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Systems thinking and practice
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.
Course learning outcomes
After studying this course, you should be able to:
- display confidence in using systems concepts and language
- describe accurately the set of key systems concepts
- understand what is distinctive about systems thinking as opposed to other forms of thinking
- understand how systems thinking is useful in analysing and improving situations
- understand the notion of a system as a creation of the observer, i.e. as an intellectual construct, as opposed to using the term system in other ways, i.e. as entities that exist 'out there'.
First Published: 10/08/2012
Updated: 27/06/2019
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I found the language and examples used in this course to be particularly effective, and I'm looking forward to applying what I have learned to Mastering Systems Thinking In Practice.