What is systems thinking and practice? The essence of systems thinking and practice is in 'seeing' the world in a particular way, because how you 'see' things affects the way you approach situations or undertake specific tasks. This free course will help you to learn about the problems of defining a system and meet some of the key concepts used in systems theory: boundary, environment, positive and negative feedback, etc.
Overview
Syllabus
- Introduction
- Learning outcomes
- 1 How to use this course
- 1 How to use this course
- 2 What is this systems thing about?
- 2 What is this systems thing about?
- 3 Ways of thinking
- 3 Ways of thinking
- 3.1 Logical thinking
- 3.2 Causal thinking
- 3.3 Reductionist thinking
- 3.4 Holistic thinking
- 3.5 Multiple partial views
- 3.6 Perspectives
- 3.7 Distinguishing worldview from perspective
- 3.8 Summary
- 4 Systems thinking
- 4 Systems thinking
- 4.1 Thinking in systems
- 4.2 Summary
- 5 Types of systems
- 5 Types of systems
- 5.1 Definition of a system
- 5.2 The language of systems
- 5.3 Summary
- Conclusion
- References
- Acknowledgements