Developments


The use of Functionalist Principles to Develop Business Solutions requires using Unicist Functionalist Design

Functionalist design is based on the use of unicist functionalist principles to design business functions, physical or virtual objects, in adaptive environments. This approach allows for managing the roots of the functionality of business functions and the root causes of problems.

Functionalist design is based on beginning with an intuitive approach to defining an initial hypothetical solution to a problem that provides the guiding idea of the design process by developing a prototype.

The prototype is then tested in a real-world environment through pilot tests. These tests provide feedback and insights into the functionality and effectiveness of the prototype, allowing for adjustments and improvements to be made.

The design process also involves a diagnostic stage, where the problem or situation is analyzed and understood in depth. This includes identifying the root causes and understanding the wider context that influences the system.

Based on this diagnostic analysis, the functionalist design process develops a detailed operational design. This includes defining the necessary binary actions and creating a prototype of the final solution.

The operational design is then validated through pilot testing and destructive testing. Pilot tests confirm the operationality of the solution, while destructive tests validate the functionality and adaptability of the solution, as well as the validity of the functionalist principles used.

If necessary, the design process may go through recycling, where failures or shortcomings are addressed by revisiting the diagnostic stage and making adjustments to the design.

Overall, functionalist design is a participative and iterative process that aims to empower the functionality of business processes in adaptive environments. It combines conceptual thinking, diagnostic analysis, prototype development, and testing to create effective and adaptable solutions.

The Unicist Research Institute


Abductive Reasoning to Manage the Unicist Functionalist Approach 2

The unicist functionalist approach to business management can be applied to the context of the 4th Industrial Revolution by providing a framework for understanding, integrating, and optimizing the functions, processes, and technologies within an organization. It emphasizes agility, cross-functional integration, human-machine collaboration, and strategic foresight, which are crucial in the rapidly changing landscape of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

It also emphasizes the importance of continuous improvement and adaptation, as it recognizes that organizations need to constantly evolve and adapt to changing conditions in order to thrive in a dynamic business environment. It emphasizes the use of feedback loops, monitoring of key metrics, and ongoing optimization of processes to ensure that the organization remains efficient, effective, and aligned with its goals and purpose.

This approach focuses on understanding and managing the fundamental principles of business functions or processes. It recognizes that functions or processes within an organization have their own unique identity, purpose, and characteristics, and need to be managed in their entirety to achieve optimal performance.

In the context of the unicist functionalist approach, abductive reasoning is used to understand the intrinsic logic, structure, and dynamics of business functions or processes. It involves deducing the underlying principles and rules that govern the behavior of functions or processes, based on observable outcomes and performance data. By using abductive reasoning, practitioners of the unicist functionalist approach can identify the essential elements and relationships that define the functionality of business processes, and develop a comprehensive understanding of how they work.

The Unicist Research Institute


Functionalism is the Standard of the 4th Industrial Revolution 6

A research process developed at The Unicist Research Institute on the use of the unicist functionalist approach has just been completed. The objective was to discover why and when people use a functionalist approach to deal with the real world in the context of the 4th industrial revolution.

It became evident that to use a functionalist approach it is necessary to enhance energy efficiency to compete in the environment, which begins with the need to improve one’s activities. Therefore, it can be said that the management of the functionality of things is for competitive people and organizations.

Competing is necessary to adapt to the environment, which implies that adaptive processes require using a functionalist approach while non-adaptive processes just require using an operational approach.  

Adaptation begins with competition and continues with cooperation. Functionality is meaningless for people who do not compete for space. That is why all people who are in a comfort zone and do not seek change cannot handle functionality.

In social terms, it is neither for dominants because they are in a comfort zone, nor for marginals because they feel that they cannot have a place in the world. In terms of behavioral roles, functionality is neither for authoritarians nor for anarchists, it is for “democrats” who accept that adaptation is a necessity.

Organizations or people that need to compete to have or to improve their place in the world are the natural users of functionalism to increase their energy efficiency. On the other hand, it must be considered, that functionalism became the standard of the 4th industrial revolution because of its capacity to manage the unified field of business functions and increase their competitiveness.

Diego Belohlavek


Research: The Management of Objections in the 4IR 7

The use of objection management in a healthcare organization, an automobile industry and a social network allowed confirming the functionalist principles that drive the objection management process to increase the adaptability and customer orientation of businesses. This is a synthesis of the research that was developed at The Unicist Research Institute.

