##  [Chris McDermott - I see Social Practices, Social Practices everywhere! (Recap)](/event/deliberate-complexity-conferences-2022/chris-mcdermott) 

 *This talk was presented at **Deliberate Complexity Conferences - Building Successful Platforms and APIs** on 15 June. We are honoured to present the video recording and talk summary below. Enjoy!*

Visit our [talk recaps ToC page](/event/deliberate-complexity-conferences-building-successful-platforms-and-apis-2022) for an overview of all presentations!



 

 

 

  ### [**Chris McDermott**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisvmcd/)

*co-founder* at [Contextualise.co](https://www.linkedin.com/company/contextualise/)

### Chris' [**presentation** ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--aseXUoM_c)(video recording)



### Q&A

- *How does de-contextualising and then re-contextualising a practice relate to documentation? What would be the meaning of documentation in creating practices around a tool? Do agile practices make writing documentation more complex?*
- *The tension between practice and use/context?*
- *What is the difference between practice and process?*



 

 

### Complexity theory short introduction

> *"Before we dive into the murky waters of complex adaptive systems, what is a system? Parts that interact to meet a purpose. The parts that interact are interdependent."*

When thinking in systems, the emphasis shifts from the parts to the interactions of the parts. Complex (adaptive) systems are a type of non-ordered systems.

Key attributes of a complex system:  
\- Emergence  
\- Dispositionality  
\- Constraints  
\- Attractors

Most organizations are complex, socio-technical systems.

### How organizations approach change has been ineffective

To change an organization, the old framing to separately affect people, processes and technology is problematic: leads to crucially differing perspectives and activities in how to deliver change. The concurrent parts-approach:

- HR-lead (mindset, culture, company value statements, performance management) -- BUT!
    
    > *"looking at the interactions of the parts and integrating the other key fields or the cognition of how knowledge is acquired"*
- BizOps-lead (business process reengineering, target operating models) -- BUT!
    
    > *"the understanding of complex systems is distributed but we cannot just put all these pieces together to get a clear understanding of the whole system nor design a future state from there"*
- Propositional knowledge-based approach (digital transformation, codify rules, algorithmic decisions) -- BUT!
    
    > *"need humans in customer interactions to use heuristics and procedural knowledge and perspective"*

### Acting your way into a new way of thinking

> *"Anyone wanting to change a culture needs to define the actions and behaviors they desire, then design the work processes that are necessary to reinforce those behaviors." E. Schein*

- The example of NUMMI: changed the practice through a material (the chord), which then would evolve new values and attitudes, and create a different culture.
- Significantly change the meaning of work. Trophic cascade: the main predator in the environment changed and that allowed the behaviors to change.

### Practice as a central unit of analysis

A social practice is a reproducible, routinized shared behavior.  
\- Integrating Meaning, Material and Competence.  
\- Taste: know what good looks like - subjective.

A series of practices integrate together to create a Capability.  
Practices have an evolutionary cycle: proto-practice --» practice(changing in time) --» ex-practice.  
Re-contextualise: share a practice into a different context. Consider meaning, material and competence in the new environment.

Practice sensibility:

- How we believe we should act
- How we understand what affordances there are within our context that enable us to act and change how we act
- What competencies we have to act and how we might change them.

### How can practice theory help you see the world and make informed decisions about change

Maturity mapping: visualize practices for how good they are in their environment, and what change we might want to make to get better outcomes.

- Anchored in the needs of the customer.
- Position as a function of visibility towards customer (capability chain) and taste value (maturity from conceptual through best).
- Practice cards describing its purpose, tools used and how ‘well done’ looks like.

Shift the focus from the individuals to the practices. Work is a site of practices, where workers are practitioners.

> *"Transformation is the progressive accumulation of habits practices." Andrew Clay Shafer, Chris McDermott, Jabe Bloom*



 

 

 

 

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