Are you thinking about studying Systems Thinking at postgraduate level and want to become equipped with the knowledge and skills to do so successfully? Do you want to develop new ways of thinking about and approaching situations that cross multiple discipline and skills boundaries? Do you want to learn to think more holistically about complex and messy situations, understand the roles other people play, taking account of the interconnectedness of all the components making up the problem situations and working more collaboratively? If so, then this free badged course, Mastering systems thinking in practice, is for you.TranscriptEnrolling on the course will give you the opportunity to earn an Open University digital badge. Badges are not accredited by The Open University but they're a great way to demonstrate your interest in the subject and commitment to your career, and to provide evidence of continuing professional development.Once you are signed in, you can manage your digital badges online from My OpenLearn. In addition, you can download and print your OpenLearn statement of participation - which also displays your Open University badge. This course is accredited by the CPD Standards Office. It can be used to provide evidence of continuing professional development and on successful completion of the course you will be awarded 24 CPD points. Evidence of your CPD achievement is provided on the free Statement of Participation awarded on completion.Anyone wishing to provide evidence of their enrolment on this course is able to do so by sharing their Activity Record on their OpenLearn Profile, which is available before completion of the course and earning of the Statement of Participation. Â
Overview
Syllabus
- Introduction and guidance
- Introduction and guidance
- What is a badged course?
- How to get a badge
- Acknowledgements
- Week1Week 1: Systems thinking in practice
- Introduction
- 1 Who uses systems thinking?
- 2 What are you hoping to learn?
- 3 Learning by experience
- 4 Something different
- 4.1 The nature of systems thinking and systems practice
- 4.1.1 Systems practice
- 4.2 Taking responsibility for your own learning
- 4.2.1 Reflective learning
- 4.3 Appreciating epistemological issues
- 5 This week’s quiz
- 6 Summary
- References
- Acknowledgements
- Week2Week 2: Systems thinking and complexity
- Introduction
- 1 Distinctions between messy and difficult situations
- 1.1 An important ambiguity
- 2 Distinctions between rational and emotional reactions to situations
- 3 Distinctions between hard and soft complexity
- 3.1 Adding to the differences between difficulties and messes
- 4 Choosing to distinguish between complex situations and complex systems
- 5 Distinctions between systemic and systematic practice
- 6 This week’s quiz
- 7 Summary
- References
- Acknowledgements
- Week3Week 3: Identifying systems of interest
- Introduction
- 1 Distinguishing and defining systems
- 1.1 Building up a definition
- 2 The language of systems
- 2.1 Drawing boundaries
- 3 The naming of systems
- 3.1 Commonly recognised systems
- 3.2 Explanatory systems
- 3.3 Wider systems
- 3.4 Identifying systems of interest
- 4 Levels of systems
- 4.1 Additional ways of identifying a system of interest
- 4.2 Commonly used criteria
- 5 Categories of systems
- 5.1 Simple (purposive) and complex (purposeful) systems
- 6 This week’s quiz
- 7 Summary
- References
- Acknowledgements
- Week4Week 4: Representing systems of interest
- Introduction
- 1 Setting the scene
- 2 What are systems diagrams for?
- 3 Drawing systems diagrams
- 4 This week’s quiz
- 5 Summary
- References
- Acknowledgements
- Week5Week 5: Understanding multiple perspectives
- Introduction
- 1 Simplifying complexity
- 2 Taking multiple partial views
- 3 Perspectives on ‘managing’
- 4 Perspectives on ‘researching’
- 5 Collecting information as a ‘researcher’
- 6 The practicalities of diagramming with other people
- 7 Facilitating engagement with different perspectives
- 8 Negotiating between different perspectives
- 9 Teasing out accommodations
- 10 This week’s quiz
- 11 Summary
- References
- Acknowledgements
- Week6Week 6: Key systems thinkers
- Introduction
- 1 The development of systems approaches
- 2 Jay Forrester (1918–2016)
- 3 Stafford Beer (1926–2002)
- 4 Sir Geoffrey Vickers (1894–1982)
- 5 Peter Checkland (b.1930)
- 6 Russel Ackoff (1919–2009)
- 7 This week’s quiz
- 8 Summary
- References
- Acknowledgements
- Week7Week 7: Systems thinking approaches
- Introduction
- 1 What are systems approaches?
- 2 Purposeful and purposive behaviour
- 3 Comparing two systems traditions
- 4 Creating experience-action cycles
- 5 From methodologies to tools
- 6 Soft systems methodology
- 6.1 The formal use of SSM
- 6.2 Distinctions between Mode 1 and Mode 2
- 7 This week’s quiz
- 8 Summary
- References
- Acknowledgements
- Week8Week 8: Becoming a systems (thinking in practice) practitioner
- Introduction
- 1 What does a systems practitioner do?
- 2 Modes of managing systemically
- 3 Clarifying purposefulness
- 4 Managing for emergence and self-organisation
- 5 The systems practitioner and systems of interest
- 6 This week’s quiz
- 7 Summary
- Next steps in mastering systems thinking in practice
- Tell us what you think
- References
- Acknowledgements
