Actant Triad

Dave Snowden

• Actants also solve another problem: they create a collective name encompassing constraints and constructors
  • Constraints can contain or connect
    • I prefer connecting and containing rather than enabling and governing but the latter is technically more correct and well explained by Alicia Juarrero
  • Constructors enable transformations but do not themselves substantially change in the act of construction
  • So we can now create an actant triangle with agents, constraints and constructors as the vertices
  • That is also how I get the actant word into people’s heads
    • I start with agency and then say they are collectively known as actants and modulate the system
      • You can't change the system but you can change the modulators

ASHEN overlay

• The Actant Triad allows an overlay with ASHEN, another typology designed to get us to see things differently

• Artefacts will be constraints or constructions in some way or other and are material objects that can be designed and whose use can be trained
• Skills overlap substantially with artefacts and represent the training needed to use them
  • It is a broader category as many skills, for example, communication, have no artefact dependency
• Habits take time to design and implement, then engage skills, but are mainly linked to our text type, namely experience
• Experience has the most comprehensive application and takes time to acquire
  • Acquisition may come as part of skill development but also relates to things like tolerated failure and storytelling within work groups
• Natural talent is rare, linked closely to the actor and precious but too often neglected

• Combining the two is helpful as it gives more perspectives for organisational change initiatives, leadership development, and recruitment
• Adding an ASHEN scale also helps us understand the nature of things
  • Artificial Intelligence is a type of constructor that may gain more prominence, but at its heart, it is still an artefact
    • it isn’t skilful in the human sense, although it may appear to be