Communiplexity Party Chat

I realized I said more to people about this last night than I explained in my paper, so I better add some details about this.

The Complexity class ended last night "officially," while everyone wants to keep on meeting and doing things. Course we are all staying for next semester too. Last night we had a paper due where we needed to link the concepts with our own personal lives and experiences . . . so of course Thursday I got another giant project that George has fought with the county for over 2 years. It's on Delany Creek again where we did Long Pond, the Mall and the track south of it; so it's funny how it's finally coming to me now . . .

I mean just the river model is enough complexity already. It is actually simulating a natural system . . . where every drop of rain (over 52 inches/year here in Tampa) runs across the ground into a pipe and then to the creek out to Tampa Bay, the Gulf, a lake or other impoundment. Each pipe, ditch, and bridge acts as an individual "Agent" measured and calculated for changing the complex flow of the water. The river model itself becomes a very complex system of Agents where each piece is simulated by the water flow equations one after the other in the linear flow from where the first rain drop hits the ground to where ever the drop finally stops moving.

It is almost like the river is a community of Agents where the water itself might be the information or resources transferred from agent to agent in the community. In the natural environment of the river the flow of water is governed by gravity. The water will always flow downhill. Surprising enough I've seen engineering designs where they intend the water to flow uphill. This seems to represent the extreme complexity of the system, where something so obvious is overlooked because of the shear multitude of other components that must be simultaneously addressed.

The 33 square mile model of Delany Creek is a simple text file read by a computer program that includes over 14,000 lines of data, which represents 1200 pipes or channels, 358 creek sections, 611 weirs, 1200 nodes and 468 ponds. Each of these elements includes a list of characteristics and measurements that change the flow of water, most commonly determined by a professional survey company. Surprising enough many engineers seem to think this can all be controlled just as easily as they control a pipe and pond on a small commercial site or subdivision. However, this is a dynamic flow model, which means it will simulate the water flow as well as the wave actions created when the different water flows combine and create backflows, surface waves and flooding.

Thus it is truly a dynamic living model of the systems of water flow controlled by a multitude of Agents - 3837 Agents in Delany Creek. Bringing this engineering system into a Complexity perspective is what I wrote about in this assignment, see attached:

http://groups.google.com/group/community_sustainability_complexity/

Communiplexity Position Statement

A personally, academically and / or professionally-informed perspective on communities as complex adaptive systems, integrating knowledge generated over the course of the semester with understanding developed through scholarship in one’s “discipline of origin” and lived experience.

The first reading we reviewed from the Plexus Institute[1] really set the stage for our exploration of this semester's Complexity Seminar. I had just completed the Capstone Class for my MBA which included a Market Analysis and Strategic Plan for a local company. However, this class began where "they didn't believe in the strategic plans they wrote because the future was not as predictable as it was depicted in the plans... Complexity science offered an opportunity to explore an alternative world view.[2] Thus, escaping the Newtonian conception of the world was the first task to undertake. After nearly 20 years of working as an engineer this is a difficult task, but I welcomed the challenge.Complexity Science is based on relationships and context which allows for the emergence of self-organization.[3] Different patterns and relationships emerge from complex systems much like we all have seen in the unpredictable growth of Ants and Broccoli in nature. In this class I recognized that the sustainable aspects of nature might be primarily a result of the Complex Adaptive System which we see in much of nature. This inspired me further to understand and explore how emergence can bring change and innovation into organized systems.

This perspective gave me a new insight into my professional work as well. River modeling is a very complex system in engineering where a great multitude of components interact and combine together to create the whole system. Recognizing how any aspect of this complex whole can be instrumental in creating consistency is fundamental for successful modeling. I routinely compare simulations where one entity is changed from maximum to minimum values to understand the effects on the entire system. Similarly, each Agent in any other CAS we find can be instrumental in creating success or failure. Distinguishing how each agent interacts and what they can bring or take away from the CAS can be critical. We do not always have the freedom to adjust how an Agent impacts from maximum and minimum values as I can in the engineering of river models. However, if we are mindful enough of events to understand and note the influences demonstrated we can encourage specific agents and see new emergence in ways we want.

During much of this semester we studied and reviewed how Complexity Science has developed and what the current research has shown. Developing Agent Based Models has also been conceptually covered. Again my engineering background has been very valuable to improve my understanding of how these models and theories apply to the community systems around us. Understanding the Agents influence on the emergence of new properties is what makes me a good river modeler since I know how changing one component can affect the entire system. After years of modeling I have developed a "feeling" for how things changed in any river. The engineering experience shows that changing a specific agent must change other system components, but this "feeling" from experience has proven to be a better asset in modeling.

For example, I have recently been hired to address a critical flooding issue on a piece of property near Brandon. The owner has the property under contract for sale, and during the "due diligence process" before the final sale, the county suddenly changed the flood data for the property putting it into the flood zone. Thus, the land was suddenly not saleable. This is actually a situation that is very common in Florida, though most people are not in the middle of a sales contract when the flood zone changes, and it becomes critically apparent. Here the complex dynamics between the relationship of regulation, data collection and modeling for public safety suddenly collided with a private sales contract.

The parties involved hired attorneys and confronted the county administrators to bring this issue to the forefront. In this area of government regulation the data and compilation of the data is very critical. Therefore, the county dispatched a new survey crew to measure the mile of creek involved to get new data for the model and verify the change in the flood elevation. They then hired another engineering firm to compile the new data into the river model. When I received the completed work submitted to the property owner I began reproducing the model changes. Again the accuracy and integrity of the data and compilation of the data is critical. Each separate “Agent” in this system can be critical to success or failure. This figure shows a typical comparison of the new model section (no. 210291) where it is partially accurate with this surveyed creek cross-section data (x-sect1), while the hatched area shows how the right part of the creek was excluded from the model. This might seem like a minor error, but for a mile of creek this will be very significant. Once again I know from experience that this highly complex model will have a considerable impact with the change of this single "agent."

