Course Description
If you want to develop new ways of thinking about and approaching situations that cross multiple discipline and skills boundaries this Systems Thinking course will provide you an in-depth introduction and prepare you for further studies.
This Systems Thinking training course uses many self-reflective activities where you can try to ground your studies within your own professional practice and experiences and also uses quizzes to test your basic understanding of key concepts, ideas and practices.
What Do Participants Learn?
After participating in this course, you should be able to:
- Learn Systems Thinking and the Learning Organization
- Challenge systematic thinking and systematic approaches to understanding and working with complex situations
- Explain how and why different systems of interest can be defined and described within complex situations
- Recognise that each person brings with them their own perspective on a situation and to work with those multiple perspectives
- Relate key ideas, techniques and approaches in systems thinking to professional practice when working with complex situations
- Plan how to take the study of systems thinking in practice further for professional development.
Who Should Attend?
- Middle management
- Specialists
- Senior Executives,
- Functional area managers, planners, and strategists
- Anyone who is seeking a fresh way of thinking to resolve complex business problems and to maximize benefits from business opportunities
What Will the Learning Experience Include?
Phase: 1
Introduce
- Comprehensive pre-program activities include:
- Web-based information forms & surveys completed by attendee.
- Direct consultation with the attendee about the expectations.
- During the training, participants engage in data, activities, and conversations that lead to insight and knowledge.
- Participants learn from expert trainers who have both academic and business experiences.
- Highly applicable training content & instructive activities for adding depth to training topics.
- **A half-day site visit for integrating the experience & plan next steps. Opportunities to provide connections, ideas & support.
Phase: 2
Explore & Practice
Phase: 3
Apply
- Apply & sustain the learning experience by using this ongoing support:
- To ensure participant has new skills or behavior progress.
- Optional, fee-based mentoring & coaching with the trainer.
- Training materials & additional documents (e-books, pdf files, presentations and articles)
- Evaluate your training experience by giving us feedbacks and help us to reach our organizational goals.
- Participant's Evaluation
- Trainer's Evaluation
Phase: 4
EVALUATE
Section One:
- Introduction
- Who Uses Systems Thinking?
- Properties of Systems
- How to Classify systems
- Systems thinking
- The Nature of Systems Thinking and Systems Practice
- Reflective Learning
- Appreciating Epistemological Issues
- Limitations on Understanding the Other People's Experiences
Section Two:
- Exploring Systems Perspectives
- Systems Thinking and Complexity
- Distinctions Between Messy and Difficult Situations
- Distinctions Between Rational and Emotional Reactions to Situations
- Distinctions Between Hard and Soft Complexity
- Differences Between Difficulties and Messes
- Choosing to Distinguish Between Complex Situations and Complex Systems
- Distinctions Between Systemic and Systemic Practice
Section Three:
- Distinguishing and Defining Systems
- The Language of Systems
- Drawing Boundaries and Naming Systems
- Commonly Recognised Systems
- Explanatory System
- Levels and Categories of Systems
- Simple (Purposive) and Complex (Purposeful) Systems
Section Four:
- What is System Diagrams for?
- Drawing Systems Diagrams
- Understanding Multiple Perspectives
- Simplifying Complexity
- Taking Multiple Partial Views
- Perspectives on Managing
- Facilitating Engagement with Different Perspectives
- Negotiating
Section Five:
- Developing Systems Thinking Approach
- Purposeful and Purposive Behaviour
- Creating Experience-Action Cycles
- From Methodologies to Tools
- Becoming Systems Practitioner
- Conclusion