How do we visualize the systemic relationships and context of organizations?

Throughout all my work, visual representations of systemic relationships bubble out of my brain and hands. Over time, I started to develop metaphors that work across different domains, mainly inspired by nature. I have become natures apprentice, learning from phenomena in ecosystems and applying them to my engineering, design, and community-building work.

Trees, roots, nutritional storage, soil, fruits, DNA, seeds. Just as plants require nutrients, have needs, and can be supportive or extractive, social systems have similar characteristics.

Big parts of this work arose during my master’s thesis and participatory design study on trans-disciplinary cooperation (more over 🔮 here).

The general idea: projects emerge and interconnect via sharing nutrients

I visualize projects as plants because our social structures take on a life force by themselves (see this marble on this 🔮 phenomenon). Furthermore, the components of a plant resemble the components of organizations that exist to grow certain fruits, need to maintain specific structures to do so, and require a wide range of nutrients.

Humans tend to their collective garden of projects while relating to each other

I thought about this framework for a long time. I wanted to find a visual that can depict the relationship between humans and also their project. I currently think of it as a garden, in which humans nurture their projects (plants) collectively. Regarding trans-disciplinary cooperation, the task will be to engage in communication that facilitates the growth of our plants and health human beings.

Visuals are very helpful to make sense of complexity

And visuals can help us understanding the interplay of heady concepts in living (complex) systems better

Read more about this drawing at 🔮 MMSHealthAutopoiesis.

Here is another way I use metaphors.

Yet the roots are very real. The global north draws nutrients from the global south to grow things somewhere else. Read more about this visual at 🔮 ROOTS-OF-RENEWABLES. This visual also relates to 🔮 Ethical Supply Chain Design.

How do all of these examples relate to other marbles I have on this site?

Almost all my concepts can be tied into this metaphorical visualization of plant structures.

The Just Transition Principles, for instance, are rooted in values such as “care, cooperation, and consent.” Once could think of such values as the DNA of a plant. Companies that uphold other values such as “growth” or “profit” re-plant this DNA as they plant seeds for new organizational structures. These values continue to live on in them. Read more about the DNA idea in the marble on 🔮 ontological primitives.

It is the most radical thing to go back to these value roots and approach building new regenerative systems from this perspective (see 🔮 RADICALNESS for more on what this means).

Using the plant as a way to visualize money assets and flows

Here are some notes on this topic: 🔮 MMSPlantMetaphorAppliedToMoney

METAPHORICAL-RELATIONSHIPS-OF-ORGS