Additionally, the complexity of the River Model is one tiny aspect of the problem. The politics of the Engineering firm’s relationship with the County comes to bear as well. Evidently this particular engineering firm had become complacent where accuracy is no longer critical. As the previous figure shows there are differences between the proposed model and the actual county survey data. Making these corrections alone dropped the water surface elevation (WSEL) over 2 feet on the property as noted in this table below.

Further, the dynamics between the owner, the engineer and county; their relationships with each other and my own personal technical skills all added to make this a more complex system trying to resolve this flooding issue. The Engineers are in the middle of the issue between the Owner and the County, where the model, survey data and resulting flood elevations can lead to the sale of the property.

At this time I was consulted by the owner’s staff to address this situation. My first response was to check the survey (as indicated at left) this consequence allow for the recovery of buildable land with the model. This led to planning a new site permits based on the new flood elevation. Now we can make it work, or at least I can give them the limits for them to make it work.

This application of Complexity Science to engineering results in the emerging of a new property ready to be built on. Here in Tampa Bay I do not think we need anymore shopping centers, condos or anything like this. However, the economy will bring these new creations into our community. Possibly these new studies and understanding into the new complexity techniques emerging in our community can change this. This might become a new Lowes, or Publix, or maybe more condos and another hotel and a Home Depot too? The complexity I deal with in the engineering models makes it easier for them to build more. This inspires me to explore another more complex system about how the community interacts with the zoning and permitting to allow this construction to be planned.

How the community interacts with Zoning and Permitting introduces a completely new level of complexity to this evaluation. I see each aspect of the environment and how participants interact expands the complexity. This encourages me to explore and study the new relationships of these agents to define this larger system. What other Agents and relationships are involved? All of these have a significant impact on the environment where construction on the land also creates adverse impact on the flora, fauna and water. This brings me back to the River Models and engineering. These models don't account for the flora and fauna in any too well; however the growth and diversity in the flora and fauna are signals to the quality of the water. Again this adds another new level of complexity to this system. Modeling the flood stage is necessary for construction which impacts the flora and fauna by the derogated water supplies. If my engineering couldn't help save the environment maybe exploring the emerging complexity applications with the relationships of permitting and zoning will.

[Footnotes]

[1] A Complexity Science Primer: What is Complexity Science and Why Should I Learn About It? Adapted From: Edgeware: Lessons From Complexity Science for Health Care Leaders, by Brenda Zimmerman, Curt Lindberg, and Paul Plsek, 1998, Dallas, TX: VHA Inc.

[2] Ibid. p 2

[3] Ibid. p 3

new post

not sure what to do yet but checking it out....
thanks
erw

TUT... A Note from the Universe

The greatest predicament of living in the jungles of time and space, Eric, is learning to be happy while still having unfulfilled dreams.

The greatest challenge, is not looking to the illusions for meaning, definition, and answers.

The greatest mystery, is figuring out who you really are.

And the greatest reward, Eric, of living in the jungles of time and space, is having predicaments, challenges, and mysteries that you have absolutely aced, crushed, and unraveled.

Lucky you,
The Universe

Watch "Nutricide - Criminalizing Natural Health, Vitamins, and Herbs"

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Nutricide - Criminalizing Natural Health, Vitamins, and Herbs



Description: The Codex Alimentarius is a threat to the freedom of people to choose natural healing and alternative medicine and nutrition. Ratified by the World Health Organization, and going into Law in the United States in 2009, the threat to health freedom has never been greater. This is the first part of a series of talks by Dr. Rima Laibow MD, available on DVD from the Natural Solutions Foundation, an non-profit organization dedicated to educating people about how to stop Codex Alimentarius from taking away our right to freely choose nutritional health.

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HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Case Study:

An employee (Joe) was hired as a Senior Engineer on contract to resolve a flooding issue affecting what is now known as the Emerald Greens Golf and Country Club of Carrollwood Village. The manager who hired Joe petitioned the executive staff of the large corporation, over 10,000 people, to wave the pay scale limitations for the job position description. Joe completed the job, and subsequently was hired full time in their Planning Department, and then moved to the Fiscal Department. During the six years employed at the offices in downtown Tampa, Joe had the opportunity to be involved in a multiplicity of duties providing a broad level of interaction with different systems corporation wide. This included stormwater infrastructure design, client meetings, site inspection visits, permitting meetings, staff coordination, budgeting, preparing procedure manuals, websites and training other staff amongst other duties.

It was a critical time for change both in the company and the nation as a whole. The internet was suddenly opened to the public with the development of the web browser and the simultaneous onslaught of inexpensive personal computers. Every firm was struggling to get into this new digital paradigm to exploit the new opportunities. As a stormwater engineer, specializing in one of the most used and accepted infrastructure computer modeling software programs, Joe was accustomed to arriving at a new firm and upgrading their computer infrastructure before beginning to work. This new company soon discovered this and was intent on utilizing all his skills and contacts throughout their operations.

Within months of being hired as a full time staff engineer, Joe was contacted by a senior manager who was exploring the new internet technologies. As a director in a separate public service charity at the local university, Joe was also in deep discussions with the university senior technological staff about the new opportunities the internet afforded the university. The company soon sent Joe back to college driving a company truck, all expenses paid with a flexible schedule allowing part time classes and contract negotiation opportunities. The hope was that Joe could organize the company's new technology infrastructure after the digital technology processes the university had tested and implemented.

It was an exciting time, with great opportunities and experiences unfolding every day. Joe created the first company website, doubled his department's digital infrastructure budget, trained staff on new automation techniques and enjoyed the freedom to attend day classes and debate new technologies over lunch with university officials. He soon had the first company laptop, the newest Window NT Server Computer and was scheduled to get a new company vehicle. Suddenly, he got an interesting phone call from another department. This manager called to say he was the network administrator in the Information Technology Department (ITS) and wanted the new server shut off immediately. Joe laughed. The Novel technologies in the ITS department were fine for email, but still light-years behind the superior technologies in Planning for web development. Joe knew quite well that it would be months before ITS could get anything online and all his equipment and activities were approved by the highest levels in the company.

