The Cyb3rSyn Kaleidoscope - Episode 7

Reflecting on Paradoxes...

Laksh Raghavan
September 21, 2025

We’ll touch upon a couple of different topics in today’s Cyb3rSyn Kaleidoscope… Let’s dive in.

Cyb3rSyn Labs Podcast
- Systems Thinking Foundations: Graham Berrisford
- Facilitating Change: Jan Lelie
Reflecting on Paradoxes
Accumulative vs Convergent Knowledge

Cyb3rSyn Labs Podcast

Cyb3rSyn Labs Podcast explores multidisciplinary insights that help improve the effectiveness of Tech. Practitioners, Executives and Entrepreneurs.

We are now over 20 episodes with insights from various guests that have peeled away from the mainstream practices. The Cyb3rSyn Community members get exclusive ‘first dibs’ access to the full episodes and can discuss the same using the online interactive features of the Cyb3rSyn Labs Community portal and mobile apps.

After a time lag, many if not all of these episodes make their way to YouTube. I’d like to highlight a couple of videos from the public list.

Give the podcasts a listens and share your feedback….

Systems Thinking Foundations: Graham Berrisford

In this episode, Graham Berrisford returns for a presentation on Systems Thinking Foundations. Graham has posted about 100 substantial articles in LinkedIn over the last decade or so. Having read several that I liked, I invited Graham to assemble his essays into books, with the idea of organizing and publishing them exclusively to the Cyb3rSyn Community members . This presentation is a sneak peek into Graham’s third book, “A Systems Thinker’s View of System Thinkers”. It compares and contrasts several systems thinkers’ ideas, with new insights.

The current list of all e-books available to the Cyb3rSyn Community members (along with future publication schedule) can be found here.

Covering key concepts from his newly published book, Graham delves into the philosophical, analytical, and pedagogical aspects of systems theory. He discusses ideas from renowned thinkers like Stafford Beer, Ludwig von Bertalanffy, and Ross Ashby, while also touching on general system theory, cybernetics, and much more.

I follow his presentation with a few questions… Give it a listen.

Facilitating Change: Jan Lelie

In this episode, we are joined by Jan Lelie founder of Mind at Work. Highlighting the paradoxes of problem-solving and the significance of facilitation, Jan shares profound insights on building effective organizations, improving communication, and driving innovation.

He discusses the importance of courage, trust, and collaboration, providing real-world examples and transformative case studies. Tune in to uncover the power of facilitation and the importance of embracing paradoxes ...

The reason I’m highlighting this video is connected to the next topic…

Reflecting on Paradoxes

What would a bunch of Systems Thinkers in The Netherlands talk about when they meet on a Friday afternoon?

I was curious/excited to participate in one such session last Friday - Thanks to the invitation from Jan Lelie 🙏

As it turns out, it was the monthly meet-up of the SCIO's local chapter.

The event was organized and kicked-off by an awesome presentation by Ed van der Winden. The topic was an important one - with the call to action towards systems practice (action). The presentation had a lot of practical advice driving home the importance of conversations!

The entire session was SO interactive with active participation, comments, and questions from the members.

It started from the very first slide - The Title: Calling for a pivot from "Systems Practice for Everyone – Simple, but Not Easy" to "Systems Practice for Everyone – Simple, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 Not Easy" 😀

Here is my key takeaway from the meet-up: 𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐨𝐱𝐞𝐬, 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐦𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦 - 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐫 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐬𝐞, (𝐭𝐫𝐲 𝐭𝐨 ) 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦.

Accumulative vs Convergent Knowledge

During a recent chat with friends, we were discussing about how the STEM types in Silicon Valley are over-indexing on knowledge that accumulates. Yes, much of science and engineering has been about the accumulation and organization of knowledge. But knowledge only grows when it is of the reductionist kind.

Not that we don’t need to seek this type of reductionist knowledge, but we also have to seek knowledge that is about recognizing invariant patterns that persist across different contexts. This perspective explains why ancient philosophical truths remain relevant today - they represent invariant abstractions that transcend specific historical details.

This necessitates connecting the dots from various disciplines and thinking for yourself given your unique context. If you are interested, you’d want to order a copy of the new book launching next weekend - ‘Connecting this Dots’ by Harish Jose and Venkatesh Krishnamurthy. If you like the e-book version, join the Cyb3rSyn Community to get a free bonus companion podcast (one for each chapter in the book) and join the conversation.

The Cyb3rSyn Kaleidoscope - Episode 7

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