creativity

Protecting your innovative work

/ Pauline Roberts / 3 Comments
Image by Pete Linforth from Pixabay

As a systems thinking practitioner who has developed original ideas and work, the notion of Intellectual Property (IP) has often been at the forefront of my mind. I have fallen down some ‘holes’ in the past where I have overshared work and am now suffering the consequences. I have, however, been savvy enough to register my work with UK copyright services at multiple stages of its development. For example, the development of Creating the Conditions for Change© was registered right back from when it was in the early stages of ‘Situation problem structuring using a blended systems thinking approach’. This includes the development of my systemic inquiry framework, which is the most downloaded document from my website, closely followed by the Creating the Conditions for Change© booklet and Creating the Conditions for Change© progress update booklet. My narratives are registered, as are my diagrams and my workshop designs. A wise person, back in 2016 when I started my business, told me to log them at various stages of development to demonstrate how the work has progressed, which I did.

I would like to give newer practitioners some advice about protecting your own original ideas and work. You are surrounded by people who can benefit from your ideas, so you need to be as savvy as them about the value your work holds.

A useful blog

Firstly, I would recommend this blog by Professor Inger Mewburn (2022) that I have recently come across. It is about PhD students, but the precautions are somewhat relevant to systems practitioners creating original work/ ideas: https://thesiswhisperer.com/2022/04/05/defending-the-originality-of-your-phd-research/

Originality

As a practitioner, it is entirely feasible for you to independently create original work. In the world of academia, people would be worried about someone taking the ideas and publishing them first, therefore taking away the claim of originality. As a practitioner, you must also consider this. Practitioners are generally not affiliated with a university. Therefore, publishing your ideas is more difficult, particularly if you want them to be open access. This can have huge costs which render this option not feasible. Therefore, it is entirely possible for you to create original work and ideas, share them (because you want people to benefit from them) and then someone write up a version of them academically. The barrier to writing up officially for practitioners is something I had not contemplated when I first started out, so this is something practitioners should be aware of.

Sharing your ideas

So, does this mean that we should not share our ideas? No, it doesn’t mean that. It just means that you need to be careful if you want to protect your work. As stated in the blog above, ‘You can’t protect an idea under copyright law – you can only protect a form it takes’ (Mewburn, 2022). Even if you write your idea down, it doesn’t stop others from taking it and running with it themselves, but it can help you to evidence copying if you need to do that at any stage.

What if you want to take your ideas into an academic context – i.e. a doctorate?

As stated in the blog, if you have over shared, it would be difficult to then shift your work into a more formal academic form (i.e. a peer reviewed journal) (Mewburn, 2022). As a practitioner, if you do not immediately go down an academic route, prepare to have your ideas used and written up by anyone. Of course, we can choose to share our work openly and ask people to develop our ideas but there is one precaution – many practitioners have asked me about becoming a consultant, as I have. To do this, it is your original ideas that give you your unique selling point. You have to market them but once you have, they are open for anyone to run with. The answer – do not over share. Give only that which is required to spark interest and keep the more developed things to yourself if you aim to use them in consultancy or if you want your ideas recognised. In the past, I have ‘thought out loud’ far too often because I did not know the pitfalls.. Yes, you are stuck in a bind: you want your work to be recognised, so you share, and then you risk losing control of it. Make your choices wisely.

Collaborating with others

Again, as the blog states, in academia there are rules around collaboration so that the creator of the work is recognised as such (Mewburn, 2022). As practitioners, we have no such protection. One of the ways people can be exposed to your work is by claiming to want to collaborate with you (or they want you to do a talk about your work). Once you have let your ideas out, your competitive advantage disappears, especially if others have larger work networks than you. My advice to practitioners is to ‘beware the love bombers!’. When you are a new practitioner, you want to be seen, so are likely to be more willing to fall for the requests for collaboration or for talks and sharing. If you share, do so wisely. Not everyone is your friend.

Summary

This is the start of work I am doing to bring awareness to systems thinking practitioners about the pitfalls of creating original ideas and work. I have made the mistakes so that you do not have to. In short:

  • Write you work up. I took my blogs and turned them into a self-published book to secure my ideas into one place.
  • If you think you want to make money from your ideas, copyright them. In reality, it is unlikely to stop others taking them but it does give you an evidence trail if you should ever need it.
  • Don’t over share. If it is valuable, be wise about who you share it with.
  • If you think you might want to go down an academic route, do so sooner rather than later. Learn about the idea of ‘original work’ and take any precautions you might need to take.
  • Beware of collaborations where the power dynamic is imbalanced. If you cannot keep control of how your own work is used in the collaboration, then the power dynamic is imbalanced.

Systems thinking practitioners can be leaders in the field but we need to be savvy about the pitfalls that can harm us.

Reference

Mewburn, I (2022) ‘How to stop your ideas from being ‘stolen’’ Available at: https://thesiswhisperer.com/2022/04/05/defending-the-originality-of-your-phd-research/ (Accessed 18/01/25)

Systems thinking practitioners – thinking of writing a book?

