TALE: A Possible Theme called “Strategic Moves”

Oliver Ding

Published in

TALE500

12 min readFeb 13, 2024

Mapping Psychological Knowledge Engagement and Structural Choice

On Feb 8, 2024, I edited a possible book titled Creative Diagramming: The Fifth Way of Knowing and Early Discovery.

What’s next?

The above image is the answer!

Why?

See the two images below.

In 2023, I worked on the Mental Moves project and the Social Moves project.

These two projects produce two possible books (drafts) and a set of knowledge frameworks.

Mental Moves (book, v1) — Introduction (July 31, 2023)
Mental Moves (book, v1) — Table of Contents (July 31, 2023)
Social Moves (book, v1, 2023) (Dec 19, 2023)

A major outcome is Attachance Theory which is a sub-theory of the Ecological Practice Approach.

The Mental Moves project applied Attachance Theory to study knowledge diagrams, knowledge projects, and mental models. The outcome is a new approach to creative cognition.

The Social Moves project applied Attachance Theory to study Activity, Knowledge, and Mental Representation. The outcome is an integrated ecological approach to social cognition.

Following these two projects, the Strategic Moves project will develop an ecological approach to strategic cognition.

This post shares some ideas about the Strategic Moves project.

1. Ecological Strategic Cognition

On August 4, 2023, I published a post titled TALE: A Possible Theme called “Ecological Strategic Cognition”.

The post uses 6A to define a new approach to strategy-related thinking and doing.

Anticipation (Aspirations — Achievement)
Activity (strategy as a process of discovery and performance)
Approach (knowledge for strategic thinking)
Affection (the emotional aspect of strategic activity)
Affordance (material opportunities for immediate thinking and doing)
Attachance (strategy as moving between thematic spaces)

Ecological Strategic Cognition is about Rationality and Intelligence, as well as Anticipation, Activity, Approach, Affection, Affordance, and Attachance.

I also applied Thematic Space Theory (TST) to explore Ecological Strategic Cognition.

Originally, I only considered the five-space model for Strategic Curation Activity. Inspired by the Mental Moves: The Attachance Approach to Ecological Creative Cognition, I realized that there are more thematic spaces for strategic-related thinking and doing.

Three-space model: The ECHO Way, The 5A Slow Cognition Model
Five-space model: The Strategic Curation Model, The Ecological Transformation Framework
Seven-space model: The Kinds of Project Engagement model
Sixteen-space model: The Thematic Matrix Canvas
Eighteen-space model: The Platform Genidentity Matrix

I have developed many knowledge models or knowledge frameworks. Some of them are based on the concept of thematic spaces. See the above list. Though these models were not initially developed for strategic activities, we could use them for strategy-related thinking and doing.

You can find more details in TALE: A Possible Theme called “Ecological Strategic Cognition”.

2. Case Study and Creative Diagramming

The theme of “Ecological Strategic Cognition” offers a theoretical framework for the Strategic Moves project.

At the operational level, I selected two methods for the Strategic Moves project.

The Mental Moves project was guided by the Case Study method. I conducted case studies about “the Attachances of Moving between Thematic Spaces” one by one. For example, the diagrams below are about the case study about the “Part — Whole” Attachance.

You can find more details in Mental Moves #1: The Transformation of Mental Elements.

The Social Moves project relied on the Creative Diagramming method. I used “Diagramming as Thinking” to develop an integrated ecological approach to study Social Cognition. For example, the diagram below is the Ecological Formism Framework which is a sub-framework of the approach.

You can find more details in Frame for Work: The Hermeneutics of Knowledge Frameworks and Ecological Formism.

The Strategic Moves project will use both the Case Study method and the Creative Diagramming method.

3. Psychological Knowledge Engagement

I also designed a cover image for a possible book titled Strategic Moves: Mapping Knowledge Engagement and Structural Choice.

The sub-title of the possible book highlights two themes:

Knowledge Engagement
Structural Choice

The theme of “Knowledge Engagement” refers to the Knowledge Engagement Framework which is a sub-framework of Creative Life Theory.

At the operational level, I started working on some case studies of “Psychological Knowledge Engagement” in Nov 2023.

In Nov 2023, I did a case study of Robert Kegan’s Knowledge Enterprise. The possible book will add more case studies about other types of psychological workers, such as novice counselors.

