Using causal loop diagrams to explore behavioural and socio-technical safety challenges

In 2021, the EI published a Research report: Achieving greater resilience to major events – Organisational learning for safety risk management in complex environments, which identified common contributory organisational and cultural deficiencies that led to 12 major process safety events. From that, a set of expectations of good practice was created that organisations can use to help identify weaknesses and make interventions to potentially avoid future organisational incidents.Following this, the EI Research report: Question-set to understand and evaluate socio-technical organisational resilience (QUESTOR) was published, in which a methodology was developed to help organisations identify potential shortfalls in meeting these expectations. Question sets were created, designed to assess the extent to which the expectations are being met in ‘operational reality’. This practical tool is aimed to be utilised by leaders, managers, ‘specialists’ and a sample of the workforce.The EI Research report: Using causal loop diagrams to explore behavioural and socio-technical safety challenges is a further continuation of the two previous reports, and builds upon the use of causal loop diagrams (CLDs) as a tool for organisations to identify, and understand, vulnerabilities that lead to failures within complex work systems, as well as model interventions that aim to prevent these vulnerabilities being introduced.The purpose of the report is to demonstrate how CLDs might be used by teams to model the causes of incidents (perhaps even before incidents have occurred if vulnerabilities are found proactively, such as by using the QUESTOR tool) so that interventions might be designed that can effectively tackle these, without introducing unexpected and undesirable consequences.The intended audience of this report includes health, safety and environment (HS&E) managers, senior leaders, and others who may have responsibility for auditing and measuring safety performance within organisations

Playing out diplomacy : Gamified realization of future skills and discipline-specific theory

Future horizons, shaped by unpredictable ecosystems and exponential automation, require discipline-specific as well as transdisciplinary skills to navigate. In the context of political science education, negotiation simulations, for example in the form of board games, can aid in developing both. As a plausibility probe for wider investigations, we set out to research whether an International Relations course concept utilizing the classical board game Diplomacy with pedagogically altered rules and gaming conditions enhances students’ (n = 23) understanding of discipline-specific knowledge and future skills. We utilized a conceptual pre-post measure as well as free-form learning diaries to investigate development in participants’ conceptual understanding and future skills along the course. The results tentatively suggest quantifiable and qualitatively observable changes in the discipline-specific conceptual, as well as more broad-based competence level. The gamified learning environment provided students with an activating and engaging learning environment that better acquainted them not only with discipline-specific theory, but more importantly, also with skills regarded important for their future.Peer reviewe

Integrating Artificial Intelligence into Creativity Education: Developing a Creative Problem-Solving Course for Higher Education

This project aims to develop an introductory college course that integrates Artificial Intelligence (AI) to enhance the Creative Problem Solving (CPS) process. Drawing on best practices for teaching CPS and the latest research of AI, the project outcomes are prototypes of a Master Course Development Document, Student Syllabus, and Lesson Plan with accompanying PowerPoint slides. The course will equip students with the knowledge and skills to apply AI techniques to the CPS process. This project aims to begin to bridge the gap between AI and CPS education, preparing students for the demands of the modern workforce while fostering interdisciplinary thinking

Strategic Consequences: How Executive and Organizational Decision-Making Impacts the Outcome of Unconventional Warfare

Conventional academic discussion vis-à-vis America’s Special Operations Forces, is largely focused at the tactical and operational level of analysis. This means the emphasis on explaining outcomes is placed on personnel (recruiting, assessing, selecting, and training), cutting edge equipment, innovative tactics, or advanced command and control procedures. Addressing this long-standing trend, I argue that factors well beyond the widely accepted explanations for success or failure are in play. Additionally, these factors are understandable, are manageable, and may have as great or greater an impact on the outcome of a campaign as any tactical consideration. Using the narrowly defined and discrete special operations mission of Unconventional Warfare (UW) as a platform, this dissertation looks beyond the traditional explanations to expand our understanding of the role that executive level organizations play in achieving success or failure. The central research question is: How do the organizational actions at the executive level of government impact the success or failure of unconventional warfare? This study builds from a foundation of five hypotheses that each attempt to address a segment of the totality of the question and form a complete answer. The hypotheses include – decentralizing control, intent coherence across stakeholders, a unified effort from those stakeholders, continuity in key personnel, and the impact of the President’s attitude toward special operations. Analyzing the cases with a combination of index scoring, key aspects of Lay Epistemic and Groupthink Theory, and contextual deconstruction in the spirit of critical hermeneutics, provided the intellectual rigor to substantiate the findings. Ultimately, the evidence demonstrates that Intent Coherence is a necessary condition for a successful outcome. Unity of Effort is also necessary but is pinned to intent coherence. Delegation is important and considered a sufficient condition because it contributes to the likelihood of success. The findings also confirm the validity of the key aspects of Groupthink Theory and Lay Epistemics / Cognitive Closure. Key Words: Unconventional Warfare, Decision-Making, Strategy, Policy, Syria, Guatemala, Bay of Pigs, Cuba, Angola, Tibet. Recommended Citation.: Joseph E. Osborne (2020), Strategic Consequences: How Executive and Organizational Decision-Making Impacts the Outcome of Unconventional Warfare, PhD Dissertation, Kennesaw State Universit

Shall we play a game?

