Identity

# Who are we coming in here? (introductions)

Second Iteration

# Who do we each need to be to have this work out? (principles and standards)

Next: Intention

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# FROM Alenna Leonard's Cybernetic Glossary:

An identity is the mark of a whole, an indication of a distinction which may be consistently recognized or which persists over time. It refers to the closure which delineates the boundary between this thing or activity and another. An identity may be perceived by an outside observer or by a sentient being observing him, her or itself. There are a number of means by which identity may be revealed. Internally, it is served by memory, by a sense of body, one's position in a family, community or occupation. Externally it is observed by consistency in form, pattern, purpose or product. The external attribution of identity may vary according to the outlook of the observer; e.g. in one culture the second cousins will be considered part of an identity called 'the Jones Family', in others, not. In mathematics, an identity is an operand which remains the same after undergoing a transformation (a = a'). Its boundaries are taken as given. Individuals, objects, organizations, numbers and other symbols and actions in context possess identity. The criterion of being distinguishable marks an identity. But, what can be distinguished in one context may not be distinguishable in another. Questions of scale raise some problems but, once noted, they are easily acknowledged. When issues relate to culture, values or paradigms of any sort, it may be difficult to see what is distinguishable or not in the same way that it is difficult to say what is information and what is noise.

Organizational and individual identities may falter in the face of massive changes in themselves or their environments or become alienated from their sense of wholeness by disturbances or setbacks. When this occurs, they may compensate by focusing attention on the identities of their parts or those of the larger groupings to which they belong. In an organization, this may be a work group, division or one of the factions in an organization at one end of the scale or the industry. At the personal level it may be one or more of the current roles of an individual or a past role associated with pleasure or security. In practice, an identity is recognized according to agreed conventions. For purposes of testing, what can be said of a red car of a given make and model can, with confidence, be said of a yellow one and we have a one-to-one mapping. In other circumstances, only the thing itself - such as an ecosystem- will do as an identity mapping. We, as observers, confer identity on parts of our world by selecting, ordering or perhaps, inventing them. # SOURCE For the identity mapping: Ashby, W. R. (1956). Introduction to Cybernetics. London: Meuthen & Company. In the context of behavior, numerous texts in biology and psychology. # EXAMPLES • a pebble on a beach • a company asking the question What business are we in?' • an emergent genre • a characteristic cry or call • aname # NON-EXAMPLES • a pebble on a beach to someone standing twenty feet away • two companies which have merged but have not made any headway in recognizing and synthesizing their disparate cultures • a random assembly of objects; unless mounted or nominated by an artist • an idea expressed in language we don’t understand • a process with an unknown context; e.g. running' without an indication of whether it is a jogger, the tide, the sands of time, melting chocolate or a movie

# PROBABLE ERROR • Ashby: mistaking an identical transformation for a nullity • Not perceiving a threshold of change or closure of an activity • missing the significance of an event in time

# SEE Closure; Distinction; Boundary