I discussed four types of psychological knowledge engagement using the Knowledge Discovery Canvas.

In the real-life world, people can move between these different areas. A person could engage with psychological knowledge in different situations.

Let’s use Robert Kegan’s creative life as an example to see a multiple-role psychological knowledge enterprise.

Source: https://www.gse.harvard.edu/directory/faculty/robert-kegan

Robert Kegan is a teacher, a therapist, a researcher-theorist, and an author.

From 1982 to 2016, he moved from theoretical development to practical applications. His early two books were published by Harvard University Press, his late books were published by Harvard Business Review Press and other publishers.

There is no boundary in his journey of engaging with psychological knowledge.

In Knowledge Engagement: The Utilization of Theoretical Resources, I introduced a diagram to discuss the theme of utilizing theoretical resources. Now we can use the diagram to see Robert Kegan’s psychological knowledge engagement.

He curated two major philosophical views together to build a new approach to developmental psychology which is a subject of pure science. Based on these theoretical resources, he developed more ideas in clinical psychology and organizational studies and applied these ideas to clinical psychotherapy, etc.

You can find more details in Psychological Knowledge Engagement and Robert Kegan’s Knowledge Enterprise.

I also conducted other three case studies of Psychological Knowledge Engagement in Dec 2023.

The Mindset Engagement Project
The Likert 7 Project
Psychological Counseling Platform

From Sept to Nov, I worked on a collaborative project about the concept of Mindset. A friend of mine and I worked on a thematic conversation about developing a brand-new theoretical framework of Mindset.

You can find more details in Value Circle #5: Building A Joint Knowledge Center.

The Likert 7 Project is about a ranking system that allows people to rank anything with a 7-point scale. One of the reasons behind the project is the tool could help people put the value of the pursuit of excellence into practice. The code name of the project is Likert 7 (LKT7).

The project is a side-project of a friend of mine. As a C-suite executive of a public listing company, my friend is interested in developing and promoting tools of thought to encourage the value of the pursuit of excellence.

The diagram below represents our thematic conversation about the project.

After closing phase 1 of the project of Mindset Engagement, I started the project of Psychological Knowledge Engagement on Nov 29, 2023. I realized that it could be a great project for my work on the Knowledge Engagement approach and the Social Moves project.

The four thematic areas and ten thematic zones offered me a framework for understanding the complexity of the contemporary ecosystem of psychological knowledge.

The THEORY Area: The Home of Theoretical Psychologists
The PRACTICE Area: The Home of Actors
The END Area: The Home of Empirical Psychologists
The MEAN Area: The Home of Intervenors

This framework may be wrong, or too simple. But, it is a good hypothesis for an empirical research project.

The above three case studies are based on the Knowledge Discovery Canvas. Let’s see an example that uses some models of Activity Theory as the foundation of case studies. See the diagram below.

This case study was inspired by two friends of mine. One of them had rich experiences of psychological knowledge engagement. He developed psychological assessment software from 2004 to 2010. From 2014 to the present, he established a successful cognitive scientific education company. Last year, he developed a new theoretical approach to personality psychology. Based on the new theory, he recently launched a brand-new system of psychotherapy.

In contrast, the other one is working on a journey of career transition. In 2022, She left a job at a big tech company and started learning psychological counseling by attending a course offered by a digital psychological knowledge platform. Several months ago, she finished the course and started her new career as a psychological counselor.

I reflected on their creative life stories and realized that there is something called “Psychological Counseling Platforms” in their stories.

You can find more details in Social Moves: Thematic Zones, Thematic Areas, and Social Territory.

In 2024, I will conduct more case studies of Psychological Knowledge Engagement and explore more knowledge frameworks.

4. Structural Choice

The second theme is “Structural Choice”.

This is the first time I have used the theme in my articles.

However, if you are familiar with the Ecological Practice Approach which is inspired by Ecological Practice, you will not be surprised that I use the term.

In 2017, I developed the SET framework. SET stands for Structured Engagement Theory. See the diagram below.

The SET framework was developed as a design model for one-to-one conversation platform design. These projects share the following aspects:

Host: a special type of actors who host the whole activity.
Structured Engagement: the activity is human-to-human interactions with a special structured process.
Environment: the environment is also part of the design of the activity.

The term SET was inspired by Ecological Psychologist Roger Barker’s Behavior Settings Theory.

