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A Techno-Socio-Economic (TSE) Development Framework

The POET Model

Designing and evaluating systems that include people

P
People
O
Organisation
E
Environment
T
Technology

One picture to design a system forward, and evaluate it backward.

Applied in practice — Semi-Finalist, Rockefeller Foundation Food System Vision Prize 2050 (Top 79 of 1,300+ submissions, 110+ countries)
Entry by Fresh Life Produce, built with POET  ·  Framework author: J.F. (Rensie) Janse van Rensburg  ·  Origins in ICT4D / rural enterprise action research
Why This Model Exists

Systems that optimise one thing eventually fight themselves

The uncomfortable premise. Any system that involves people has four moving parts — People, Organisation, Environment and Technology. Design for one kind of gain (say, profit) and the other parts push back: people disengage, the resource base depletes, the tools start to control rather than serve.

The result is a house divided against itself — a system quietly working toward its own demise.

What POET gives you

Design forward

Build a system part-by-part so the parts reinforce each other.

Evaluate backward

Diagnose an existing system to find where it is failing — and why.

Measure the edges

See system health where the parts meet, not just inside them.

How to use this deck. The front teaches the model in plain language; the back carries the full measurement detail. Participants ride the front; funders and clients get the front plus the rigor underneath.
The Building Blocks

Every system has four parts: P·O·E·T

P

People

Human behaviour

The skills, mindsets, experience and networks of the people in the system.

O

Organisation

Control

How the system is run: its strategy, structure, standards and processes.

E

Environment

Geographic & historic context

The resource base and the backdrop the whole system sits in.

T

Technology

“Tooling”

The tools the system uses to do its work — built, maintained and adopted.

Note: Environment and Technology usually act together as the resource-facing side of the system — remember them as one pairing when you get to the diagram.
Nothing Sits in Isolation

Each part lives inside a bigger context

Societal Landscape

People

Norms, culture and community that shape how people behave.

Economic Landscape

Organisation

Markets, funding and incentives the organisation must survive in.

Resource Context

Environment & Technology

The natural and material resources the tools draw on.

Why it matters. You cannot judge a part fairly without its context. A strong organisation in a hostile economic landscape and a weak one in a forgiving market can look identical from the inside — the context is the difference (the “outside-in” view).
Where Value Is Measured

The action is on the edges — three Agency metrices

Agency = the ability to influence. System health shows up where two parts meet — not inside either one. POET measures it at three edges.

Organisational Agency

People ↔ Organisation

Can people shape the organisation they operate in — or only obey it?

Technology Agency

Technology ↔ People

Do the tools serve people — or do people end up serving the tools?

Environmental Agency

Organisation ↔ Environment & Technology

Does the organisation renew its resource base — or draw it down?

Measure the edges and you can see, and improve, the health of the whole system.
The Key Insight

Every edge flows one of two ways

Each Agency edge is either constructive — feeding the system’s health — or destructive — feeding its demise.

Edge (Agency)✓ Constructive → system health✗ Destructive → system demise
Organisational AgencyCo-createDominate
Environmental Agency(Re)GenerateConsume
Technology AgencyEnableEnslave
Reading the Whole Picture

Flow direction tells you if the system lives or dies

Self-sustaining

All three edges constructive

Co-create → Regenerate → Enable

House divided

Some edges pull each way

Unstable — fix it or it fails

Self-destructive

All three edges destructive

Dominate → Consume → Enslave
The diagnosis. A fully constructive (“clockwise”) pattern is a self-sustaining system. A fully destructive (“anti-clockwise”) pattern is self-destructive. A mixed pattern is a house divided against itself — headed for self-destruction unless remedied.
One Picture

The POET model, assembled

Three parts · three edges · each edge constructive (green) or destructive (red). Clockwise = healthy.

The assembled POET model: People, Organisation and Tech-and-Environment nodes joined by three Agency edges, with a clockwise = healthy cycle

1 · Nodes

The three active parts. Environment & Technology act as one resource-facing part.

