Managing complexity: a systems approach

Overview

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Do you need to change the way you think when faced with a complex situation? Managing complexity: a systems approach, is a free course that examines how systemic thinking and practice enables you to cope with the connections between things, events and ideas. By taking a broader perspective complexity becomes manageable and it is easier to accept that gaps in knowledge can be acceptable.

Syllabus

Introduction
Learning outcomes
1 Managing complex systems
1 Managing complex systems
1.1 Thinking about expectations
1.1.1 Learning by experience
2 Preparing to tackle this unit
2 Preparing to tackle this unit
2.1 The nature of systems thinking and systems practice
2.2 Taking responsibility for your own learning
2.3 Appreciating epistemological issues
2.4 Review
3 Understanding systems approaches to managing complexity
3 Understanding systems approaches to managing complexity
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Making sense of the metaphor
4 Systems practice – unpacking the juggler metaphor
4 Systems practice – unpacking the juggler metaphor
5 Being a systems practitioner
5 Being a systems practitioner
5.1 The state of ‘Being’
5.2 Being aware of the constraints and possibilities of the observer
5.3 Appreciating your basis for understanding
5.4 Experience – making distinctions based on a tradition and constructing a history
5.5 Distinctions about systems practice
5.6 Learning and effective action
5.7 Being ethical
5.8 Reviewing some implications for systems practice
6 Engaging with complexity
6 Engaging with complexity
6.1 Articulating your appreciation of complexity
6.2 Experiencing complexity as mess or difficulty
6.3 Where is the complexity and what is it?
6.4 Choosing to distinguish between complex situations and complex systems
6.5 Appreciating some implications for practice
Activity answers
Conclusion
References
Acknowledgements