But something about this phone call seemed a little odd to Joe. Not just the audacity of some clown from another department trying to stop what the Planning Department Director authorized and funded him to do. Joe backed up all his emails, dating from the very first day he started, and even made disk copies to take home. This was all still on the ITS network so who knows what could happen. Then he even printed it all out sitting by the printer until the wee hours of the morning. Security staff recognized Joe, since his odd hours with school had him dropping in late at night on more than one occasion. He left with what must have been 2 reams of paper under his arm after 3am.

When Joe arrived the next day after lunch his immediate supervisor called him into his office. The last time Joe had even spoken to this supervisor it was about customizing some software on his machine. Joe rarely ever saw him and the last three performance reviews defined goals of meeting Director's initiative for automating the department. This supervisor essentially had no idea what Joe was doing 99% of the time and essentially the last visit asked for "a favor to help" him understand the technologies being implemented. Joe was a bit surprised by his request to come into his office, but he had kinda had seen the writing on the wall the night before.

He then handed Joe a notice from the Information Technology Department Director claiming that Joe had "jeopardized the security" of the companies technology infrastructure.

Joe about laughed!

But then Joe was told to return the company laptop, truck keys and other equipment, and he would be put on paid suspension until an investigation was completed so this could be resolved. Paid leave? Investigation? What?

"Please have these on my desk before you leave today."

That was weird; the supervisor really didn't even know what equipment Joe had. Joe went to the department director's office to see what was really going on. Of course there was no sign of him, but Joe was told that he had better listen to his immediate supervisor or it would be considered insubordination. Joe went back to my office and found his network ID shut off, so he packed up and left.



Within a week Joe received a reprimand notice of employee policy infractions. Now Joe really laughed, it was almost 20 pages long and had statements in the beginning that contradicted statements in the end. Joe's parents had a business which was expanding so they recently moved into a larger office leaving their home office empty for him to work in. He rifled through the emails and prepared a similarly weighted reply pointing out the company's errors in great detail. His mom read through the stack of emails getting completely sick to her stomach at the inept incompetence seen over and over again as Joe had struggled to bring the company technical infrastructure into order the last few years.

At the disciplinary hearing they made their claims, accepted his written response and adjourned for deliberations. Ten (10) months later Joe was asked to come back to the office. Evidently someone in the EEOC had written to ask about a company engineer paid to stay home. When Joe arrived he was told to empty his desk and move into another department.

"Excuse me? What about the hearing and the claims against me."

"You have your same title and same salary, get back to work."

"Of course I will have to file an employee grievance now."

"You do whatever you want to do, now get back to work."

Joe prepared a grievance; it was over an inch thick, with fifty (50) employment policy violations. At the hearing which included one HR staff, and 3 peer managers the grievance was submitted and tabled. Nothing more was done and Joe was told to get back to work.

His wife had filed for divorce when Joe decided to file the grievance; she said he could never win. His mother's "sick to the stomach" was determined to be stage 3 Ovarian Cancer. The first thing Joe did in the new department was sign up for the mental health counselor provided by the company insurance program.

The new supervisor soon filed a reprimand following a doctor's appointment, claiming Joe had no approval for them. Soon he discovered that several employees in this new department had filed grievances against the company as well. Two more times he had scheduled to be somewhere else and the supervisor claimed Joe had not told him and filed a reprimand.

Joe contacted EEOC and they told him they could not do anything unless he was a minority discriminated against. Then Joe contacted a State Investigator. He was told, they could only investigate crimes involving over $3000. The new supervisor filed another reprimand, claiming Joe had used company equipment to contact others outside the company on personal business in violation of company policies. Once again Joe prepared a reply and the same HR and 3 "peer managers" were there, ignoring his reply and supporting the manager.

Joe soon posted signs in his cubicle "Warning all communications are being recorded," and began carrying a mini recorder in his front shirt pocket. Within two weeks a County Sheriff was called into investigate charges that Joe was illegally recording meetings. The Sheriff interviewed staff and the management making the claim. Warning signs regarding Joe's intent to record all interactions with supervisors and staff were clearly posted throughout his work space. No one could visit or see him without seeing one of the posted signs, or see the little red light on the recorder in his front pocket. The Sheriff carefully took pictures of these, and Joe also provided an original. During the interview, Joe described how his supervisor would be told about doctors appointments, but then file a rule violation notice when he left for the appointment. Joe explained several other events where this supervisor intentionally contradicted earlier agreements and statements to his detriment. After several hours of review the Sheriff concluded that there was no violation of state law. The Sheriff subsequently told Joe privately to file a suit against the employer.

The supervisor then installed a punch clock and Joe and some other staff where told to punch in and out for everything. This included trips to the bathroom, smoke breaks, doctor's visits etc. Joe received another reprimand for coming in late to the office when the supervisor reviewed the time clock cards. One other employee was arrested. He had been stuck in traffic when coming to work and knew he would be fired if he were late again. He pulled out a pistol and shot another car on the bridge coming into Tampa.

Then Joe learned that the employee had a discrimination suit against the company as well. While on vacation out of state the attorneys settled the suit without his knowing. Joe had the same attorney. Joe immediately checked into the grievance and appeals processes to find out where things stood. He then filed for the appeal himself and was soon told he was too late; the statute of limitations had expired.

Subsequently Joe was terminated; his mother died that same week of ovarian cancer.


Analysis:

The first issue to address was on line 25 where Joe described his new duties. He was employed and listed as an exempt employee, but his job title did not match his job duties. Based on this alone he really acted only as an independent contractor, not an employee fixed by a specific job description. If his case came to court the Company could claim he was only a contractor and therefore had no rights under the employee handbook at all. If his grievance and subsequent termination were all ruled by the handbook, the company really did him a favor and could have simply terminated him at any time as determined by the contract.

Based on the duties defined in line 29 Joe was doing many of the job functions of a senior manager, such as discussing contracts and budgeting. Joe could claim he was being exploited. This might allow him to renegotiate his contract, but the courts would not perceive it as anything more that his own poor judgment. If he is doing duties beyond his job description then the Company simply has gotten the better side of the deal. However, if this were a public company, administered by the state, he could file with the Civil Service Board for back pay requiring that they pay him for the duties he completed as required by the Civil Service Act of 1996.