In response to real and perceived short-comings in the quality and productivity of software engineering practices and projects, professionally-endorsed graduate and post-graduate curriculum guides have been developed to meet evolving technical developments and industry demands. Each of these curriculum guidelines identifies better software engineering management skills and soft, peopleware skills as critical for all graduating students, but they provide little guidance on how to achieve this. One possible way is to use a serious game — a game designed to educate players about some of the dynamic complexities of the field in a safe and inexpensive environment. This thesis presents the results of a qualitative research project that used a simple game of a software project to see if and how games could contribute to better software project management education; and if they could, then what features and attributes made them most efficacious. That is, shall we— should we— play games in software engineering management? The primary research tool for this project was a game called Simsoft. Physically, Simsoft comes in two pieces. There is an A0-sized printed game board around which the players gather to discuss the current state of their project and to consider their next move. The board shows the flow of the game while plastic counters are used to represent the staff of the project. Poker chips represent the team’s budget, with which they can purchase more staff, and from which certain game events may draw or reimburse amounts depending on decisions made during the course of the game. There is also a simple Java-based dashboard, through which the players can see the current and historical state of the project in a series of reports and messages; and they can adjust the project’s settings. The engine behind Simsoft is a system dynamics model which embodies the fundamental causal relationships of simple software development projects. In Simsoft game sessions, teams of students, and practicing project managers and software engineers managed a hypothetical software development project with the aim of completing the project on time and within budget (with poker chips left over). Based on the starting scenario of the game, information provided during the game, and their own real-world experience, the players made decisions about how to proceed— whether to hire more staff or reduce the number, what hours should be worked, and so on. After each decision set had been entered, the game was run for another next time period, (a week, a month, or a quarter). The game was now in a new state which the players had to interpret from the game board and decide how to proceed. The findings showed that games can contribute to better software engineering management education and help bridge the pedagogical gaps in current curriculum guidelines. However, they can’t do this by themselves and for best effect they should be used in conjunction with other pedagogical tools. The findings also showed that simple games and games in which the players are able to relate the game world to an external context are the most efficacious

COmmunication is RObust when NAtions Come Together: The Importance of Collaboration during a Global Crisis

In times of global unprecedented circumstances, people realise more than ever the importance of communication and interaction. The human mind is an ever-ending source of creativity and determination to keep communicating against all odds. In an era when the global population is on lockdown, humans need to react to this situation and find means that still bring them together and help continue educating, innovating and communicating

Engaged decision making:From team knowledge to team decisions

In the knowledge economy, teams play a central role in decisions made within and across organisations. The reason why teams with diverse compositions are often used is arguably their ability to develop solutions that none of their members could have produced alone. Systems design, strategy and policy development, risk management, and innovation are just a few of the areas that call for team decisions. Unfortunately, a considerable number of behavioural research studies show that teamwork is fraught with difficulties. Teams often underestimate their fallibility, struggle with conflict, or are unable to share and integrate critical information effectively. Indeed, the evidence shows that two out of three teams do not achieve their goals and half of organisational decisions – many of which are team decisions – fail.In this book, the authors draw from research in psychology, decision and systems sciences – as well as their own research and consulting work that spans more than 20 years – to show how designed interventions can enable team decision making to become rigorous, transparent, and defensible. They cover theory and practice regarding the design, delivery, and evaluation of interventions to support team decision making in situations of varied complexity. Written as an applied resource for researchers and advanced students in particular, this book offers a guide to proven interventions that enhance the process of making team decisions and increase the chances of superior team results

Engaged decision making:From team knowledge to team decisions

In the knowledge economy, teams play a central role in decisions made within and across organisations. The reason why teams with diverse compositions are often used is arguably their ability to develop solutions that none of their members could have produced alone. Systems design, strategy and policy development, risk management, and innovation are just a few of the areas that call for team decisions. Unfortunately, a considerable number of behavioural research studies show that teamwork is fraught with difficulties. Teams often underestimate their fallibility, struggle with conflict, or are unable to share and integrate critical information effectively. Indeed, the evidence shows that two out of three teams do not achieve their goals and half of organisational decisions – many of which are team decisions – fail.In this book, the authors draw from research in psychology, decision and systems sciences – as well as their own research and consulting work that spans more than 20 years – to show how designed interventions can enable team decision making to become rigorous, transparent, and defensible. They cover theory and practice regarding the design, delivery, and evaluation of interventions to support team decision making in situations of varied complexity. Written as an applied resource for researchers and advanced students in particular, this book offers a guide to proven interventions that enhance the process of making team decisions and increase the chances of superior team results