Using Models to Understand and Manage
Our limited ability to see, experience and understand places reality far beyond our comprehension. To learn, create solutions and manage problems we create models that simplify nature so that it fits our ability well enough for us to solve problems; every model is an approximation.
George E.P. Box famously said “All models are wrong, but some are useful”.
They reflect the underlying reality
They provide a common framework for making sense.
They enable us to better manage and organize
An example of how models fail comes from Sandra K Mitchell’s book, “Unsimple Truths: Science Complexity and Policy”. Galileo’s law of free fall was a reasonable model to manage gravity but it is contingent on the mass of the earth to be what it is. Newton’s law of universal gravitation was a better model but it requires that the bodies not be super massive or dense and not too close to each other. For those situations, we need Einstein’s theory of relativity but that fails when working in the sub-atomic space where quantum physics is more useful. Thus, even in physics, models only work within certain contingent circumstances. The common thread is that more useful models fit the properties of the environment or problem at the deepest level possible.
To know the usefulness of our healthcare delivery model, we need to look at its achievement of quality and sustainable cost. To understand why it has failed, we must revisit what we know about complexity and systems.
Categories
Tags
Popular Tags
- complex adaptive system 30
- networks 24
- social determinants of health 24
- smart networks 23
- systems thinking 23
- community 22
- self-organized 21
- affordable care 19
- outcome-based care 19
- individualized care 18
- collaboration 15
- integrated care 15
- shared purpose 13
- wicked problems 12
- social services 11
- community health 10
- complex adaptive systems 10
- managed care 10
- health outcomes 8
- models 8
- Fostering Hope Initiative 7
- human services 6
- population health 6
- Lund Report 5
- collective impact 5
- Oregon Health Forum 4
- case study 4
- relationships 4
- Ashby's Law 3
- human capital 3
- real value 3
- interdependence 2
- mutual support 2
- prevention 2
- system behavior 2
- ACT.md 1
- Catholic Community Services 1
- Curandi news 1
- HUB 1
- ShelterCare 1
- cascading failure 1
- connection 1
- ecosystem 1
- homeless 1
- hum 1
- inequality 1
- safety net 1
- sponsorship 1