Value Circle #4: From “ARCH” to “Activity Circle”

Oliver Ding

Published in

Curativity Center

20 min readOct 12, 2023

A Case Study of Internal Moves within Activity Analysis Center

This article is part of the Value Circle project. You can find more related articles below:

Value Circle #1: From “Mental Moves” to “Value Circle” — August 7, 2023
Value Circle #2: Engaging with Lui’s Theoretical Sociology — August 9, 2023
Value Circle #3: TALE as A Thematic Transformation Hub — August 31, 2023

The Value Circle project aims to reflect on the development of several knowledge centers and explore the dynamics of networked knowledge centers. It follows the Mental Moves project, especially the idea of “Mental Moves between Knowledge Centers”.

This article shares an example of internal mental moves within a knowledge center: Activity Analysis Center.

Activity Analysis Center was born from the Activity U project (phase II). I have used the development of the Activity Analysis Center as an example for discussing several cases in the Mental Moves project.

This article focuses on the development of the Activity Analysis & Intervention (AAI) Project and related ideas.

The Brief of Activity Analysis & Intervention (AAI)

2022: A Collaboration between Curativity Center and Activity Analysis Center

2022: From Today Systems Intervention (TSI) to Applied Knowledge Curation (AKC)

2022: From Applied Knowledge Curation (AKC) to Activity Analysis Intervention (AAI)

2023: The Value Chain of Knowledge Engagement

2023: A New Model of AAI

2023: The Activity Circle Model

2023: A Thematic Space called “Activity Analysis”

2023: A Case Study of “Social Moves”

2021: The NEXT Way

2023: A New Meaning of “Activity Analysis”

2020: Life as Activity

The Brief of Activity Analysis & Intervention (AAI)

The idea of “Activity Analysis & Intervention (AAI)” was born on July 15, 2022. It was inspired by Curativity Center’s “Applied Knowledge Curation”.

In 2022, I used it to test the idea of the “Synergy Effects” of Knowledge Centers.

On September 12, 2023, I designed the above logo and planned to relaunch the AAI project.

On September 25, 2023, I modified the original AAI model.

On September 29, 2023, I relaunched the AAI project with a new model which is based on the “Activity Circle” model.

On September 30, 2023, the new AAI model inspired me to make a model about the theme of “Social Moves”.

During the process, I also redefined the meaning of “Activity Analysis”. Originally, it was just a name for a knowledge center. Now it has its theoretical meaning.

I defined “First-order Analysis”, “Second-order Analysis”, and “Activity Intervention” for the new AAI model.

This is a great example of Internal Moves within a knowledge center. The rest of the article will offer more details.

2022: A Collaboration between Curativity Center and Activity Analysis Center

The theme of “Value Circle” was born in Jan 2023. I used the concept of “Synergy Effects” to describe the collaboration between knowledge centers.

On Sept 15, 2022, I introduced the Thematic Journey Map with several case studies. One case study is about “Developing A Service” for the Activity Analysis Center.

Activity Analysis Center was born from the Activity U project which is a three-year journey of engaging with Activity Theory. From 2020 to 2022, I run several knowledge projects about Activity Theory. You can find more details in Slow Cognition: Mapping Thematic Journey (Engaging with Activity Theory, 2020–2022).

My journey of Engaging with Activity Theory started with knowledge curation and moved to knowledge creation. It started with developing my tacit knowledge about Activity Theory and moved to develop a knowledge center about the “Activity” theme for others.

On August 5, 2022, I started running the Activity Analysis project as an independent knowledge center.

The Activity Analysis Intervention (AAI) Program is the first collaborative project between the Activity Analysis Center and Curativity Center.

The AAI program was born with a synergy effect between Activity Analysis Center and Curativity Center.

What’s the relationship between Curativity Center and Activity Analysis Center?

See the diagram below.

In August 2022, I started working on developing a business model for the Activity Analysis Center. As a knowledge center, the Activity Analysis Center can be understood as an independent Knowledge Center.

