Interlock research
Encyclopedia
Interlock research is a concept used to overcome the gaps in individual or group knowledge of which they are unaware of and which would result in incorrect action being taken, or important action not taken, leading to unintended consequences. It is based on the notion that no individual or group can ever understand anything fully on their own. The concept is achieved by working and communicating efficiently within the same organization at a lateral level directly with each other. The concept was developed in a series of research papers and the book "The IRG Solution - hierarchical incompetence and how to overcome it
"
The concept propounds the need for and a mechanism to create a methodical scheme whereby such lateral self constructing communications networks could develop and inform professionals (engineers, scientists, politicians, health workers) of what it is they needed to know but weren’t aware of. These schemes enable professionals to ask questions and get answers more rapidly, but crucially they can be told, unbidden, not only that they were asking the wrong questions but also be able to be supplied with the correct questions and the correct answers.
. It will inevitably contain shortcomings and missed links. However if these individual interlock diagrams are open to public scrutiny particularly interested colleagues others can point out deficiencies. So a power system ID might start out just showing coal in, power out, carbon dioxide out. Others from a local water company may realize that water is needed water for the cooling towers and that it can be provide as effluent
from an adjacent treatment plant. The theoretical ID can be adjusted and maybe actually implemented – just this happens in Bristol where Wessex Water and SeaBanks Power station do this. Energy experts may realize that two-thirds of the fuel input is wasted heat and will pipe that heat to heat all the houses in the adjacent areas and avoid the expenditure on heating fuel. This practice, called cogeneration
or district heating
, is practiced in Russia
, Belarus
, Kazakhstan
, Ukraine
, Finland
and Denmark
.
Eventually after enough iteration, the ID for a given industry will match its interaction or potential interaction with the environment and adjacent subsystems. If direct person to person communications are established between individuals at the nodes of each subsystem then potentially harmful open links can be mitigated or closed, and beneficial ones enacted. Note that links can be formed by a participating node sending out a probe, or receiving one unexpectedly. This is how the relevance paradox
is resolved. Once established such links can also transmit tacit knowledge
.
Such a system of closed links will have minimal energy, resource and pollution implications. The links, personal and interactions need not be modeling purely physical systems – exactly the same kind of ID can be drawn for social, legal health etc policy development. By drawing in expert individuals, the network will end up exactly mapping systems and subsystems, in a self growing and self organizing way. Such systems will be greater than the sum of the individual parts and will hold vast amounts of knowledge.
The “experts” need not be formal professional experts – a worker in a sewage works is as much an expert in this context as a professional biochemist in his own domain.
Other examples include the social policy introduced by a Labour Government for controlling rented accommodation ostensibly to increase the availability of cheap rented accommodation. It has had the effect of drastically reducing the availability of such accommodation.
The IRG Solution - hierarchical incompetence and how to overcome it
The IRG Solution is a book written by David Andrews and published in 1984.-Synopsis:The book, written in 1984, developed from a number of research papers at the Open University Energy Research Group, and an article appearing in the Guardian Newspaper which attempted an information- and...
"
Energy policy interlock
A example given when discussing interlock research is the issue of energy policy. Energy and raw material could be saved, and pollution avoided by interlinking industrial processes. Most professionals and policy makers are uninterested in these opportunities because they are unaware of them. A little appreciated fact is that both the USA and the UK waste heat from power stations equal to and able to replace the entire usage of natural gas for heating, which is an example of hierarchical incompetence and the relevance paradoxRelevance Paradox
The relevance paradox describes an attempt to gather information relevant to a decision, which fails because the elimination of information perceived as distracting or unnecessary and thus detrimental to making an optimal decision, also excludes information that is actually crucial.-Definition:In...
The concept propounds the need for and a mechanism to create a methodical scheme whereby such lateral self constructing communications networks could develop and inform professionals (engineers, scientists, politicians, health workers) of what it is they needed to know but weren’t aware of. These schemes enable professionals to ask questions and get answers more rapidly, but crucially they can be told, unbidden, not only that they were asking the wrong questions but also be able to be supplied with the correct questions and the correct answers.
Methodology and mechanism
Consider any area of managed human activity say power systems, sewage treatment works, energy policy government departments, health systems, justice systems etc. A physical map could be constructed by each practitioner showing the physical interactions with the world and other domains. This is called an interlock diagramInterlock diagram
An interlock diagram is a real or imagined diagram that plots the actual interactions, physical, political, social, environmental between all entities within human societies. Each node is a specific activity such as a power station, or a policy such as controlled rent...
. It will inevitably contain shortcomings and missed links. However if these individual interlock diagrams are open to public scrutiny particularly interested colleagues others can point out deficiencies. So a power system ID might start out just showing coal in, power out, carbon dioxide out. Others from a local water company may realize that water is needed water for the cooling towers and that it can be provide as effluent
Effluent
Effluent is an outflowing of water or gas from a natural body of water, or from a human-made structure.Effluent is defined by the United States Environmental Protection Agency as “wastewater - treated or untreated - that flows out of a treatment plant, sewer, or industrial outfall. Generally refers...
from an adjacent treatment plant. The theoretical ID can be adjusted and maybe actually implemented – just this happens in Bristol where Wessex Water and SeaBanks Power station do this. Energy experts may realize that two-thirds of the fuel input is wasted heat and will pipe that heat to heat all the houses in the adjacent areas and avoid the expenditure on heating fuel. This practice, called cogeneration
Cogeneration
Cogeneration is the use of a heat engine or a power station to simultaneously generate both electricity and useful heat....
or district heating
District heating
District heating is a system for distributing heat generated in a centralized location for residential and commercial heating requirements such as space heating and water heating...