Line 35 described a conflict between Joe and the Network Administrator. Joe subsequently found the Administrator had a fraudulent application on file in the HR Department. The Administrator had listed a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science, while in fact it was a Bachelor of Arts in History. At this point Joe could have filed a civil legal action for fraud, or slander against the administrator since a History major could never determine a security breach in the first place. Joe later determined the Administrator did not have the necessary technical skills either, but only managed staff who did have the adequate skills, none of who completed any analysis or determined network security which was itself a very detailed undertaking. If this were a public company Joe could file a complaint with the Civil Service Board. However, the board could respond the application was of no consequence since the manager employed the administrator anyway. However, he could have filed a slander suit against the department director who assumed the administrator knew something. Court decisions have been in favor of the injured party, where the statute of limitations started when the discovery of the injury or act of negligence should "reasonably have been discovered." 4 years is the time limit for fraud, Florida Statutes Chapter 95.11(3)(j).

Line 67 indicated that the claims against him had contradictions. If this had gotten before a judge it would have been thrown out abruptly. Joe could have filed a harassment claim but since this harassment was not sexual in nature it would not fall under the Civil Rights Laws in Florida or otherwise.

When EEOC got involved, as indicated in line 78, Joe investigated filing a claim with them. EEOC informed him that they couldn't do anything for him unless he was a minority discriminated against under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Equal Pay Act of 1963, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, Title I and Title V of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, Sections 501 and 505 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, or the Civil Rights Act of 1991. However, there must have been something there for them if they were snooping into company business? Joe should have investigated it more.

On line 85-90 Joe's family clearly had been impacted by the stressful circumstances he was under. This is not actionable under the laws from a private company or the laws in Florida. There might be something that can be reviewed under civil court where defamation claims and intentional tort are more amenable to this kind of action since the resulting emotional distress and mental anguish are often considered sufficient damages.

If Joe coordinated an action with the other staff mentioned on line 92 he might have been able to be involved in a class action. The other staff had already had litigation pending, where Joe could have benefited, this collaboration would have been protected by the Wagner Act.

Joe is actually from Hispanic origin and could be involved in a minority discrimination action as listed in line 96. The peer managers listed in line 100 were discriminating against him, taking the position of the supervisors without any review of what Joe had submitted. They actually ignored his claims and discounted any evidence he provided without any cause. The Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 contains a number of prohibitions, known as prohibited personnel practices including:

(9) take, fail to take, or threaten to take or fail to take a personnel action against an employee or applicant for exercising an appeal, complaint, or grievance right; testifying for or assisting another in exercising such a right; cooperating with or disclosing information to the Special Counsel or to an Inspector General; or refusing to obey an order that would require the individual to violate a law.



The records mentioned in line 105 could have been used to substantiate the discrimination claims. Further if Joe investigated the false claims filed against him listed in line 113, he could have pursued a case. This information could further be used in making the discrimination case a lot stronger. Even the time clock issues mentioned in line 116 would have demonstrated a hostile work environment toward the minorities. However, there were other minorities in the department who were not subjected to such harassment. The judge might recognize that this time clock issue appeared with the other legal actions the employees were pursuing which would have supported a retaliation claim. Many courts have ruled that retaliation need not involve firing or demotion; simple harassment or hostility qualifies.

Joe could have been a lot more proactive in the legal battle and hired a better attorney to get these issues addressed. The EEOC might have viewed Joe as just another "pretty white boy" but he was technically a minority so he could have pushed a case through if they wanted to or not. Joe needs to study more of his rights and focus on this to protect them.

In conclusion, the actions of the Civil Service Board denying Joe any due process constitute official misconduct (malfeasance); wrongful exercise of lawful authority (misfeasance); and, neglect of duty bestowed upon them by legislative act. The director simply told Joe "It's nothing personal; I'm just doing my job."

Urban Charrette Committee

I was reading the next article for the complexity class and found some cool stuff....

1. The capacity of a conversation to form novel patterns of meaning and relating depends on the participants’ responsiveness – the degree to which they perceive each other’s gestures and affective states (consciously or unconsciously) and modify their own responses accordingly.
2. The potential for novelty to emerge in a conversation depends on the originality and breadth of associations made by participants (the “associative richness”). Associative richness, in turn, depends on the diversity of gestures and other stimuli available to the conversation (the substrate from which associations are formed) and on the extent to which the participants use them to form, publicly offer and retain new associations (their associative capacity).
3. The themes in the conversation about the conversation itself – what can be said or done by whom, and to whom – constrain the conversation. This aspect of conversation (sometimes referred to as “process communication”) consists of themes about the here-and-now state of relationship and power, and is expressed predominantly in the language of non-verbal behavior rather than in words (Cohen-Cole, 1991; Silverman, 1998)

This got me thinking about the meeint I went to this weekend . . . Yea that was complexity and communication in action . . . none of this pretend BS orchastrated in this class.

So then I posted my message:

eric weaver to community_sust. show details 9:13 AM (19 minutes ago) Reply

> THere was recently a talk for the Urban Charrette Committee--

Interesting meeting. I rode my bike over after lunch and sat through the last few presentations sorta watching the crowd dynamics and the presenters. I did meet someone from the county. Funny he was the guy that did the concurrency traffic counts or the lack there of. He said he's getting ready to retire and wants to start teaching in High School or something. Preferably greening and sustainability issues. We chatted a bit more and exchanged business cards.

They had a room full of products that I walked through before entering the resentation room. There in the center was a big map of the Hillsborough River from the Dam to the Bay. There were little postit dots of four different colors scattered along it, indicating parks, transit, community and business centers I think.

As the presentation ended they moved these tables into the presentation room and everyone gathered around the maps to talk more about the river. All the presentations were about Greening initiatives and success in other cities and such. The people who set it all up started explaining everything. This was a grass-roots effort to get Tampa more focused on this river. Evidently people have tried this before and the politicians were waiting to see if this effort lasted more than a few months. They talked about how the Tampa Heights Civic Association started with just a few Realtors at first... but now a letter from the president gets a quick reply from the Mayor....