I also used the Anticipatory Activity System (AAS) framework to understand a Knowledge Center:

First-order Activity: Knowledge Service
Second-order Activity: Knowledge Discovery

This framework led to a challenge: How does Activity Analysis Center develop a Knowledge Service for practitioners?

The answer was inspired by Curativity Center’s Applied Knowledge Curation (AKC).

2022: From Today Systems Intervention (TSI) to Applied Knowledge Curation (AKC)

On July 12, 2022, Curativity Center developed the Applied Knowledge Curation framework.

From Jan 2022 to June 2022, I designed several toolkits and programs by curating knowledge frameworks as modules. Eventually, I used Applied Knowledge Curation to define this activity.

To my surprise, the process of Applied Knowledge Curation echoes the TSI meta-methodology which was introduced by Mike Jackson in the 2003 book Systems Thinking: Creative Holism for Managers.

The TSI methodology stands for Total Systems Intervention. Its three phases are labeled Creativity, Choice, and Implementation.

As a dynamic meta-methodology, TSI should be considered as a continual cycle around creativity, choice, and implementation.

Both TSI and Applied Knowledge Curation can be understood as three-phase activities: 1) understanding the challenge, 2) developing a solution, and 3) implementing a program to deliver the solution.

See the diagram below.

In phase 2, there is a difference between TSI and Applied Knowledge Curation. For TSI, phase 2 means choosing an appropriate systems intervention methodology as a dominant approach. For Applied Knowledge Curation, I have to achieve the goal with two steps:

1) frame the clients’ situation with an abstract model, and
2) select appropriate frameworks as modules for the model.

Why did I need to take two steps while TSI only needs one step for phase 2?

The answer is the Maturity of knowledge frameworks.

TSI’s knowledge resources are well-developed systems approaches. Each approach has been developing for many years. However, my approach to Applied Knowledge Curation only considers selecting modules from my frameworks.

You can find more details in The Curated Mind: Creative Holism and Applied Knowledge Curation.

2022: From Applied Knowledge Curation (AKC) to Activity Analysis Intervention (AAI)

On July 15, 2022, the Activity Analysis Center adopted the Applied Knowledge Curation framework to develop a new service called Activity Analysis Intervention.

See the diagram below.

The Activity Analysis Intervention program aims to offer a Theory-based Reflection solution for practitioners. It doesn’t want to directly solve problems for practitioners but offers a new way to improve mindset by adopting theoretical perspectives.

I roughly considered the following four steps for Activity Analysis Intervention:

Challenge
Model
Module
Program

I used my jougaging with Activity Theory” as journey an example.

Challenge

This step is about Discovery. It aims to understand clients’ situational challenges and needs.

For the journey of “Engaging with Activity Theory”, my situational challenge is reflecting on my three years of journey about Activity Theory. I need both theoretical frameworks or concepts and methods to help me understand four major projects as a meaningful whole.

The clients’ challenges can be self-reflection, team change, or the transformation of social systems. My challenge is self-reflection.

Model

This step is about Orientation. It aims to frame clients’ situations with an abstract model. This step is pretty unique because the method doesn’t want to directly solve concrete problems.

The abstract model can be a rough perspective or dimension such as “hierarchy”, “network”, “mediation”, “platform”, “development”, “transformation”, “contradiction”, etc.

For example, Clay Spinuzzi selected the “Network” perspective for his project “Theorizing Knowledge Work in Telecommunications”.

In ordr to curate four projects as a meaningful whole, I used “Journey” and “Project” as metaphors to build the basic model.

Though “Journey” is not a theoretical concept of Activity Theory, I can use it as a metaphor for Orientation which only needs a rough connection.

Module

The third step is about Selection. It is about selecting appropriate frameworks as modules for the model. The field of Activity Theory and Social Practice theories has many theoretical approaches and frameworks. We can choose some frameworks and curate them together as a practical toolkit.

For example, Clay Spinuzzi selected “Activity Network” and “Actor-network Theory (ANT)” for his project.

