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The Process of Soft Systems
Methodology
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Deriving a conceptual model is a method of analyzing the activities which need to take place in order to clearly define what the actors need to do in order to achieve the transformation. Do not include activities performed by anyone other than the actors whom you have named in the root definition (and if possible, limit the actors to one group of people - activity-monitoring becomes very complicated when more than one group are involved). Again, disciplined thinking is required - list the activities needed to achieve the objectives of the system. It is important also to include activities which monitor the system and feed-back results, so that system activities may be performed effectively. Ask: what defines success for this system? how can I measure that success? what do my actors need to do, to measure success?
I have chosen to provide a conceptual model for system (7), in figure 4. The Root Definition for this system is:
A system owned by Local Government Administration, where Local Government Officials make driving less attractive than public transport on behalf of Environmental Lobbyists among the public because the number of cars on the road is directly related to environmental degradation and public health problems, but limited by the need to find alternatives to financial incentives alone and the power of drivers' lobby groups.
The list of activities which I perceive as necessary [see Note 2] for this transformation are:
1. Determine what factors make driving more attractive than public transport
2. Assess what action can be taken to affect those factors by Local Government Officials
3. Take those actions
4. Measure the number of people who transfer from cars to public transport
5. Measure the impact upon the environment of that transfer
6. Report to the public on the results.
Figure 4: A WEAK Conceptual Model for System of Input-Output
Transformation (7)
Note that this conceptual model has fallen into the "consultancy
mode" trap. What I have defined here is not what needs to be done, but
how I, as a consultant, intend to find out what needs to be done and then take
action. This happens whenever you do not have sufficient information from the
stakeholders about what actually needs to be done - so you fudge it!
OK - so what to do? As a facilitator, I would interview the core stakeholders and understand what they would like to happen, to make public transport more attractive than driving. I would then derive a new conceptual model.
Let us imagine that I have done this and the core stakeholders suggested two main strategies for achieving transformation (7):
F Increase fines for driving offences and cross-subsidize public transport with the revenue raised.
F Make driving more difficult and time-consuming than public transport by rationing road use.
The list of activities which the stakeholders perceive as necessary are:
1. Determine fair increases needed to subsidize public transport and extent to which road use should be rationed.
2. Increase fines for driving offences.
3. Implement the fines.
4. Gather revenue from fines on drivers found to be committing driving offences.
5. Subsidize public transport using fines revenue, to lower prices by 20%.
6. Ration road use (e.g. install traffic-lights that only allow a few cars through at a time).
7. Measure the number of people who transfer from cars to public transport
8. Assess the impact upon the environment of that transfer
9. Report to the public on the results.
The new conceptual model is shown in Figure 5:
Figure 5: A Better Conceptual Map for System of Input-Output Diagram
(7)
An important element of conceptual models are the feedback loops. There are normally two feedback loops in any conceptual model:
F An internal feedback loop, that permits actors involved in the human-activity system perspective modeled to adjust how they perform their work (in this case, this loop is between the “Assess” and “Determine” activities).
F An external feedback loop, between the inputs and the outputs of the activity system model. This permits managers to assess and manage the system of activity as a whole. (This loop is indicated by the dotted lines on the model).
To permit the effective management of any system, you need to define a measure of success for a particular transformation. This is shown below the conceptual model in Figure 5.
Note 2: What I perceive as necessary may be totally different to what you perceive as necessary. The latter may be totally different to what a traffic warden perceives as necessary. At the end of the day, it should be up to the local stakeholders to determine what activities are required here - you are just the facilitator, transcribing their understanding of the problem situation into models. If the stakeholders cannot agree, it is not your job to sort this out. Present the conflicts to the managers who own the system and let them decide.
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