They talked about how the map was set up and wanting to start at the Dam and talk about the dots people had put there - - if the people were still around. Then they said how the biggest issue that came up in the surveys was getting more access to the River. Of course the first yellow dot south of the Dam was in my back yard. . . . lol . . . .

Finally as they were speaking about wanting more community input, even individual citizen comments. I said how the individual citizens under that first dot had filed a petition with the City and now have the area designated as a City Park. We even have a trail laid out in mulch. There is even a boat ramp there all over grown, but I can still get my kayak down into the river.

Alex who was running the show was thrilled as the maps already had the "new city trails" marked on them. He gave me the black sharpie to mark out the new trails. It was kinda funny, since I had ridden my bike through there to get to the meeting. I marked my path onto the map and then added the other trails they built, and even a new one they has started through a forest the city didn't know they owned. The
owner wanted to donate the property to STARS and I helped him with another 30
acres across the street. But since that one was such a permitting nightmare he decided to donate this one to the city instead....

I told them when we first petitioned the city about the mountain of hurricane mulch there we asked for them to use the mulch to make a trail for us. Course the city
was thrilled with that idea and so we had to lay out a plan for the trails. And this included a loop around this forest and they never knew they owned it, so they had to check with the county property appraisers. Course then the City's Solid Waste Department wanted to use the land to build a transfer station and all Seminole Heights came out to fight that idea. Now they are expanding the trail, adding speed bumps down the road leading to it, and have a new City Park sign and a new gate . . . slowly but surely. . .

Guess I'll be going to the next meetings.... certainly cool to see the emergence from the complexity....

They asked if anyone could write a recommendation letter to them for a grant. Course after I wrote and sent it I thought they might want it from an Engineer instead.... lol ...

Fwd: Re:[discussionlist] discussionlist digest: November 09, 2007

The Prime Minister of the Tang Dynasty was a national hero for his success as both a statesman and military leader. But despite his fame, power, and wealth, he considered himself a humble and devout Buddhist. Often he visited his favorite Zen master to study under him, and they seemed to get along very well. The fact that he was prime minister apparently had no effect on their relationship, which seemed to be simply one of a revered master and respectful student.

One day, during his usual visit, the Prime Minister asked the master, "Your Reverence, what is ego?" The master replied curtly in a condescending tone and shot back, "What kind of stupid question is that!?"

This unexpected response so shocked the Prime Minister that his face turned red, stunned by the rebuke. The Zen master then gestured toward the PM, smiled and said, "THIS, Your Excellency, is ego."

====

I like to analogize ego as an audience to an empty cinema screen of self. The projector is turned on, the lamp glows, the film runs, and self is reified, but the phenomena (input/output captured images on the film) and the light (mind) are projections from elsewhere. The audience (ego) reacts to something that's not exactly "there."

In the end the present moment is the teaching moment. Sometimes they pass us by just as we're ready to learn something from them ... Sometimes the moment's destroyed by trying to reify it into an explanation of "why." I call those Heisenberg Moments. Our attempts at metrics (ego, self) destroy the wave (experience).

Organization Diversity Analysis

1. Introduction (1/2 page):
This analysis will be of Hillsborough County an organization with offices in Tampa, Florida. This county of about 2 million people has 26 neighborhoods including those incorporated as Tampa, Plant City and Temple Terrace which covers a total area of 1,136 square miles. The county government has a total work force of over 10,000 people, about 0.51% of the entire population. Consistent with federal and state constitutions, and regulations, the County Charter mandates that it shall not deprive any person of any right because of "race, sex, age, national origin, religion, physical handicap, or political affiliation." I was hired as a Senior Engineer on contract to resolve a flooding issue affecting Carrollwood Village. Subsequently became full time as an Engineer II in the Planning and Development Management Department, and then moved to the Fiscal and Administration Department.

2. Description of Diversity (1 to 1 1/2 pages):
Surprisingly the senior County administration seems to have very little diversity at all. A majority of senior staff are white males, the classic "good ol' boys." The County Administrator is currently a white female so there are more females in the senior staff beyond just the secretaries today. Currently that is 17 women and 43 men, which is 30% female, while the total county population is 51% female. However, there are only a few "token" Black people, Hispanics and a few other races around the administration. They do have "diversity training" initiatives and even have performance ratings for diversity. They currently claim to have a 17% Hispanic population employed in the county, though most are not in the administration, but rather in Public Works maintaining facilities. One thing I did notice recently is that I helped get a Chinese Engineer into the Stormwater Infrastructure Section as I was leaving. He now has a staff of a dozen or so other Chinese people. If you went into his section staff meeting and never saw any other part of the County you would say there was no diversity but only Chinese people.

I recall the token Black man who worked with community outreach in the neighborhoods program while I was there. He was involved with all press events with the senior county staff. There were a few other minority staff, but nothing close to the proportion of the population for the county. Even the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) has seven people has one black man, one Hispanic and one female or 14% each while noted earlier women are 51% of the county. Their mission statement includes: "DIVERSITY - Organizational effectiveness can best be achieved by recruiting and retaining a workforce that represents the diversified population of Hillsborough County." This means the BOCC needs that 2.5 of the remaining white men should be replaced by females to match the county population.

I did take their diversity class while working there. It spoke about what Diversity was and what to watch for to avoid discrimination suits with other classes and races. At the time I thought it was useless, because all the staff I ever saw were the same class and race. There were a group of people who had a bible study at lunch in one of the lunch rooms who also only supported the white protestant work ethic as you find everywhere in government. What I found was that people tend to work with peers that match themselves.

Now I see the Chinese group in Stormwater was similar to the Hispanic group in Public Works and the Black group in Fiscal Administration. In each scenario the section leader was a member of the minority which soon resulted in all his staff also being from the same minority. This is very common, at least in Florida where we find similar "clicks" in the school systems and the neighborhoods. People want to be around there "own kind" they feel safer, trust each other and speak the same language.