There are three significant aspects of my journey of “Engaging with Activity Theory”: Themes, Instruments, and Individuals. Activity Theory is a large knowledge enterprise, its primary theme is “Activity”. I also noticed that I made several tools for the journey. Finally, my journey is an independent exploration. Thus, I considered “Instruments” as the primary dimension and selected Lev Vygotsky’s “Mediating Action” as the primary model because it is about individual actions.
I also selected several ideas from other approaches for Primary Operational Concepts and Secondary Operational Concepts.

Each operational concept can refer to a related model or framework. Since these frameworks are part of my tacit knowledge, I can use them easily.

For other people, it may take time to learn these related models. Or, we can let them select frameworks for operational concepts.

Program

The final step is about implementing. It means designing and hosting an intervention program with the practical toolkit which is the outcome of the above steps.

My case is for self-reflection, so the implement is very simple. I just need to collect facts about the four projects and put them on the Thematic Journey Map. I also conducted “Mapping Developmental Project” for each project.

If we apply the “Activity Analysis Intervention” program to team change and the transformation of social systems, then the implementation step could be complicated.

As mentioned above, the Activity Analysis Intervention program aims to offer a Theory-based Reflection solution for practitioners. The implementation step should be run by practitioners because they need to directly solve problems in their situations.

Unfortunately, I was busy on the Creative Life Curatoin project from Sept 2022 to Dec 2022. I only used the idea as an example of Synergy Effects between knowledge centers and wrote an article titled The ARCH of Synergy Effects on Sept 20, 2022.

There are many approaches to understanding Synergy Effects, I used the ARCH model for the present discussion.

The ARCH model only considers the interactions between two subjects which is a basic unit of a large system. See the diagram below.

Though I didn’t work on the AAI program in 2022, the article about ARCH inspired me to work on the ARCH project.

On Oct 1, 2022, I developed a new framework for ARCH. You can find more details in ARCH: A Visual Language of Interpersonal Interactions and Collaborative Project Engagement.

2023: The Value Chain of Knowledge Engagement

On Sept 12, 2023, I discussed the idea of a “Knowledge Value Chain” on Linkedin. Inspired by some authors’ ideas on the definition of “Behavioral Science”, I used the Knowledge Discovery Canvas to make a diagram about the knowledge value chain of behavioral science. See the diagram below.

Psychology (and other basic research fields) offers Theoretical Knowledge to Behavioral Science.
Behavioral Science translates Theoretical Knowledge into Practical Knowledge in order to serve Applied Behavioral Science.
Applied Behavioral Science applies Practical Knowledge to the real situations of Clients and makes real Behavior Change.

On Sept 13, 2023, I used Activity Theory and AAI to test the above diagram.

Psychology > Behavioral Science

Activity Theory or the “Cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT)” is an interdisciplinary philosophical framework for studying both individual and social aspects of human behavior.

According to Kaptelinin & Nardi (2012), “The immediate conceptual origins of activity can be found in Russian/Soviet psychology of the 1920s and 1930s. During that time theoretical explorations in Russian psychology were heavily influenced by Marxist philosophy… Leontiev’s activity theory emerged as an outgrowth of the sociocultural perspective. The theory employs a number of ideas developed by Lev Vygotsky, Leontiev’s mentor and friend. It is also strongly influenced by the work of Sergei Rubinshtein, a major figure in Russian psychology and a long-time colleague of Leontiev.” (p.13–14)

We claim that Activity Theory and related theoretical approaches are Theoretical Knowledge.

Behavioral Science > Applied Behavioral Science

The Project Engagement Approach is based on Oliver Ding’s 2021 book Project-oriented Activity Theory (draft). It can be seen as Practical Knowledge.

The Project Engagement Toolkit is a project-oriented toolkit for theory-based reflection and study. A significant aspect of the toolkit is it connects the following two theoretical approaches of Activity Theory together and offers a series of tools for practitioners in the age of projectification.