Objections adopt multiple shapes like criticism, rejection, opposition, suggestions recommendations, denial, etc. This research unveiled the functionalist principles of the different types of objections. From a functional standpoint, there are inhibiting objections and constructive objections. From an operational standpoint, they are active or passive and explicit or tacit objections.

Objections are defined as the questioning process of proposals to confirm their utility, which includes inhibiting objections that deal with the personal needs of the people involved, and constructive objections, that deal with the functionality of the propositions. The management of objections simplifies processes and accelerates the achievement of results.

Objections are posed in spaces where there is an interest in something, which necessarily generates doubts until the match between the needs behind the interest and the value proposition has been confirmed.

Constructive objections are the natural objections that are needed to accept a proposal. They are the sign of interest in an idea or proposal, which generates the need of the use of a destructive test to confirm its functionality.

Destructive tests require expanding the use of the proposition to see which are the final boundaries of its functionality.

In the world of competition, the dominant objections are the inhibiting objections. The problem of these objections is that their intention is to destroy or degrade value propositions to ensure the comfort zone of the one who is evaluating a proposition. It also ensures their feeling of superiority.

This objection management approach was developed to manage the objections in all the fields where rational decisions are made. It does not apply to instincts driven decisions. It applies to personal, political, and business propositions. 

The Use of Catalysts allows Managing Objections

Catalysts are objects that are installed in processes to minimize inhibiting objections and foster constructive objections. Objections catalysts are needed to hinder inhibiting objections and foster constructive objections. They need to be installed as objects in the value propositions.

Constructive objections are based on the existence of a shared future scenario where the proposition makes sense and is necessary. The catalyst of the catalyst is the need of a solution, whatever the reasons of the need.

The functionality of the catalyst depends on its capacity of satisfying the latent needs in some field which implies solving the implicit weaknesses of a preexisting solution. These latent needs must become an urgent need to drive the functionality of the catalyst.

The catalyst also needs to include the people involved in an activity, avoiding their exclusion, and there must be a notorious competitive advantage of the proposition. 

Scientific Dissemination Committee
The Unicist Research Institute

NOTE: The business models that profit from the benefits of the 4th Industrial Revolution simplify operational processes and increase internal and external customer orientation, by establishing internal and external collaborative work to manage the functionalist principles of processes that allow developing intelligent systems and applications. www.unicist.net/conceptual-design/functionalist-principles-of-business-processes

Research Institute: www.unicist.org
Collaborative Corporate Partnering: www.unicist.net


Discovery of the Roots of Objection Management in Everyday Life 10

It demanded several years of research at The Unicist Research Institute to find the functionalist principles of objections to manage the roots of the objections people pose when dealing with the real world.

Objections are defined as the questioning process of proposals to confirm their utility, which includes inhibiting objections that deal with the personal needs of the people involved, and constructive objections, that deal with the functionality of the propositions.

Objections are posed in spaces where there exists an interest in something which necessarily generates doubts until the match between the needs behind the interest and the value proposition has been confirmed.

Constructive objections are the natural objections that are needed to accept a proposal. They are the sign of interest in an idea or proposal which generates the need of the use of a destructive test to confirm their functionality.

In the world of competition, the dominant objections are the inhibiting objections. The problem of these objections is that their intention is to destroy or degrade value propositions to ensure the comfort zone of the one who is evaluating a proposition. It also ensures their feeling of superiority.

This objection management approach was developed to manage the objections in all the fields where rational decisions are made. It does not apply to instincts driven decisions. It applies to personal propositions, political, and to business propositions.

Any proposal naturally triggers objections. The use of objection management catalysts requires anticipating the natural objections that are triggered by a proposition. Their use in any propositions ensures results by expanding possibilities that avoid inhibiting objections and foster constructive objections. Therefore, the knowledge of the natural objections is necessary to design propositions. It is the core of the success of any proposal.

Diego Belohlavek
The Unicist Research Institute

VP Applied Research & Technologies

NOTE: The functionalist principles developed at The Unicist Research Institute allow managing the functionality of business processes and developing unicist binary actions, business object and catalysts to make them work.


Toyota: Unicist Golden Eagle Award for Binary Actions 1

The Awards Committee of The Unicist School has recognized the Toyota design philosophy integrating technological safe solutions with the satisfaction of latent needs and aesthetics with the Unicist Golden Eagle Award for notorious binary actions in business. This award is based on the recommendation of the Assessment Committee of The Unicist Research Institute.

