[Hands on] Strengthening Systems Thinking By Writing with Diana Montalion

At DDD conferences and workshops, we focus a lot on modeling but not on writing. Most of us working as systems designers do A LOT of communicating, sharing our thinking with words. Writing a fabulous tool for thinking.
Constructing something whole and actionable from abstract ideas requires creating conceptual integrity. Fred Brooks says "Conceptual integrity is the most important consideration in systems design."

Unfortunately, we are truly terrible at creating or maintaining conceptual integrity … unless we are supported by practices.

Fortunately, writing is the practice of crafting conceptual integrity.
Writing practices can help us:
- strengthen metacognition: awareness of our own thought process.
- synthesize knowledge, experience and sound judgment into well-reasoned recommendations.
- learn.
- navigate uncertainty through inquiry.
- think well, together.

In this hands-on talk, we will write. You'll try some writing practices that, when done regularly, improve your ability to think, learn and lead. We’ll discuss the difference between free writing, systemic reasoning, and structuring recommendations for varying audiences. We’ll talk about the Fire Swamp that is “getting feedback.”
Fair warning: it will be a lot of fun.
Bring your favorite pen.

About Diana:

Diana is the author of the upcoming O'Reilly book, Learning Systems Thinking: Essential Nonlinear Skills & Practices for Software Professionals. She also teaches the course Writing as Thinking, which includes an ebook. As a technologist, shas 18+ years experience engineering and architecting software systems for organizations including Stanford, The Gates Foundation, Memorial Sloan Kettering and Teach For All. She has served as Principal Systems Architect for The Economist and The Wikimedia Foundation. Her company, Mentrix, publishes courses and learning materials for aspiring nonlinear thinkers and builds modern software systems for diverse clients. Diana lives in the Hudson Valley (New York, USA) with three dogs, one cat and nine chickens.