INQUIRY (Cycle of)

Warning

This content comes from the automatic capture of a book, and is pending review. Some links may not point to their intended target.

Charles François (2004). INQUIRY (Cycle of). International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics, 2(1): 1714.

Collection	International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics
Year	2004
Vol. (num.)	2(1)
ID	◀ 1714 ▶
Object type	Methodology or model

P. LEDINGTON describes as follows the “five steps (that) provide an organized approach to inquiring about the situation”:

“First, investigate the situation and gain an intuitive understanding of it;

“Second, grasp some basic names for ideas that are felt relevant to that understanding;

“Third, formalise the ideas into models, using some rules of formalisation;

“Fourth, compare the models with the features of the situation and assess the areas of match and mis-match;

“Fifth, evaluate attitudes towards the situation in terms of problems and courses of action based upon the revised understanding that has emerged from the formal process of inquiry” (1992, p.51).

As systems and situations have the bad habit of never stay put, S. BEER should surely add: and start it all over again, and again, as many times as needed.