Frequently Asked Questions About the Field of HSD
What is HSD?
Human systems dynamics (HSD) is an emerging field of research and practice that applies principles of complexity, nonlinear dynamics, and chaos theory to the study of groups of humans as they live and work in teams, organizations, and communities.
As people come together to work or play, to plan, or to make decisions, each brings myriad experiences, knowledge, and needs. These complicated and free agents interact with each other, resulting in patterns of behavior that emerge from the diversity of the group. Human systems dynamics is the study of those emergent patterns and what they can teach about productive possibilities for human action.
How is HSD different from other models?
Based on complex adaptive systems theory, HSD goes beyond the traditional, linear models of systems that rely on step-by-step planning and expectations. Linear models assume predictable environments and predictable outcomes with high levels of agreement and certainty. But such linear models of thinking and functioning break down in the unpredictable, emergent environments of today's social and economic systems. In contrast, HSD is an innovative way to think about organizations. It recognizes that most human systems evolve from complex interactions, so its descriptions better match reality of behavior and action in individual, group, organizational, and community behavior.
What distinguishes HSD from other fields in the social sciences?
Rather than using traditional characteristics like self-referencing cliques of practitioners or specialized tools and language, the HSD Institute defines itself by a short list of simple rules for personal and institutional interaction as well as for research and practice. The rules establish the agent-level behaviors that generate system-wide patterns of emergent growth and learning. There are six rules in the HSD Institute List of Simple Rules:
- Teach and learn in every interaction
- Reinforce strengths of self and others
- Search for the true and the useful
- Give and get value for value
- Attend to the part, the whole, and the greater whole
- Engage in joyful practice
Why would I use HSD in my practice or organization?
Use HSD to improve the viability and sustainability of your organization to:
- expand your options for understanding and action
- increase your capacity for adaptive work
- focus the work on what really matters
- improve communication
- reduce stress within your organization
Who benefits from HSD?
- CEO's and other leaders use HSD to understand and respond to the forces that shape their opportunities, such as unpredictable markets, information overload, and shifting demands for change from customers, stakeholders, and employees.
- Educational leaders use HSD to address ongoing, seemingly never-ending problems such as teacher retention, effective Board roles, behaviors and governance, effective parent support of learning, and meeting the needs of increasing numbers of diverse learners.
- Community leaders use HSD to develop a common language and understanding of their local and regional environments as they bring people together to address issues such as aging neighborhoods, decreasing revenues, and increasing need for social supports.
- Organizational change agents use HSD to assess organizational readiness, design interventions, implement action, and evaluate outcomes. HSD models and techniques work at all levels - individual, group, institution, and community - so they bring together diverse and previously divergent methods of understanding and action.
- Planners use HSD to see and describe the complex system, identify the critical constraints to growth, transition and change, and define the specific, do-able steps that free the system to continue to evolve in positive, productive ways. HSD helps generate innovative options that work around and through issues that are obstacles to traditional approaches.
- Evaluators use HSD to explore the ways in which organizations and groups are able to adapt in their own landscapes to maintain functionality. Understanding that organizational change emerges from multiple influences across time, their approach is to look at shifts and patterns that emerge as the organization meets its ongoing challenges.
How is HSD working?
- An international financial services firm used ideas from HSD to develop adaptive capacity of middle managers involved in operations and information systems development and support.
- A highly diversified international securities and investment company used HSD to develop more flexible planning techniques, increase leadership capacity, and improve communications across the organization and around the world.
- A large community hospital consistently earns the highest ratings for customer service and patient care in the US. They have been using the concepts and theories of complexity - a foundation of HSD - to examine their services and practices for the past five years.
- Counties in northern Minnesota used principles of HSD to establish and improve their processes for restorative justice and circle sentencing.
- Two major religious institutions used HSD to recognize and articulate the complex relationships, culture and behaviors at work and used it as a strategic tool to design and lead organizational change. One of these projects brought about change at an international level.
- A mid-sized school district used HSD principles to change their central office structure and function from the traditional 'mandate and then monitor' mindset to one of 'service and support.'
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