2d2 - Fluid thinking is idea emergence plus systems thinking

Last updated Aug 15, 2023

• To really take advantage of linking your thoughts together, it helps to know a little bit more about systems thinking.
• “Systems” is a broad term, and if you were to ask five people knowledgeable about systems thinking to describe systems thinking—you’d get five answers that were just as different as they were similar.
• Broadly speaking: A system is ==a group of interacting or interrelated entities that form a unified whole.==
• Anytime you talk with someone else, you’ve created a new, temporary system. You’ve gone from a system of You, to a system of Two.
• Relating systems thinking to knowledge management, keep in mind these two concepts:
  • _Relationships - How notes or ideas are interacting?_
  • Complexity - At what level of complexity are ideas interacting?
• As far as complexity, two people talking represents more “complexity” than one person alone. And two people talking in a bar, next to other people, represents even more “complexity”—Those would be our higher-order notes.

# Idea Emergence

• It’s invaluable to understand “Cards/Idea Emergence” systems thinking is because it opens up the ability to ==think more holistically about problems==—especially when applied to your dynamic collection of notes and ideas. Systems thinking allows for fluid thinking.
• My goal for this workshop is to…
  • FIRST: get you comfortable thinking in systems and Cards/Idea Emergence
  • and then, SECOND: make you more fluid in your applying knowledge management thinking.
• A major aspect of this workshop is to equip you with the awareness and skill to use the right tool at the right time. Eventually, the end goal is to improve your Fluid Thinking ability.

# Fluid Thinking

Fluid Thinking is the ability to ==skillfully adjust your perspective==— zooming in and out of the levels of emergence. This allows you to approach a problem from the inside and the outside…tacking back and forth with ease to generate new value and find novel solutions.

This opens up a whole new way to think fluidly and flexibly, and to accomplish a lot more in a lot less time, and have a lot more fun doing it.