You can find more details in The SET Framework.

In Nov 2022, I also developed a typology of Activity. See the diagram below.

One aspect of the activity is the environmental setting.

You can find more details in A Typology for Anticipatory Activity System.

5. Domain Discovery Activity

On June 13, 2022, I defined a new type of Second-order Activity for the Anticipatory Activity System (AAS) framework: Domain Discovery Activity.

The above diagram highlights four keywords for Domain Discovery Activity: Events, Projects, Perspectives, and Themes of Practice. These keywords are adopted from the Epistemology of Domain.

On July 27, 2021, I finished a 71-page thesis titled The Epistemology of Domain which offers a brand new theory about Domain.

The subtitle of the thesis The Epistemology of Domain is Themes of Practice, The Landscape of Domains, and Niche Construction. The core idea of the Themes of Practice framework is about the transformation between individual life themes and collective culture themes. Niche Construction Theory is about the individual — environment relationship. The thesis focuses on the “Person — Domain” relationship, not only on the concept of Domain.

In an article titled Life Strategy: The Domain Discovery Activity, I turned The Epistemology of Domain into the Domain Discovery Toolkit including the following sub-frameworks:

The Discovery as Development Framework
The Event[Enterprise(Project)] Framework
The Themes of Practice Framework
The Model of Developmental Project
The Model of Project Network
Mapping Networks of Enterprise
Four Practical Perspectives

You can find more details in Life Strategy: The Domain Discovery Activity.

6. Revisiting the Structure of Context

In the past several years, I have written a set of books (drafts) and developed a set of frameworks for the Ecological Practice Approach.

The concept of Attachance was initially introduced in After Affordance: The Ecological Approach to Human Action (2020).

The concept of Attachance is planned to develop as 1) an ecological practice concept for practice studies such as interaction design and startup innovation, and 2) a philosophical concept for developing a social theory.

The book After Affordance only achieves the first goal and it focuses on the following acts:

Attaching to an environment
Detaching from an environment
Attaching to an object
Detaching from an object

Mental Moves and Social Moves went further and built a path to achieve the second goal.

I also introduced some related frameworks in After Affordance. For example:

The Infoniche Framework
The Ecological Structure Schema (ESS) framework

In 2021, I applied the Infoniche Framework to study Developmental Platforms. You can find more details in Platform as Infoniche.

The Ecological Structure Schema (ESS) framework lists eight types of structures of context for understanding Attachance.

5.1 Other as Context

a is an entity, b is another entity. This structure means Other as Context. a attaches to b, b detaches from a.

5.2 Network as Context

a is an entity. A is a network, B is another network. This structure means a detaches from network A and attaches to network B.

5.3 Whole as Context

A is a whole, a is a part of the A. This structure means a detaches from A.

5.4 Circuit as Context

A is a Circuit, a is an entity and part of the A. This structure means a detaches from A.

5.5 Container as Context

a is an entity and B is a container. This structure means a attaches to B or detaches from B.

5.6 Chain as Context

a is an entity and A, B, C, D, E are events and form a chain. a is at the end of an event and the beginning of the next event.

5.7 Levels as Context

a is an entity and A, B, C are levels. This structure shows a detaches from A and attaches to B.

5.8 Dimensions as Context

a is an entity and A, B, C are dimensions. This structure shows a detaches from A and attaches to B.

Since the Ecological Structure Schema (ESS) framework is an abstract model, we can’t directly apply it to the Strategic Moves project. However, we can use it as a meta-framework to classify the following moves:

Moves between Mental Models
Moves between Projects
Multiple Moves
Moves between Thematic Areas
Moves between Thematic Spaces

We can also use the Ecological Structure Schema (ESS) framework to reflect on mental moves/social moves and design mental moves/social moves.

7. The Trilogy Strategy

Is there a strategic technique behind this decision?

I am using a simple technique to develop my knowledge enterprise:

The “Trilogy” Strategy for Knowledge Creators

According to Wikipedia, “A trilogy is a set of three works of art that are connected and can be seen either as a single work or as three individual works. They are commonly found in literature, film, and video games, and are less common in other art forms. Three-part works that are considered components of a larger work also exist, such as the triptych or the three-movement sonata, but they are not commonly referred to with the term ‘trilogy’.”

For example, The Lord of the Rings is a good example of a Trilogy.