2 · Context ring

The label above each node — the landscape it must survive in.

3 · Edges

Where the three Agency metrices are measured.

4 · Flow colour

Green edge = constructive; red pole = the destructive alternative.

5 · The cycle

All-green clockwise = self-sustaining. All-red = self-destructive.

What a Reading Looks Like

Each edge has a ladder of outcomes

As flow improves on an edge, the gain widens from a single beneficiary to the whole system. Read bottom-to-top: better flow, broader gain.

Organisational Agency

measured via Agency metrix
People, Org. & Environment gain
People & Org. gain
People or Org. gain only

Environmental Agency

measured via Benefit metrix
“Profit, Planet & People” gain
“Profit & Planet” gain
“Profit” only

Technology Agency

measured via Adoption metrix
Tech., User & Org. gain
Tech. & User gain
Technology gain only
Example diagnosis: strong tech-and-user gain (positive) but personal-only organisational gain with a domination effect (negative), and profit-and-planet but no people gain — a system with no dominant flow. A house divided.
Before You Measure Anything

Whose boundary are you using?

Different actors draw the system’s edge differently — and the boundary you draw decides what you measure and what you miss.

Narrow

“Organisation only”

You look inside the organisation and stop at its walls. Fast, but blind to context.

Broad

“Organisation in context”

You include the surrounding landscapes and the flows across them. Fuller, but heavier.

Odd-shaped

Selective / partial

An actor sees only the slice they care about — and reaches odd-shaped conclusions.

Keep both directions in view. Whatever boundary you choose, watch the “outside-in” influences (context acting on the system) and the “inside-out” influences (the system acting on its context). Odd-shaped boundaries produce odd-shaped conclusions.
The Full Detail

From inputs to outcomes

Primary factors (inputs) drive secondary factors (outputs), which converge on the tertiary outcomes that decide whether the system can change state.

Primary Factors

inputs — what you build
  • Organisation: Strategy · Structure · Standards · Process
  • Org ↔ Tech: Why? · How?
  • Env & Tech: R&D · Supply Chain · Maintenance
  • Tech ↔ People: Technology Leaning · User Leaning
  • People: Skills · Education · Experience · Networks · Mindsets
  • People ↔ Org: Position Leadership · Person Leadership
→

Secondary Factors

outputs — what emerges
  • Clarity — status of strategy, structure, standards, process
  • Benefit — the gain from using environment & technology
  • Reliability — tech performs consistently to design
  • Adoption — people make the technology their “own”
  • Ability — result of skills, education, experience, networks
  • Agency — how far a person can influence the organisation
→

Tertiary Outcomes

the readinesses for change
  • Trust + Participation = the “readinesses” for collective state change
  • thinking change + doing change
  • → STATE CHANGE
Reference — The Model on One Page

Design forward. Evaluate backward.

Design & Build  —  read left to right →
← Analyse & Evaluate  —  read right to left
Sub-systemInput (Primary Factors)Output (Secondary)Outcomes (Tertiary)
OrganisationProcess · Standards · Structure · StrategyClarityTrust
Organisation & TechnologyWhy? · How?Benefit
Environment & TechnologyR&D · Supply Chain · MaintenanceReliability
Technology & PeopleTechnology Leaning · User LeaningAdoptionParticipation
People & BehaviourSkills · Education · Experience · Networks · MindsetsAbility
People & OrganisationPosition Leadership · Person LeadershipAgency
Every secondary factor is defined in the section above; the two tertiary outcomes — Trust and Participation — are the readinesses for state change.
Using the Model

Design forward. Evaluate backward.

Aim for constructive flow on every edge.

Co-create, don’t dominate

people shape the system, not just obey it

Regenerate, don’t consume

the resource base renews instead of depleting

Enable, don’t enslave

the tools serve people, not the reverse

Where it applies. POET is used to design and evaluate techno-socio-economic development systems — including community-owned food-production ecosystems where People, Organisation, Environment and Technology must all gain together.