Weekend Building Blocks - 15 SEPT 2017


There's no value in collecting blocks unless you're connecting them to build something awesome!
Parachuting cats. Silos in policing. Contagious suicide. Organizational change. Dirty fish tanks.
  1. Facing Complexity: Wicked Design Problems. Daniel Christian Wahl delves into "wicked" problems - “a class of social system problems which are ill-formulated, where the information is confusing, where there are many clients and decision makers with conflicting values, and where the ramifications of the whole system are thoroughly confusing.”  More specifically, Wahl addresses the role of "design" within the world of complexity, and the limits of "science." I have recently been spending a lot of time studying design...and I connected a lot of ideas through this piece!
  2. Silos - @WeCops Debate. Emma Williams and Ian Wiggett teamed up for this piece. Ian was a recent guest in a #WeCops Twitter chat on silos inside policing. Ian and Emma discuss how silos show up in policing - via shifts, specialty units, geography, or jurisdictional boundaries. I've long contended that the answer to breaking down silos is through systems thinkers (who tend to be generalists in mindset) in leadership positions.
  3. The Suicide Contagion: How the Effort To Combat Veterans' Suicide May Be Making It Worse. Adam Linehan goes into a dark place with this piece. What is the US military doing to address post-traumatic stress and suicide among veterans? Is it possible that the current programs in place might be actually making the problem worse? There is a similar trend among first responders like police officers, paramedics, and firefighters. I've long said that our well-intentioned efforts might just be (at least partly) responsible for the problem itself. And yes, I realize how unpopular that thought is.
  4. Organizational Change Built to Change. Paul Thoresen discusses Industry-Organizational Psychology and Organizational Design...and how the two can work together for sustained change. I can't help but consider how the movement of evidence-based practices and policy can be positively impacted by the thoughts within this article. There are lots of gold nuggets in this piece! 
  5. The "Dirty Fish Tank" training model and the modern method for developing leaders. Authors Craig Ross, Angie Paccione and Victoria Roberts criticize how leadership development programs essentially clean dirty fish, only to put the back into toxic environments and to work within poorly designed systems. What can we be doing to better align the various components of the systems at play to build a strong, healthy culture?
I appreciate you allowing me to make these recommendations to you each Friday.
    Lou Hayes, Jr.
    thinking & adapting like a Tactical Philosopher
    at The Illinois Model in Chicago.

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