The Activity System Model (Yrjö Engeström, 1987)
Activity as Formation of Concept (Andy Blunden, 2010, 2012, 2014)

While Engeström’s model is perfect for dealing with traditional work projects, Blunden’s approach considers collaborative projects as the foundation of social movements and cultural innovation.

By curating the above two approaches together, the toolkit offers a cross-boundary solution for achieving a balance between individual impact and collective impact. In this way, the toolkit could lead us to an innovative way of connecting personal life themes and cultural themes in order to build a sustainable society together.

Applied Behavioral Science > Clients

Finally, Activity Analysis Center offers “Activity Analysis & Intervention” (AAI) to clients.

The “Activity Analysis & Intervention” (AAI) method leads to Private Knowledge for Clients.

To make the above map, I designed a logo for the AAI program.

This discussion and the new logo inspired me to relaunch the AAI project.

2023: A New Model of AAI

What did “relaunch the AAI project” mean?

As mentioned above, the idea of AAI was used as an example in the article titled The ARCH of Synergy Effects.

I wanted to make an independent page for the idea for further reference.

On September 25, 2023, I used Coach and Coachee as two sides to make a new version of the AAI model. While the AAI Coach works on Theoretical Knowledge, the AAI Coachee works on Practical Knowledge.

I also defined two types of activities of AAI:

Activity Analysis: Coach — Coachee
Activity Intervention: Coachee — Clients

The term “Activity Analysis” is used to refer to Improving Coachee’s Personal Knowledge while the term “Activity Intervention” is used to refer to Solve Clients’ Situational Problems.

Bottivity Analysis” and “Activity Intervention” contribute to the Outcome.

2023: The Activity Circle Model

The above idea was made on the morning of September 25, 2023. After lunch, I used the Activity Circle model to make a new diagram to represent the relationship between the Coach, the Consultant, and the Client.

Several months ago, I used the Activity Circle model to generate a framework called Knowledge Circle when I was working on researching Ping-keung Lui’s Knowledge Center.

After dinner, I got a new idea about the model. I realized that I could use “First-order Analysis” and “Second-order Analysis” to name two types of activities of AAI.

It means there are three types of activities in the AAI project:

First-order Analysis: Consultant — Client
Activity Intervention: Consultant — Client
Second-order Analysis: Coach — Consultant

On Sept 29, 2023, I added more details to the new AAI model and made two diagrams. See more details in The Activity Analysis & Intervention (AAI) Project.

What do Clients do?

Activity Awareness: Perceive challenges and opportunities
Activity Intervention: Solve situational problems or capture potential opportunities.

What do Consultants do?

Knowledge Awareness: Select relevant knowledge and tools
Activity Analysis: Utilize Activity-centered knowledge

What do Consultants do?

Activity Awareness: Perceive challenges and opportunities
Knowledge Discovery: Pay attention to the way to utilize Activity-centered knowledge

What do Coaches do?

Activity Analysis: Improve Consultants’ personal knowledge
Knowledge Curation: Improve the Theory-Practice connection

The whole process was pretty interesting. Within one day, I changed my mind three times.

Frame > Unframe > Reframe > Unframe > Reframe …

This is the secret of creative thinking!

The by-product is a theoretical concept called “Activity Analysis”.

2023: A Thematic Space called “Activity Analysis”

Once I have a new theoretical concept, it becomes a new mental focus that defines a center for a new creative thematic space.

Where is the creative thematic space?

You can find it through the link below:

Situational Note-taking: First-order Analysis and Second-order Analysis

A short note (Sept 25, 2023)

medium.com

Then, I started curating relevant ideas into the creative thematic space. For example, I added the following ideas into the thematic space.

The Knowledge Discovery canvas
The “Mental Tuning” framework
The “Field of Meta-learning” framework

The Knowledge Discovery Canvas is about Developing Tacit Knowledge. The new method of “Activity Analysis” means a new approach to developing a person’s Tacit Knowledge such as Self, Mind, Life, Mindset, etc by analyzing the person’s Activities.

On Sept 8, 2023, I developed the following Mental Tuning Framework. I didn’t mention Activity Theory in an article about the framework. Now we can connect it with Activity Theory.