3. Individuals' Reactions (2 to 2 1/2 pages):
I hired the same senior Chinese Engineer in another company as well. He is very specialized in stormwater modeling, having earned a doctorate writing models in the Northeast. We worked for a few years together and then both left when the job was done. When I introduced him to a manager in the county who trusted me, they trusted him as well and he was hired, which worked out great for everyone. Soon he was hiring more Chinese people into the county which I never noticed until taking this class. They all accepted me very easily even though I usually have a hard time understanding some of them speak. The trust and respect they have for me is styled from their section leader who I helped. I have noticed this before where people feel safe sharing or confiding in others of their same race, religion, culture but also acknowledge those others who are accepted by their leaders or other members of their group and families though not of the same race or culture.

I have felt lucky that the Stormwater Section knows and respects me and this has made it easy in my consulting practice where I need to contact them often. They respect and honor the special holidays and events associated with their religion and culture while fitting this into the guidelines and holidays designated by the county. When I noticed this it made more sense than ever why these groups congregate together. For the county to provide support for the holidays and traditions for each diverse group to coexist could be burdensome. However, allowing different sections and groups to evolve their own traditional celebrations provides the means for these groups to sustain and support each other directly within the county.

This also occurred in Public Works where teams of people were formed that had people speaking Spanish together. There was always one or two people on the team who could speak English, but I was surprised to find staff there who could not speak any English at all. Once again the grouping of these minorities together gave them common grounds to help and support each other. In this case it was more than supporting just the ethnic and cultural background. Some of these non-English staff could not function in any other part of the county where there were not any Spanish speaking people. In this case these staff must stay in these groups. I'm sure there are issues for them when the bilingual staff are absent, beyond simple bias or discrimination. This has also occurred with the Chinese staff where other engineers have trouble understanding them. However, with the increased use of technology this is not as critical an issue. The Chinese staff I've met do speak English, but their accents are so thick it's hard to understand them. Today, more information is shared through emails, where these speaking accents disappear, so the Chinese communicate fine through emails to complete their duties.

I did notice one Chinese woman who spoke very clearly is always getting the "administrative referrals," where she needs to meet with citizens about specific flooding issues in the community. This can be a tiresome and frustrating job since many citizens do not want to accept they might have caused the problem themselves. She will not have the language barrier, but being a female minority will give her other barriers dealing with the citizens who do not want to understand these issues. Here she will have to convince them that she is technically competent and then convince them that the flooding issues are caused by other things they do. I did this for a while. People would accept things from me just because I drove up in a county truck and said I was a "county engineer." The older generations with stronger biases will have trouble even believing a female is an engineer. She is petite and attractive which further makes it very difficult for being accepted as an engineer. The stereotype of an engineer is more masculine and robust like the "Engineer" who drives a train. The truck might help her, but I'm not sure if she drives one or not.

The only flooding problems the county will even look at now are "administrative referrals" where the citizen has complained to the County Commissioners who refer it to the County Administrator to resolve. This often takes years, and by this time finding the causes is very difficult. I could tell she is happy to be interrupted from "another referral" when I call to ask about some simple engineering issue. I feel sorry for her more now, realizing how an attractive petite Chinese lady will be stereotyped and perceived by an old Florida farmer who has been fighting with county staff for years trying to get some help with a flooding issue.

Not only will the farmer have a bad attitude toward any engineer, or county staff; but especially an attractive petite Chinese lady! I hope she does at least drive one of those big new county trucks. They only had small little S10 pickup trucks when I worked there, but I got it stuck so many times in the mud that it was easy to get the big F150 4x4 trucks approved.

4. Organizational Policies/Actions (2 to 2 1/2 pages):
The county government typically gets hundreds of applications for any open position. The application scoring procedures used by Civil Service greatly limit the applications that get through to management staff for review. However, staff often request applications from people they want to hire and these can be forwarded directly to them. This results in a Chinese leader hiring more Chinese to work on his team. Trust and respect are critical to public service operations. The benefits and freedom are really great and easy to exploit, but the salaries are very low. Therefore, it becomes more important to hire someone you trust to work and respect the county rules, regulations, property and resources than to hire someone more qualified. One priority supersedes the other. Training someone you can trust is better than having staff you can not trust who steal equipment or exploit their authority for private gains.

It is very difficult to terminate existing staff, so County staff have the tendency to remain employed forever. This brings an added impulse to hire someone you know, someone of your own race or culture. For example, the Veterans preference is given the highest priority in the application scoring. Veterans have already learned how to follow orders and easily fit into the "good ol' boy" culture of Florida government. Additionally, there have been serious problems with nepotism in the County since managers have so much independent discretion in hiring.

The applications ask about relatives working for the county however it is "only to ensure the enforcement of anti-nepotism laws, Section 112.313, Florida Statutes." This can be overlooked by hiring managers and their families who are asked to apply. The Civil Service uses these hiring preferences in scoring each employee application for education, work background, Veterans preference and language spoken; but rarely verifies these items. The county has used the scoring to hire more bilingual staff in all parts of the customer service sections. As the population of Florida and Hillsborough County gets more Hispanic overall the requirements for bilingual people has increased, which the County has been addressing.

The County has an equal opportunity officer who is listed with the other 60 directors in the county administration. This officer is a minority member, but only has a staff of 4 people as compared to the hundreds of staff for the other directors. Most employment duties are administered by the Civil Service, so this person has little or no real authority. When I first saw this it seemed like they had a minority directing human resources and equal opportunities precisely to avoid questions about minorities. When issues come up, or even lawsuits about discrimination and race, the county official who responds is a minority who would give the impression that discrimination and race are not an issue. Impression management is a key function of governments. Similarly to having one woman, one Hispanic and one Black on the Board of County Commissioners. It's all about managing the impressions given to the public.

These impressions are often more orchestrated than people think. For example, the redistricting plan to determine the community areas for electing each County Commissioner included careful evaluation of residential areas to guarantee that a Black minority member would be elected in only one area. This is another standard procedure for the "good ol' boys" which I considered unethical and even uncivilized.

My detailed knowledge of technology got me involved with so much, where many critical issues came across my desk. As with the hiring processes, I often witnessed procedures and methods that I considered unethical or dysfunctional. For example, the redistricting staff told me he had followed directions to do things the way "it's always been done" and moving into the new technology was not supposed to change any procedures, but only automate and simplify things. This is similar to the automated voting which became scandalous with Bush's reelection, both designed to only support what's always been done behind the scenes.