/ Pauline Roberts / Leave a comment

In May 2023, I released my book, ‘Crossing the bridge: A practitioner’s learning journey into systems thinking and Creating the Conditions for Change’. It is a clear, non-technical and practical guide to how to start applying systems thinking ideas in an organisational setting, which I self-published through Kindle Direct Publishing.

Putting systems thinking into practice can be like crossing a precarious bridge. We never quite know when it is going to collapse below us. Even our best efforts can see us come up against unexpected challenges and obstacles. We need to practise, iterate, and practise again. It is often a jaunt into the unknown and part of our systems thinking practitioner skillset is to have trust in the journey. On this occasion, the journey I had to trust was the journey towards writing a book. I would like to encourage other practitioners to get their stories heard. As such, I’m going to summarise some insights from the process that might be useful to you.

Why did I decide to write the book?

This is an easy one to answer. I was acutely aware that the extent of my systems practice experience was valuable. My blogs were being viewed by thousands of people across the world. However, not having a PhD meant I had no affiliation with a university (despite working for one) and therefore, no ‘official’ way to share my insights. I was also contacted by someone who alerted me to attempts being made to dampen my voice. They gave me some wise advice which I immediately put into practice. I contemplated that anyone trying to keep me quiet was clearly scared. That meant not only did I have something to say but that it was potentially powerful. Instead of getting angry about what I heard, I decided instead to channel my energy into making sure the story of my deep learning journey was recorded. Hence, I wrote the book. Those who tried to harm me were the catalyst for the energy it took to engage in the writing process. This is my first point for you – writing a book takes sustained energy. If you have passion, use it creatively to encourage yourself to embark on the journey.

Getting started

What are you passionate about? What do you want to say? This is where I started. I was passionate because I was not about to let anyone erase my story or the link between certain insights and my learning. I knew what I wanted to say and immediately made a note of the key messages I wanted to share. I also considered  how I wanted people to feel when they read the book. I made a note of the key ethos of the book and the style of writing I wanted to engage in.

Theory/ practice/ story? What is your book?

This was quite hard to pin down and took a few iterations. I knew I wanted an engaging story. I also wanted people to see where my insights had come from and with that, to experience the learning journey that I had been on. I wrote a short description of the book, then a longer paragraph, then what I wanted it achieve, who my target audience were, what questions I sought to answer and the style and tone I would use.

Giving your book structure

Once I had the key ethos of the book, I started to decide on the structure. I had it in my mind like three acts of a play. Within each act were a series of chapters. I penned out the acts, the chapters, what messages I wanted to give in each chapter. I then decided which stories about my learning journey would give the key messages I wanted to share. Then came the number of pages and wordcount, so I could gauge whether I had enough content.

Using previous writing in the book

If you are self-publishing, as I did, you are in control so you can use what you want. I used a lot of my past blogs. Blogs can give valuable insights away and yet rarely do they get attributed to the author. I wanted to put mine together in a more formalised way. I also included some new content, for those who follow me and would be looking for something new/ additional. Don’t let your thoughts or writing go to waste – turn them into something.

Use an editor/ copywriter/ all-round advisor

I was extremely lucky in this respect. A good friend and ex colleague was now offering this service. We had worked together. She was part of my journey. There really was no better person to guide me. I would advise that even if you are self-publishing, this role is critical. Choose wisely. I got advice on style, making messages clearer, structure and most importantly….where I did not make sense to outside eyes and ears! It is easy to get so wrapped up in your writing that it only makes sense to you. The money this element costs is worth every penny and I would never embark on writing another book without this support.

Getting others to read your work

I also got friends to read the draft book. Friends who were not in my world of work. I didn’t tell them much about the book before they read it. I wanted to know what came across to them. Reconciling their feedback with what I had intended the key insights to be was crucial.

It is a long process

Writing your book is the easy part. Organising it, formatting it, getting it reviewed, making changes, tweaking, changing, repeating the formatting is a long process. You have to be dedicated and not be afraid to deal with the details. I always knew I could write the book (I have been writing short stories for years and love to write). I never thought I could understand the requirements of the self-publishing process. This was where my editor and advisor was an absolute gem. She helped me locate materials to guide me through the process.

Will people buy your book?

Don’t expect huge sales if you self-publish, especially if you are aiming at a specialist market, as I was.  I got an early influx of sales and then it tailed off to a steady trickle. I don’t think I need to say here that you do not benefit from the full price of the book but instead receive a royalty. Unless you are a well known writer selling thousands of books, it isn’t going to make you money. It is better to be doing your writing for other reasons.

Was it worth it?

100% yes. I felt myself develop and grow during the process in two different ways. Firstly, my systems practice grew and developed as I went through the reflective process and recognised how far I had travelled. Secondly, writing a book itself was new to me and so I develop new skills along the way. For me, it was a life changing experience that I enjoyed and when I have the time and space, further books will emerge.

