Systemic thinking
Featured in the Knowledge Management training manual
By Mike Bagshaw & Paul Phillips
Category: Management
Credit price: 4 download credits (Single user)
Systems thinking involves paying more attention to the whole than the parts. Organisations are systems that comprise individuals who interact with each other dynamically over time. The organisation chart is a static representation of one aspect of the organisation, and doesn’t describe its dynamic nature. Systemic thinking is a discipline for seeing wholes, recognising patterns and interrelationships, and learning how to structure those interrelationships in more effective, efficient ways. Systems function as a whole in that they have properties above and beyond the parts which comprise them. A system is not the sum of its parts; it is the product of their interactions. If we understand how the system works, we will be better at predicting events, and less likely to be buffeted by them. Systemic thinking provides decision-makers with a framework for exploring and understanding feedback processes, relationships and patterns. Reality is like an iceberg, where only the most cursory events are visible. While we rush about attending to the demands of events (and heroic managers make reputations doing this), we tend to miss the more powerful realities lurking just below: the patterns that provide a broader picture than isolated events can provide; the underlying structure that explains why these events are happening. This training activity takes the participants below the waterline, where the real problems, not the symptoms, can be addressed.
You begin this training activity by telling a story about downsizing change to emphasise how decision-makers often think in straight lines. This leads on to a discussion of the unintended side effects of our actions and how real events tend to be recursive. You go on to define what a system is and ask the participants to give examples. A pair’s exercise helps the participants to think systemically. This is followed by a presentation and discussion in which you introduce the concept of feedback loops in complex systems. A case study is used to further strengthen systems thinking skills and then the participants do a final group exercise to map a systemic process from their own experiences. The final summary highlights the main benefits of a systems thinking approach.
Who is it for: This training resource is intended for use by trainers to involve the participants in a systemic analysis of complex problems using the different perspectives of the individual participants to map the system ands find points of maximum leverage.
| Resource Type: | Activity |
| Min Group Size: | 4 |
| Max Group Size: | 12 |
| Typical Duration: | 02:00:00 |
| No of Pages: | 23 |
Resources: View standard resources for Fenman training activities
Purpose: This training resource is intended for use by trainers whenever there is a need to maximise leverage to find solutions to complex organisational problems including: project management, managing change, teamwork, problem-solving and thinking skills, culture change initiatives, programmes for changes in operational structures and processes. Managers in a coaching role, who are helping individuals to take a bigger picture view of their problems, can also use it. You can extend this training activity by giving the participants additional practice in analysing a range of real life problems from a systemic point of view.
Download the training activity, Systemic thinking as featured in the Fenman training manual; Knowledge Management