Further, it seemed like the Affirmative Action regulations filled the maintenance and support sections with minorities so that the "good ol' boys" could stay in the administrative offices while getting some reasonable diversity statistics that their token minorities directors could present to the approving ignorant public. But now with more diversity and cooperation between the races, the minorities are getting into places of authority. Recognizing how I have influenced and changed the staffing stereotypes in the Engineering Department through the trust and respect of my peers in Stormwater confirms that the County is slowly evolving and getting more diverse. I guess most people saw me as a Caucasian white American "good ol' boy" anyway and are usually surprised to learn I'm Hispanic; which helped me.

5. Recommendations (2 to 2 1/2 pages):
The County Administration needs to make more efforts to increase interaction and communication between the diverse community groups in this area. For the 2 million people here only 50% are white. Increasing staff interaction creates more trust and respect between these diverse groups evolving in the County. Individuals still maintain their "clicks" of separate races and cultures but enhancing increased communication between these groups is changing this. Once the communication starts new relationships and trust develop across these cultural boundaries. But breaking down these fundamental stereotypes will require basic cultural shifts like what has been happening with more interracial marriages. The County has sponsor more countywide events where all the staff are invited to participate together, like a luncheon during Black Heritage Month.

I was surprised the County had an event like this since it was specifically addressing a single race. They no longer allowed the Ybor celebrations for the Cubans and the Pirates, but this was largely because they wanted to get the alcohol out of all the County offices. This Black Heritage event they did sponsor was designed to increase communication and interaction between the staff and people in the county. Breaking down the walls between races can begin with a simple greeting that develops into a friendship where new people are trusted and accepted into the system. This is similar to how my friendship with the Stormwater Engineers helped bring the Chinese into Engineering at the County.

The hiring preference scoring is one method that has been successful in bringing more bilingual staff into the county. This has already enhanced the diversity as noted earlier with Public Works. Senior staff are usually only promoted from within, so over time as the overall staff gets more diverse the senior staff will get more diverse as well. The older generations in the senior administration have spent the majority of their careers only dealing with other senior white men in similar positions. As with all people they also tend to be more comfortable and trusting of peers that represent their own class, culture and ethnicity. As more of these older people retire, the younger generations seem more accepting of the diverse races, religions and ethnicities bringing a gradual change into the County over time.

Breaking up the "clicks" will not be an easy process. The Chinese group of engineers in stormwater have been able to work around the language barriers with the better use of technology. But having the single clear speaking woman drive around to inspect flooding problems seems dangerous to me, after I have met more than one irate rude "red-neck" farmer. If the stormwater group were more diverse, they might have an older white man on staff, who fits the stereotype of "the engineer," to do this job with her. Including more diversity like this on their team will alleviate problems with local farmers and citizens who are more biased and not as accepting of the diversity in our community yet. Many rural farming areas in this county still only have minorities as laborers in the fields doing very menial jobs where they get very little income or respect. For a farmer, who has spent his entire life dismissing minorities, it is very difficult to suddenly respect and attend to a minority engineer who shows up to try and explain how changes in farming practices can impact water flows.

Accepting greater diversity in the county teams and groups like in Stormwater will then demonstrate to other groups and citizens the advantage of diversity. For example, if the Chinese woman visited a farmer with another white male engineer in a county truck with her; the farmer would see directly how diverse the county is getting. Further, if she lead the meeting and explained the flooding situations on his property, with the support of the white male, the farmer may learn to respect and see the minorities in his own field in a different light.

Finally the minority directing human resources and equal opportunities, while the old white military "good ol' boy" running Civil Service really has all the authority, is really deceptive and underhanded in my view. If the County leadership wants to make real efforts at diversity it needs to start giving minorities more real authority instead of propping them up as puppets. All the county staff, who are conscious of diversity issues, know what's really happening there and will act similarly. This is really demonstrating how the leadership deceives the citizens. The leadership needs to enact diversity instead of placating to public opinion and then the other senior staff will begin to do the same thing.

6. Conclusion (1 page):
This analysis has demonstrated to me how much a single individual can do. I never noticed how the Stormwater Engineering Team has been dominated by Chinese people. As I have explored this more it really should not be any surprise at all, for each of us has an affinity for others like ourselves. In situations where commitment is so critical it is normal for people to more easily develop trust for others like themselves. Further, seeing a Chinese team in a system where others get into clicks and are very tight in separation; it seems obvious that my friend in stormwater was essentially modeling the same attitudes and practices of his leaders in the county administration. This has shown in specific detail how people mirror their leaders and therefore how much the county still has to do to escape the stereotypes and biases of past generations.

Another inspiring surprise was that I noticed another engineer who was an intern in the county when I first started there. I trained him and a Black student in stormwater modeling and now he's a senior manager. He is a White Caucasian but since I know directly that he was close friends with the other Black student we worked with, this demonstrates how the younger generations are moving up in the system and are more accepting of minorities. I don't know if this will mean anything now, but it shows to me that things are slowly changing and the diversity is evolving in the old guard county administration.

I did also learn about how much of a big deal diversity issues have become for this county. There is much more effort to increase the "appearances of diversity." In reading current information on the internet to verify some of my previous experiences, I came across an award the director of Public Works received for bringing so many Hispanics into this division. I had direct interactions with these minorities, primarily Mexicans. These people are treated little better than the migrant farm workers are treated by the "red-neck" farmers. Of course the news reports gets pretty pictures of the minority "leaders" bragging about the statistics and all the public things good of the elected White boys doing a good job. No one sees the Mexicans working long hours in the hot sun making minimum wage. I'm still surprised there are even some there who do not speak more than a word or two of English.

This has taught me a great deal about how far we still have to go as a culture to even get to the point of being civilized. It embarrasses me that I even wrote bigoted terms like red-neck, Black, Mexican and Chinese to describe the people I've seen and interacted with. However, these stereotypes are still so common and frightfully apparent that this report would not address diversity without them. Further it now is clear to me that my own heritage has been diverse and compassionate enough where even the use of such terms is offensive. I've never noticed so much bias and I hope that I never model any of this uncivilized hypocrisy to anyone.