Activity Theory sees a person’s mind as a developmental process within real-life activities. We can use Activity Theory to understand “Life Domains”.

We can also connect the AAI with the Mental Tuning Framework. In this way, “First-order Analysis” is about understanding a person’s “Life Domains” and his/her “Life Experiences”. “Second-order Analysis” is about the process of “Mental Turning”.

The new idea of AAI has a three-hierarchy structure. It echoes the Applied Meta-learning framework. See the diagram below.

The above diagram was the outcome of a thematic conversation about “Strategic Exploration”. You can find more details in TALE: A Strategic Designer’s Creative Journey.

The thematic conversation can be seen as a demo of “Second-order Analysis”.

This three-level hierarchy can be used to represent a Thematic Engagement project:

Form (meta-knowledge): Theme (Knowledge Engagement)
Content (knowledge): Activity (Thematic Conversation)
Activity (work): Project (A Thematic Conversation project about “Strategic Exploration”)

The above diagram presents the visual structure of the above idea.

“Themes” are a special type of Meta-knowledge in the “Meta” zone. We have two primary themes for this project.

Daiana’s primary theme: “Strategic Exploration”
Oliver’s primary theme: “Knowledge Engagement”

From my perspective, this project can be seen as a process of Developing a Knowledge Framework. The significant insight I developed from this project is the function of Thematic Space for developing a knowledge framework. You can find more details in The Dynamics of Thematic Space (v2.0).

From Daiana’s perspective, the project produces the following things:

A concept called “The Field of Meta-learning”.
There are three types of processes within the Field of Meta-learning.
A three-level hierarchy of structure of the Field of Meta-learning.
An epistemology for Strategic Exploration.
A diagram that represents the structure of the Field of Meta-learning.
A map and a mapping method for discussing related issues.

We can see this thematic conversation project as a rough example of AAI.

First-order Analysis: Daiana focuses on “Strategic Exploration”
Second-order Analysis: Oliver focuses on “Knowledge Engagement”

During the process, I discussed issues about diagramming and conceptual development. The same technique can be applied to AAI.

2023: A Case Study of “Social Moves”

On Sept 29, 2023, I launched the Activity Analysis & Intervention (AAI) Project on the Activity Analysis Center’s website.

Then, I sent it to a friend of mine.

On Sept 30, 2023, I made the following draft visual note and sent it to him.

I just now realized that the AAI model can be used to understand “social moves”.
See the attached visual note.
I added more circles to expand the original AAI model. Now it has 6 types of roles.
Supporters such as investors
Founders
Coaches
Consultants
Clients
Followers
Each circle is located in a “social zone” such as Markets, Clans, etc.
Moreover, each circle can be understood as an “AAS” (Anticipatory Activity System).
Now we have a rough theory of “social moves”.
People’s social life can be understood as moving between different types of “Activity Circles” and “Anticipatory activity system”.
Good mindsets could guide people to moving on the path to his ideal life, and bring positive Life experience, activate positive emotions.
Bad mindsets could lead to unsuccessful moves which cause negative Life experiences and negative emotions.
The “Social Moves” theme was born from my recent projects.
One important insight about the “Social Moves” theme is a case study about a web3.0 platform which is founded by a friend of mine.
I see the multiple circle structure in the web3 platform.
The multiple circle structure is also inspired by Ecological Psychologist Roger Barker’s Behavior Settings Theory.

I mentioned Barker’s Behavior Settings Theory in my email. Barker developed a systematic analysis method for the Behavior Settings theory. One module of his method is “Zone of Penetration” which refers to the penetration dimension of Behavior Settings. He identified seven Zones of Penetration(1989, p.127–128).

Zone 6: Single leader
Zone 5: Joined Leaders
Zone 4: Active functionary
Zone 6, 5, and 4: Operative or performers
Zone 3: Member or customer
Zone 2: Audience or invited guest
Zone 1: Onlookers
Zone 0: Potential inhabitants

This visual note is about the “Social Moves” project. The theme of Social Moves was inspired by the theme of Mental Moves. While the Mental Moves project is more about knowledge creators’ creative cognition, the Social Moves project is more about startup founders’ creative social action.