Why is it important that systems practitioners write books

I believe practitioners are the ones with the great systems thinking insights and in some cases, I know this for sure. They do not, however, have enough recognised outlets to share them. Without an affiliation to a university, academic publishing can be difficult. It is not acceptable, in my perspective, to believe that it is only academics who create, have insights or lead in the field. This is not always the case. They just have more outlets (journals etc) to make it look like the case. In my work and experiences, practitioners are at the cutting edge of systems practice. They are insightful, creative and moving things forwards. They just need the outlets to put their stuff out into the world. Self-publishing was, for me, one of the easiest ways to do it.

My final message

This is a short and direct message: If you are at all interested in writing, do it. Don’t hesitate and enjoy every minute of it.  

Set your creativity free

/ Pauline Roberts / Leave a comment

Visionary thinking and creative insight does not always come from being an academic. I have spoken and written many times about the creativity and insight of those applying systems thinking in their everyday work. They generally aren’t sat at computers writing journal articles, paying for them to be published or going through grueling peer review processes. They aren’t always the ones spending hours writing books or even blogs like this one. They are just getting on with things and generating incredible insights along the way. They are not just the thinkers or the creators. They are the ones who can turn abstract ideas into reality, a skill in its own league, the significance of which is often overlooked.

Sadly, no matter how much experience you have, how good you are at your craft, how many qualifications you have, if you do not enter into the archaic labyrinth that is academic publishing, you generally don’t exist and nor will you ever. You will never be quoted, referenced or referred to because it isn’t the done thing in academia to make reference to the work of a ‘non-academic’. So, as a practitioner what do you do? Keep your insights to yourself? Just use them for personal use and don’t share? I guess that would be the easy way but I do not think it is the right way. I think all of the systems practitioners out there who do not sit in an academic context need to have their insights, creativity and wise and sometimes daring application showcased.

I would love to see a ‘festival of systems practice’ that was not devised, designed, engineered, hosted or controlled by people with an academic or even a consultancy background. Consultants often collaborate with academics, which I discuss in the book ‘Crossing the Bridge’ (2023). Together they have dominance in the field. A festival of practice for internal agents is what is on my mind – those using systems thinking in the work place, usually without the title of ‘systems thinking practitioner’ and/ or without projects specifically badged as systems thinking. A festival that demonstrates their embodiment of systems thinking concepts and ideas. I can, however, already envisage the unintended consequences of showcasing such creative brilliance. I would, however, like to see it not just happen, but become the established norm with a new system of recognising new insights generated by the systems practitioner. Insights which do not have to be written up in an antiquated, cumbersome process of academic publishing.

Reference:

Roberts, P (2023) ‘Crossing the Bridge: A practitioner’s learning journey into systems thinking and Creating the Conditions for Change’ UK: Kindle direct publishing

This is my 100th blog on being a systems thinking practitioner and the insights the application and my journey have created.

The introverted systems thinker

/ Pauline Roberts / 1 Comment

It’s Sunday morning and I’m in my favourite place – my office. It’s warm and cosy. I’m surrounded by personal artefacts that have great meaning. I have plants and ambient lighting. I have a window and I can see trees and bushes and I can hear the birds on my roof. I have my books and my notepads and pens. I have music and my computer and I am doing the things that give me most joy (alongside swimming, which is my other love) – reading, learning and writing. My creative brain is alive and the possibilities endless.

I have just watched a TED talk by Susan Cain (2012) on the power of introverts and my heart came alive at the words, ‘put yourself in the zone of stimulation that works for you’. This……this place and this time is my place of stimulation and I love it. I love my solitude where I can think and contemplate and create.

But I am also a little frustrated. I am frustrated because consistently and persistently people tell me to ‘go out more’ ‘do more’ ‘be with people more’. But these things do not bring me pleasure. I usually just spend my time looking at the time, wondering when I can escape. I’m not shy, I don’t fear social judgement. Nor am I antisocial. I don’t hate people and there is nothing wrong with me. I just prefer my own zone of stimulation – my comfortable places where I can quietly contemplate.

I am often expected by others to be loud, prominent, be the talker in the room and yes, at times, I have to be this person to be able to do my work. This is not, however, my zone of comfort. As a systems thinker, I am cognizant of embracing multiple perspectives. So, who is considering my perspective? Who is allowing the more introverted systems thinkers to shine? Who is asking them what they think? Not many, I can tell you. Instead the masses prefer those with a charismatic personality, the talkers who seem to be taking action. But action without contemplation, as Cain (2012) tells us is not always the best way and those with the biggest voices are not generally those who get the best result.

So what happens when an introvert creates something exciting or gets big results? Disbelief, that’s what. People didn’t see where it came from, so they can’t believe it. Sadly, this is a common thing to see in workplaces. The challenge I put forward today is, who is listening to the introverted systems thinkers? Who is appreciating their creativity and who is inviting them in, in a way that works for them, rather than it only working for you? Imagine how much you are missing if you don’t create the right conditions for a more diverse group of thinkers, whose creativity emerges in different ways.

Reference Cain, S. (2012) The power of introverts Available at: https://www.ted.com/talks/susan_cain_the_power_of_introverts?subtitle=en