Super User

Super User

Brief beginnings of a paper never finished. The theme is the idea of standardizing and qualifying the most effective aspects of group work. There is an abstract, followed by three short  subsections titled: Inherent Conditions of Group Work, Optional Conditions of Group Work and Assumptions About the Group's Task.

Used as a handout for a seminar talk for NASA engineers. In the talk, Warfield began with a survey of the origins of the field of "Systems Engineering" described through his own experiences and intellectual development. He then discussed the work of several well-known systems people and organizations, as well as his own use and development of systems ideas in 1960's. Described work at Battelle, UVA, in Mexico and at Ford Motor Company. Concluded by introducing the “Behavior Outcomes Matrix," showing which Laws of Complexity relate strongly to which combinations on the Matrix. He emphasized the Lasswell concept of a specialized room for group work, and discusses the next step which he hoped would materialize - an observer's room or rooms, an "Urban Planetarium." Presentation before members of the System Requirements 3 (REQ3) NASA Short Course, held at Holiday Inn 1776, Williamsburg, VA 15-20 September 1996.

Building on Carvallo's analysis of the Systems Research Movement, Warfield develops a definition for the term conceptual science. Proceeds to explore its intrinsic links with all of science, through the process of systems science. Provides images of science and conceptual science and contends that systems science can be constructed in terms of linkages in these images. See also, "Science and Systems Science a Technological Perspective" which was written as background for panel presentation.

Sunday, 14 June 2015 16:09

The Role of the IM Broker

Deals with the duties and responsibilities of the Interactive Management Workshop "Broker" and his/her relationships with the Facilitator and the Executive of the organization. This article was used as a class handout by Warfield in 1990 when he was working with the DSMC classes. Many parts of this article are repeated and elaborated in Chapter 5 of the Handbook of Interactive Management which was published 4 years later.

This paper advocates the use of interpretive structural models to identify and represent value decisions in educational system design, based on a consistent set of values from the educational philosophy of Ralph Barton Perry. Presented at IEEE-SMC International Conference on Cybernetics and Society, Systems Man and Cybernetics Society, Hyatt-Regency Cambridge Hotel, Boston, MA, 7-9 October 1980.



Critique of the Integrative Studies movement, particularly its linguistic and intellectual focus. Proposes remedies in a section "Basic Propositions for Change in Academia" and states "The most essential product of integrative studies should be a structured (qualitative) system model.”

A set of Lecture Notes plus 72 PowerPoint slides. The presentation was a summary of the theory of the Basic Triad of All Science. In it, Warfield asserts that all science is composed of three parts: the human being, thought and language. He proceeds to cover the Domain of Science Model, neutral science, group pathologies and the Work Program of Complexity. Presented at 2-6 August 2002 joint meeting of International Society of Systems Science & Chinese Systems Society, Shanghai, China.


A special book critique of A Science of Generic Design written by Anita Taylor, a profession in the George Mason University Communication Department. Includes penciled notations and post-it notes.

Sunday, 14 June 2015 16:09

Resume: John N. Warfield, April 2004

A version of Warfield’s Resume that he donated to GMU Special Collections and Archives in 2004.

Sunday, 14 June 2015 16:09

An Example IM Workshop Plan (Restored)

A reworked example of an interactive Management Workshop. See also, 1) "An Example IM Workshop Plan (1992 Draft)" 2) "An Example IM Workshop Plan (IM Workshop Prototype Plan)"