Improvement science has guided my health improvement work for more than three decades. Deming’s definition of a system includes the critical understanding that a system’s outputs (results) are a function of the attributes of the system itself–“Every system is perfectly designed to give the results it gets.” (Outcomes, the impact or import of outputs for the beneficiaries (customers) of a system, connects the systems to a specific context–specific beneficiaries.)
Recently, evolution science has intrigued me as an even more powerful frame to understand the history of (social, cultural, technical) systems change and the current opportunities to accelerate change ever more aligned with our values (improvement).
David Sloan Wilson has been perhaps the leading advocate for this (evolutionary) view of life–to paraphrase Darwin. Wilson’s key insights, for me, are three-fold:
- Evolution requires three things: variation, selection and heritability. Variation may be random or planned. Crucially, in the context of specific selection pressures, the most fit attributes are selected to continue. And then these more fit attributes then are passed down to the next generation (retained or inherited).
- Evolution–the transfer of information across generations–occurs in four domains for humans: genetic, epigenetic, learning and culture.
- Genetic–offspring resemble parents by the passing down of genes
- Epigenetic–offspring may retain characteristics of parents through selective gene expression
- Learning–information may be transferred across generations by adaptive learning. This may occur in a variety of organisms but is particularly powerful in humans.
- Culture–because of human’s capacity to use symbols to represent objects, people and events that are not actually present, the learned behaviors (and symbols) can be passed down from one generation to the next. And while gene selection can take hundreds of years in humans, cultural evolution may be exceedingly rapid.
3. Multilevel selection–evolution occurs at multiple levels at the same time. Individuals are typically also members of groups and selection occurs at both the individual level and at the group level. But groups are also, typically parts of larger groups. So selection occurs in groups of groups. Often there is a trade-off between the individual benefit and the group benefit. Individuals may have to forego certain benefits for the “good of the group.” (My example is a basketball team. Not everyone can (or needs to) be the highest scorer. But by developing differentiated roles, players can develop behaviors that provide a winning formula for the team. )
“Selfishness beats altruism within groups. Altruistic groups beat selfish groups. Everything else is commentary.” (Wilson and Wilson 2007)
It’s evolution all the way up and down.
David Sloan Wilson, Paul Atkins and Steven Hayes have integrated this evolutionary view of life with Elinor Ostrom’s core design principles for managing a commons and Acceptance, Commitment Therapy (or Training in a non-therapeutic context).
More later…
NH Collective Health Impact 