Car design is not an easy subject to describe, for its definition does not begin or end with the creation of something visually stylish. Appearance is important, of course, but good car design also needs to anticipate customer needs and deliver an engaging ownership experience. Learn more: https://mag.toyota.co.uk/the-five-processes-of-toyota-design/

In view of these understandings, Toyota has endeavoured to set broad parameters for its designers through the adoption of the Japanese slogan An Raku Tan. Dissecting this phrase, ‘An‘ means reliable as well as safe; ‘Raku‘ takes on the meaning of fun, exciting, yet comfortable; while ‘Tan‘ suggests simplicity and straightforwardness.

The process includes 5 phases which are:

  1. Concept making
  2. Idea development
  3. Color development
  4. Mock-up
  5. Decision hall

The integration of specific design methodologies allows ensuring the achievement of results, based on the participation of people who are able to manage the functionality of design processes by integrating technological requirements with the understanding of users’ experiences and aesthetics, which drives toward the binary actions that make things successful. 

Martin Alvaro
The Unicist Research Institute
Partnering

NOTE: Binary actions make things work. 100% of the business models of expansive businesses are based on binary actions that include the use of catalysts. Binary actions are two synchronized actions that, one the one hand, open possibilities establishing a functional context and, on the other hand, close processes to generate results. www.unicist.org


Functionalist Approach to Problem Solving

Unicist Root Cause Management introduced an approach for problem solving, facing the management of root causes and avoiding the use of shortcuts used as palliatives, to develop structural solutions.

The use of recurring palliatives in problem solving, when the root causes of problems are unknown, demonstrated to be a fallacious shortcut, frequently used for conjunctural solution building, that produces paradoxical results. 

The unicist approach to problem solving was developed to deal with complex adaptive systems such as social, economic and business processes.

The Unicist Management of Causality

The unicist management of causality is based on the unicist ontology of the complex adaptive systems that describes their nature and defines the concepts that regulate their evolution.

A problem exists when a functionality, that has been defined as possible to be achieved, cannot be fulfilled.

The unicist approach to problem solving defines three types of causes that are integrated in the concept of problem causality.

  • Triggering causes: that define the operational causes that generate a problem.
  • Necessary causes: that define the root causes of the problem.
  • The limit causes: that define the boundaries of what is possible to be achieved.

Different Levels of Solutions

The unicist approach to problem solving defines four levels of solutions that can be achieved according to the level of knowledge of the problems.

It has to be considered that people who need to avoid risks cannot deal with problems’ causality and substitute the knowledge of problems with pre-concepts that allow them to avoid facing the risks of developing solutions.

The different levels of solutions that have been defined are:

  1. Repairs
  2. Palliatives
  3. Systemic Solutions
  4. Adaptive Solutions

Repair

The natural response of people when an urgent problem appears is to repair it, based on the negative consequences that need to be avoided.

This is a short-term energy saving action to face the solution of problems.

Palliatives

The natural response when people do not have the knowledge to solve specific problems is the use of palliatives to mitigate the consequences of such problems.

This is a short-term energy saving actions when there is a lack of knowledge to solve problems.

Systemic Solutions

The development of systemic solutions is the necessary approach when the problems deal with the efficiency of the processes. In this case, it solves the root causes of the problem, but if the lack of efficiency is produced by dysfunctional efficacy, it will reappear due to the entropy of the solution.

Adaptive Solutions

This is the approach to develop structural solutions for problems. It drives to research the fundamentals of efficacy and efficiency and find a solution that integrates the problems, their restricted context and their wide context.

Diego Belohlavek

NOTE: The Unicist Research Institute (TURI) has been the world leading private research organization in its segment since 1976. www.unicist.org


Intelligence of an ancient windmill to produce flour

A windmill is a machine that, by obtaining energy from the wind, crushes grains in order to turn them into flour.

Windmill

Its purpose is to reduce the grains to powder, in other words, to turn them into flour.

Its active function is based on capturing wind energy (eolic energy) using blades and converting it into mechanical energy.

Its energy conservation function involves using mechanical energy to generate friction between two stones and crush the grains into flour.

The binary actions of the process are, on the one hand, the use of wind energy to produce mechanical energy and, on the other hand, the application of mechanical energy to grind the grains between two rotating stones.