This is not a final solution to building a theoretical framework for understanding “Social Moves”, but a case study about it.

On Oct 10, 2023, I made the above diagram to reproduce the visual draft note.

I use a Psychological Counseling Platform as an example to run the case study. There are seven key roles in the platform:

Influencee
Supporter
Founder
Supervisor
Counselor
Client
Follower

Each Circle refers to an “Activity Circle” which refers to the social structure of “Self, Other, Thing, Think”.

We can also use “AAS (Anticiparoty Activity System)” to understand “Activity Circle” because AAS is about “Self, Other, Present, Future”.

The four types of activities indicate four types of AAS.

Clan
Hierarchy
Market
Network

People’s social life can be understood as moving between different types of “Activity Circles” and “Anticipatory Activity Systems”.

2021: The NEXT Way

This case study only features the Chain of Activity Circles. If we return to the NEXT Way (2021), we can find two types of network structures: hub and chain. See the diagram below.

In 2021, I used the iART system to name the social structure of “Self, Other, Present, Future”.

The above left diagram represents the Hub model. A person connects to several other people. The diagram below puts three iART diagrams together:

Self — Other 1
Self — Other 2
Self — Other 3

The Self can adopt different perspectives for these three different iART systems because there are different types of relationships. For example, if the Self is a founder of a startup, Other 1 may be an investor, Other 2 may be a family member, and Other 3 may be a mentor.

The above right diagram represents the Chain model which shows a chain of social relationships:

Self > Other 1 > Other 2 > Other 3 > …

Each two people form an iART system with a particular relationship. The whole social network is a networked system of many iART systems. This is a very complicated model because each person has his/her own perspective of his/her iART system. Each person has his/her social position. Also, the interpersonal relationship is dynamic.

I named the networked iART Systems The NEXT Way on Sep 5, 2021.

N: Networked
E: Expectation
X: Uncertainty
T: Trust and Trends

These four keywords are useful for understanding “Social Moves” too.

2023: A New Meaning of “Activity Analysis”

I also associated the new meaning with the logo of AAI. See the picture below.

This is a significant insight because it brings a new meaning to the name “Activity Analysis Center”.

Before that day, I didn’t use the term “Activity Analysis” as a unique theoretical concept, but as a name for the knowledge center about Activity Theory and related theoretical approaches.

The Activity Analysis website is an upgraded version of the Activity U project which is a knowledge curation project of CALL.

The name of the website is inspired by two books. The word “Activity” is adopted from Perspectives on Activity Theory while the word “Analysis” is inspired by Frame Analysis.

Activity: looking at human activities and social practices.
Analysis: linking theory and social research.

The website is designed for people who want to conduct studies of human activities and reflect on their own daily life world with theoretical perspectives.

The idea of “First-order Analysis / Second-order Analysis” transformed the term “Activity Analysis” from a regular name into a theoretical concept.

Now I could use “Activity Analysis” as a theoretical concept and develop a new method.

What would the new method of “Activity Analysis” look like?

I used Eric Berne’s “Transactional Analysis” as a reference. Eric Berne developed Transactional Analysis as a psychoanalytic theory and method of therapy wherein social interactions (or “transactions”) are analyzed to determine the ego state of the communicator (whether parent-like, childlike, or adult-like) as a basis for understanding behavior.

For me, the new method of “Activity Analysis” means a new approach to developing a person’s Tacit Knowledge such as Self, Mind, Life, and Mindset, by analyzing the person’s Activities.

Traditionally, Activity Theory is about understanding Human Activity and Social Practices. Individual adult development is not its primary theoretical interest. Now The AAI project also opens a new door to other knowledge centers that are working on the adult development direction.

For example, Creative Life Theory was hosted by CALL (Creative Action Learning Lab) and Curativity Theory. We can adopt it for Second-order Analysis.