With media and political attention given to systemic failure, systems thinking is increasingly advocated as an alternative way of managing human interventions associated with socio-economic and environmental development. So what is systems thinking? Why might systems approaches provide better support for strategic planning? Moreover, how might such approaches support systemic success?

This free course, Understanding systems thinking in practice (STiP), is divided into two parts – Part 1 Understanding concepts of STiP, and Part 2 Understanding approaches to STiP. The two parts of this course complement each other by way of introducing elements of systems thinking in practice; with understanding threshold concepts of STiP coupled with understanding principles of practice associated with conceptual tools from five resilient approaches to STiP.

The course complements the OpenLearn course Practising systems thinking in practice (STiP) and its context is described in the OpenLearn Systems Thinking Hub.