BOOM!

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Personal Diversity Experience

I volunteered for an "I Can Do It!" conference with 30 best selling authors from Hay House Publishing. Margaret, a retired neighbor told me about this event. I figured attending an event with her would have me surrounded by seniors making me the minority in age. But this event is sponsored by a Publisher, so I don't know what to expect. As an engineer I started reading when I started my MBA; needing only the equations to work the problems in engineering, so meeting any authors is totally new to me. Wayne Dyer who I've seen in the PBS fund raisers will be present, so it might be a good way to meet people too, who knows.

I arrived for the volunteer orientation Thursday. Mollie, the event coordinator, said registration was closed weeks earlier, but since I was here she could work me into the schedule. This made me feel kinda stupid. She then explained the duties expected from us and then gave out her cell phone number if anyone had any problems during the events. Gotta promise not to write it on the bathroom wall or give it to any guys, unless they are really cute. Someone asked what we should wear, since we would have to assist the authors directly. Mollie said to wear light airy comfortable cloths:

"Usually with a room full of menopausal women the temperature can get hot"

Another lady smiled while passing me saying how I was the "token male" there. Everyone else was female in their 60's or beyond, except Mollie. She was really cute, in a mini skirt and high heels. It was a room full of women. I recognized Margaret of course. I also saw two other women from a church I went to, "Harmony," both at least in there 50's. I volunteer there video taping so everyone recognizes me. I felt out of place here though. Not just that I was considerably younger than everyone else, but I was also the only guy, the only one in school and the only one employed who didn't know any of the authors coming or their books. Another lady said hello to me out in the buffet line, asking where I went to school. I replied that we likely met at church and she said how she sang at TTUMC.net. That's where we met, as I sang in the Choir there for a while too, soon I remembered her name was Leah.

The conference was all weekend, 12 hours a day starting Friday morning, with a psychic, Sylvia Brown starting Thursday night. Volunteers could attend anything for working 12 hours, or three 4-hour shifts. I got the left-overs assigned only two shifts, Friday at the registration desk 4-8pm and then Saturday as a door attendant from 2-6pm. Mollie gave us a tour of the place and let us go. Sylvia was starting to speak, psychic people kinda bore me, but I could hear she started talking about the secret societies that control this country, which she had in her latest book, so I laughed thinking this might be interesting to listen to and went in.

Course moments after I sat down she was off into something else and started picking registration numbers from a hat to offer personal readings, time for me to go. I arrived back Friday after my class and went into the closest conference workshop near the entrance. It was Colette Reid another psychic lady. I noticed there were a few other men in the room now, but only 2 or 3 out of 50, both clearly over 60, making me the minority in sex and age again. I sat in the last row in the corner. Colette was talking about teaching everyone and asked us to pair off. Interesting enough the one other lady in the last row with me was also from Harmony and recognized me, figures! We did a little guided meditative exercise, and then Collette explained how to understand whatever people saw or felt. She interpreted some referring to several Hay House books on symbolism of course. My new Harmony friend said she saw pink colors and water flowing while we did the little exercises together. Collette said that pink usually is associated with love and the flowing water could be movement in harmony, surmising that I was going to fall in love.

I can go along with that, exactly why I started attending church anyway. I was embarrassed as I saw this room full of women looking at me. She finished and everyone lined up to get books signed and I went up stairs to the registration desk. Once again the only guy with retired women volunteers. The women running the cash register selling tickets next to us even called me Chris by mistake, Chris evidently was the "token male" staff person who flew in from Hay House with them.

It was interesting working there, as I spoke to everyone who prepaid for their tickets coming in after work Friday afternoon. I was surprised to see people who flew in from NY, Canada and even South America for the conference. The only men I saw were tagging along with their spouses. I did meet another lady I knew, Michelle, she had helped Hay House with the marketing so she had a few free passes there checking if her guests had arrived yet.

The next keynote speaker I saw was Louse Hay the founder of Hay House. She said how she could be the poster girl for women in their 80's as she just turned 81. The Hay House mission was to help people improve the quality of their lives. I noticed Leah again directing people into the "preferred seating" in front. I got out a business card and wrote on the back the Pianist, Singer and Reverend at Harmony and then asked if she was still singing. Yes of course, but not anywhere special she said. I gave her the card, saying they lost a few singers at Harmony recently. She said a friend of hers from Harmony gave her the volunteer invite, so she's seen so many coincidences in that direction that she better go visit that church and sing there. Wow, small world I felt.

Saturday Michelle saved a seat for me for the keynote and I met Jaclyn and Jimmie, who as it turned out were also neighbors living within a mile or two of my house. They are older but made it clear that Jimmie hadn't any male friends beyond those lost in the beer and football culture. Another guest of Michelle's came to sit in the handicapped seats she had saved behind us. It was a younger lady, named Holly, maybe even my own age walking with a cane struggling with MS. I asked if she would like to sit closer, and then went to speak to Leah about getting her into a handicapped seat in the preferred section. Leah was happy to help and we brought Holly up front.

I saw how I got a lot of coincidence in the same direction too. Going to the event made me think that I might do better networking more with people I know instead of going to a new place to meet people like another church or some authors conference. God knows, maybe I'll fall in love with Holly or Michelle; never know what to expect, that's for sure! Guess I should read more too.

revised complexity groups

BASIC ORIENTATION: COMMUNITIES AS COMPLEX ADAPTIVE SYSTEMS
The theory and science of Complexity can powerfully inform the development of sustainable communities. When a community is conceptualized as a complex adaptive system, it is recognized as a dynamic network of diverse agents interacting with one another and the environment to co-evolve over time (Agar, 2005, 2004a, 2004b). "Agents" are the people or entities that have the capacity to change intentionally and thereby influence one another and the evolution of a system (McKelvey, 1999). Complexity emphasizes processes of self-organization among agents as the central means of fostering the ongoing health, resilience and hardiness of a system, whether that system is a family, an organization, or a community (Capra, Juarrero, & Sotolongo, 2007).


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