. New York, Basic Books

Griesshammer Rainer et al. 2006. Feasibility Study: Integration of Social Aspects into LCA, UNEP-SETAC

Goleman Daniel. 1995. Emotional Intelligence, New York, Bantam Books


References

Goleman Daniel. 2006. Social Intelligence, London, Hutchinson

Goleman Daniel. 2009. Ecological Intelligence, Bantam

Hofstetter Patrick, Madjar Michael and Ozawa Toshisuke. 2006. Happiness and Sustainable Consumption, Int J LCA 11, Special Issue 1, Ecomed Publishers

Hämäläinen Raimo P. and Saarinen Esa (Eds.). 2004b. Systems Intelligence - Discovering a Hidden Competence in Human Action and Organizational Life, Helsinki University of Technology, Systems Analysis Laboratory Research Reports, A88, October 2004

Jackson Michael C. 2000. Systems Approaches to Management, New York, Kluwer


References

Keeney Ralph L. 1992. Value-Focused Thinking: A Path to Creative Decisionmaking, Cambridge, Harvard University Press

Miettinen Pauli and Hämäläinen Raimo P. 1997. How to Benefit from Decision Analysis in Environmental Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), European Journal of Operational Research 102, Elsevier

Miettinen Pauli and Hämäläinen Raimo P. 1999. Indexes for Fixed and Feasible Environmental Target Setting: a Decision Analytical Perspective, International Journal of Environment and Pollution 12, Nos.2/3.

Saur Kondrad et al. 2003. LMC Definition Study, UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative

Senge Peter. 1990. The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization, New York, Doubleday Currency

raimo p. hämäläinen [email protected] systemsintelligence.hut.fi

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