, is practiced in Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, Belarus
Belarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
, Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...
, Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
, Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
and Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
.
Eventually after enough iteration, the ID for a given industry will match its interaction or potential interaction with the environment and adjacent subsystems. If direct person to person communications are established between individuals at the nodes of each subsystem then potentially harmful open links can be mitigated or closed, and beneficial ones enacted. Note that links can be formed by a participating node sending out a probe, or receiving one unexpectedly. This is how the relevance paradox
Relevance Paradox
The relevance paradox describes an attempt to gather information relevant to a decision, which fails because the elimination of information perceived as distracting or unnecessary and thus detrimental to making an optimal decision, also excludes information that is actually crucial.-Definition:In...
is resolved. Once established such links can also transmit tacit knowledge
Tacit knowledge
Tacit knowledge is knowledge that is difficult to transfer to another person by means of writing it down or verbalising it. For example, stating to someone that London is in the United Kingdom is a piece of explicit knowledge that can be written down, transmitted, and understood by a recipient...
.
Such a system of closed links will have minimal energy, resource and pollution implications. The links, personal and interactions need not be modeling purely physical systems – exactly the same kind of ID can be drawn for social, legal health etc policy development. By drawing in expert individuals, the network will end up exactly mapping systems and subsystems, in a self growing and self organizing way. Such systems will be greater than the sum of the individual parts and will hold vast amounts of knowledge.
The “experts” need not be formal professional experts – a worker in a sewage works is as much an expert in this context as a professional biochemist in his own domain.
Examples
Examples of where IDs have been lacking include the NASA engineers who having spent a fortune on unsuccessfully developing the complex sliding and articulating inside knee joint needed for space suits went to the tower of London and copied the armor of Henry the Eighth with just such a joint – stating “we wish we had known about this earlier!”Other examples include the social policy introduced by a Labour Government for controlling rented accommodation ostensibly to increase the availability of cheap rented accommodation. It has had the effect of drastically reducing the availability of such accommodation.
See also
- Central mediaCentral mediaCentral media were defined in the book The IRG Solution - hierarchical incompetence and how to overcome it and were those media which repeatedly broadcast a single identical message to many recipients such as mass media magazines and specialist technical and scientific journals...
- Corporate interlocks
- Hierarchical incompetenceHierarchical incompetenceHierarchical incompetence is the often observed inability of organisations to achieve the aims set for them. This can be due to the over-simplification of issues and the loss of tacit knowledge about issues as they ascend a hierarchical organization.There is often an inbuilt tendency for people up...
- Relevance paradoxRelevance ParadoxThe relevance paradox describes an attempt to gather information relevant to a decision, which fails because the elimination of information perceived as distracting or unnecessary and thus detrimental to making an optimal decision, also excludes information that is actually crucial.-Definition:In...
- Delphi technique
- Hierarchical incompetenceHierarchical incompetenceHierarchical incompetence is the often observed inability of organisations to achieve the aims set for them. This can be due to the over-simplification of issues and the loss of tacit knowledge about issues as they ascend a hierarchical organization.There is often an inbuilt tendency for people up...
- hierarchical organizationHierarchical organizationA hierarchical organization is an organizational structure where every entity in the organization, except one, is subordinate to a single other entity. This arrangement is a form of a hierarchy. In an organization, the hierarchy usually consists of a singular/group of power at the top with...
- Information Routing GroupInformation Routing GroupAn Information Routing Group is a component of social networks consisting of a semi-infinite set of similar interlocking and overlapping groups...
- Interlock diagramInterlock diagramAn interlock diagram is a real or imagined diagram that plots the actual interactions, physical, political, social, environmental between all entities within human societies. Each node is a specific activity such as a power station, or a policy such as controlled rent...
- lateral communicationLateral communication-Organizational communication:In organizations and organisms, lateral communication works in contrast to traditional top-down, bottom-up or hierarchic communication and involves the spreading of messages from individuals across the base of a pyramid....
- Lateral diffusionLateral diffusionLateral diffusion is the process whereby information can be spread from one node in a social network to another, often in a selective way, and can rapidly traverse an entire population, but preferentially to those nodes likely to be interested, or needing to know. Messages or information are also...
- lateral mediaLateral mediaLateral media can be seen as any specific technology to promote lateral communication. A grapevine is in effect lateral communication but is not necessarily a lateral media if there is no technology. We then can consider informal help networks, email circulation lists, Information Routing Groups,...
- Law of unintended consequences
- LinkedInLinkedInLinkedIn is a business-related social networking site. Founded in December 2002 and launched in May 2003, it is mainly used for professional networking. , LinkedIn reports more than 120 million registered users in more than 200 countries and territories. The site is available in English, French,...
- Relevance paradoxRelevance ParadoxThe relevance paradox describes an attempt to gather information relevant to a decision, which fails because the elimination of information perceived as distracting or unnecessary and thus detrimental to making an optimal decision, also excludes information that is actually crucial.-Definition:In...
- Tacit knowledgeTacit knowledgeTacit knowledge is knowledge that is difficult to transfer to another person by means of writing it down or verbalising it. For example, stating to someone that London is in the United Kingdom is a piece of explicit knowledge that can be written down, transmitted, and understood by a recipient...
- The Wisdom of CrowdsThe Wisdom of CrowdsThe Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations, published in 2004, is a book written by James Surowiecki about the aggregation of information in groups, resulting in decisions that, he argues, are often better...