Diego Belohlavek

NOTE: The Unicist Research Institute (TURI) is a world leader in its segment. It introduced the Unicist Functionalist Approach and the use of binary actions to build business solutions. https://www.unicist.org/pdf/wp-unicist-functional-approach.pdf


January 14th International Day of the Unicist Logic

The unicist logic defines the intelligence of things by describing their functionality. The abductive reasoning process, based on the rules established by the unicist logic, opens the world of a functionalist approach to the real world, expanding the possibilities for developing functional solutions in adaptive environments. The functional design uses the unicist logical approach to design the intelligence of things. That is why we invite you to invest in accessing the unicist logic.

The Unicist Logic allows understanding and managing the functionality of the real world.

The Unicist Logic is a synthetic logic that emulates the ontogenetic intelligence of nature and its maximal strategies to grow and minimum strategies to survive.

The functional structures of things were named concepts, which are integrated by a purpose, an active function, and an energy conservation function.

The unicist logic provides the logical structure of the concepts and fundamentals that are used to manage the functionality of things.

The logic defines the complementation laws and supplementation laws that allow defining the rules of the behavior of fundamentals.

The unicist logic is used to manage the conceptual structure of adaptive entities and to design and build binary actions to manage them.

The unicist logic gave birth to the unicist AI which is a fundamentals-based AI that allows managing the rules that manage the functionality of processes.

The unicist logic is the natural logic to deal with adaptive environments and is the integrator of all logical reasoning patterns.

The unicist double dialectical logic emulates the structure of the intelligence that underlies nature. This makes the unicist logic belong to the field of complexity sciences and not philosophy.

The Unicist Logic establishes the origin of all logical reasoning structures because it is based on the intelligence that underlies nature and simultaneously it is focused on explaining and managing the functionality of things.

The origin of the unicist logic is the emulation of the intelligence of nature and the functionality of unicist logic is the development of binary actions that allow influencing adaptive environments.

Unicist Innovation Center – A Sharing Space
The Unicist Research Institute

NOTE: We invite you to invite your children or the children of your friends to participate in the “Empower your Freedom” program, that works as a catalyst for abductive reasoning processes. It is a non-profit program that has been designed for teenagers from 14 to 17 years old. This program demands 1-hour a week (including the 20-minute session on TWITCH). Access


We Invite to Adopt the Functionalist Approach

The goal of the development of functionalist technologies was to manage the root-causes of problems, build solutions and develop intelligent systems and cobots (intelligent collaborative robots) to manage adaptive environments.

The functionalist technologies also simplified the management of incidents, by transforming urgent problems into structural solutions, managing the concepts and fundamentals of the functions involved to define the actions that ensure results.

The use of Unicist AI, which is a fundamentals-based AI that is supported by the unicist logic, allowed developing the adaptive automation of processes needed to manage the adaptability and customer orientation introduced by the 4th Industrial Revolution.

The objective of the functionalist approach was to find the functional knowledge that ensured the generation of value. This led to the development of a scientific approach to adaptive systems, that required finding the functional structures that drive the functionality of such adaptive systems.

These functions are described by the unicist ontology, which describes the functionality of what is being studied, and allows defining the ontogenetic maps of functions.

Concept was the name that was given to this functionality of things because this word is used, in plain language, to explain the functionality of something. From a functional point of view, there are three types of concepts that explain different aspects of the real world:

  1. Intrinsic concepts that describe how and why things work.
  2. Extrinsic concepts that describe the use value of things, define their usability and their adaptability.
  3. Mental concepts that describe the concepts people have in mind that drive their actions. 

The structure of a concept is defined by the fundamentals of the aspects of the real world that are involved and define the root drivers of its functionality. On the other hand, its dysfunctionality defines the root causes of the functional problems that might appear.

This functionalist approach drove the development of functionalist technologies that simplify the management of adaptive environments. These technologies allowed developing the necessary methodologies and methods that simplify the management of adaptive environments.

Unicist Innovation Center – A Sharing Space
The Unicist Research Institute

NOTE: We invite you to invite your children or the children of your friends to participate in the “Empower your Freedom” program, that works as a catalyst for abductive reasoning processes. It is a non-profit program that has been designed for teenagers from 14 to 17 years old. This program demands 1-hour a week (including the 20-minute session on TWITCH). Access