
Building Macroscopes: Holistic Management Frameworks
Task Construct a business strategy and organizational sense-making framework for Holistic Management
Clients Originated with Center for Medicare (CMS) and refined for Teach STEM In Hawaii (UH Maui College)
Tools Mural + Miro + Zoom
Partners RevvaCom

FILE UNDER: STRATEGIC VISUAL FRAMEWORKS
Requiem for a Macroscope
Conceptualized by french molecular biologist, futurist and systems theorist, Joël de Rosnay, a macroscope is a cognitive tool for holistically considering complex systems. It can be applied to understanding ecologies, societies, organizations.
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As a design strategist working in the context of complex systems, I develop macroscope-inspired visual frameworks for evaluating organizations, understanding society, and developing a whole system view of complex issues.
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Designing macroscopes is both art and science.
They help answer the question, "How might we see the big picture more clearly?"​

“Let us use the macroscope to direct a new look at nature, society, and man and to try to identify new rules of education and action. In its field of vision organizations, events, and evolutions are illuminated by a totally different light. The macroscope filters details and amplifies that which links things together. It is not used to make things larger or smaller but to observe what is at once too great, too slow, and too complex for our eyes (human society, for example, is a gigantic organism that is totally invisible to us).”
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A Macroscopic View Sees Nested Systems Clearly.
As the world is composed of nested systems and it is necessary to consider their interactions and unique characteristics.
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A Macroscopic View is Multi-Dimensional. Prismatic.
Micro, Meso, Macro, Mundo. Historical context, present conditions, and future visions are equally important considerations for comprehensive analysis.
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A Macroscopic View Considers Depth and Causality
As we move through the layers of a system tools like Causal Layered Analysis, we find the true drivers and root cause issues of todays challenges.
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A Macroscopic View Looks for Natural Patterns
Cycles, Spirals, and Waves Emerge as Structures
