Improving conservation practice with principles and tools from systems thinking and evaluation

Achieving nature conservation goals require grappling with ‘wicked’ problems. These intractable problems arise from the complexity and dynamism of the social–ecological systems in which they are embedded. To enhance their ability to address these problems, conservation professionals are increasingly looking to the transdisciplines of systems thinking and evaluation, which provide philosophies, theories, methods, tools and approaches that show promise for addressing intractable problems in a variety of other sectors. These transdisciplines come together especially around praxis, i.e., the process by which a theory or idea is enacted, embodied or realized. We present a review and synthesis of the learnings about praxis that have emerged from The Silwood Group, a consortium of conservation professionals, professional evaluators, and complexity and systems thinkers. The Silwood Group believes that for conservation activities to achieve ambitious goals, we should benefit nature without compromising the well-being of people, and that framing a praxis for conservation in the context of social–ecological systems will provide the greatest potential for positive impact. The learnings are presented as four key principles of a ‘praxis for effective conservation’. The four principles are: (1) attend to the whole with humility; (2) engage constructively with the values, cultures, politics, and histories of stakeholders; (3) learn through evaluative, systemic enquiry, and (4) exercise wisdom in judgement and action. We also provide descriptions and references for tools and methods to support such praxis and discuss how the thinking and approaches used by conservation professionals can be transformed to achieve greater effectiveness

Examining the strategy development process through the lens of complex adaptive systems theory

The development of strategy remains a debate for academics and a concern for practitioners. Published research has focused on producing models for strategy development and on studying how strategy is developed in organisations. The Operational Research literature has highlighted the importance of considering complexity within strategic decision making; but little has been done to link strategy development with complexity theories, despite organisations and organisational environments becoming increasingly more complex. We review the dominant streams of strategy development and complexity theories. Our theoretical investigation results in the first conceptual framework which links an established Strategic Operational Research model, the Strategy Development Process model, with complexity via Complex Adaptive Systems theory. We present preliminary findings from the use of this conceptual framework applied to a longitudinal, in-depth case study, to demonstrate the advantages of using this integrated conceptual model. Our research shows that the conceptual model proposed provides rich data and allows for a more holistic examination of the strategy development process. © 2012 Operational Research Society Ltd. All rights reserved

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The United States as a whole is currently undergoing a crisis in medical care, primarily in terms of costs and capacity. One approach to solving these problems is to use paramedical personnel as part of an integrated delivery system, but in doing so one is likely to meet with behavioral and organizational obstacles. In this research, the degree to which different categories of medical and paramedical professionals are used in various organizations is measured and organizational factors leading to successful utilization identified. The study concentrates on medical systems within the United States armed forces, as these are systems relying extensively on paraprofessionals, where problems in utilization have been noted. Specifically the study determines those tasks currently performed by various paraprofessionals and compares this task list with perceived abilities, as determined by the paraprofessionals themselves, by their medical co-workers, and those persons who train the paraprofessionalssupported by funds from the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense, Manpower and Reserve Affairs, The Pentagon, Washington, D. C.http://archive.org/details/studiesofeffecti00giauApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Challenges in cyberspace: nation state threats and more

A panel discusses cyberspace security threats orchestrated by foreign governments. Maj. Gen. Charles Dunlap, USAF (Ret.) (Duke Law), host/introductions ; Shane Stansbury (Duke Law), moderator ; Richard Scott (Global Legal Investigations Manager at HP Inc.), Erin Wirtanen (Chief Counsel for the Center for Cyber Intelligence (CCI) for the Central Intelligence Agency), Jason Kellhofer (Asst. U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of N.C.), Mieke Eoyang (Vice President for Third Way\u27s National Security Program), speakers