3 Practising STiP capabilities in your area of practice
STiP always begins with the situation – context matters. To appreciate the value of STiP you are advised to practise the use of systems tools to your own particular area of expertise or practice (which may or may not be a professional domain).
Five important criteria typically feature an appropriate area of practice:
- interest – an area of personal interest, which may usefully be an existing or aspiring professional area of practice, but which may alternatively be an area of more general interest
- practice – an area having an associated central element of practical change, signalled by an adverb or doing word such as control, regulation, management, or reduction
- scope – an area of practice not too narrowly (perhaps use ‘immigration control’ rather than ‘checking passports’), with different hierarchical levels ( local, national or international ramifications, or practice inviting elements of policy planning, management planning and operational planning)
- perspectives – an area of practice inviting different viewpoints
- uncertainty – an area with significant possibilities of unforeseen change.
Some possible areas of practice are listed below, chosen because I think they match the 5 criteria, but feel free to consider others that may be of more interest to you.
- local community service support
- financial regulation
- drugs control
- education assessments
- health support for the elderly
- reduction in child mortality
- poverty reduction
- ecological sustainable development.
An area of practice is relatively unbounded (other than through the 5 criteria suggested above), but will comprise of more specifically bounded ‘situations of interest’ (bounded by particular events, people and ideas at any one time), and even further bounded through what might be called purposive ‘systems of interest’. Such systems belonging to any situation of interest are characterised as visions/ perspectives on how the situation might be improved; for example, an area of practice regarding reduction in child mortaility may include ‘a system to ensure healthcare’ , or a system to improve vaccination programmes, or a system to alleviate poverty etc. Each system is bounded by a purpose (an expression of perspective). Any situation will have many such ‘snappy systems’.
Activity 5 Developing ideas for your area of practice
Nominate an area of practice, indicating why it is of interest, and then choose one situation of interest associated with the area of practice, and suggest two systems of interest that might be developed in order to improve the situation.
Table 1 provides an example of the distinction made between ‘area of practice’, ‘situation of interest’ and a ‘system of interest’.
| Term | Example | Definition |
|---|---|---|
| Area of practice | hospital management | generalised role or area of responsibility, identifying generic types of concerns |
| Situation of interest | current concerns about funding at Mouseville hospital | more specific area of concern, situation or event that is perceived by someone as calling for some kind of intervention |
| System of interest | system to manage resources at Mouseville hospital | particular arrangement of activities associated with a situation designed to achieve a particular purpose |
The challenge of a capable systems thinking practitioner is first to identify existing range of relevant systems (‘snappy’ purposive systems), but then to design further boundaries of a system or systems to help improve the situation. Any such system must itself be responsive to changing circumstances in order to continually learn from the changing situation – thus moving from purposive (fixed systems) to purposeful (adaptable systems).
The relationship between three factors associated with any strategic intervention − context, people, and tools − can be represented by a mental model of a learning system or heuristic. As with the Part 1 of this course (Box 2), the further attributes (or ‘competencies’) systems thinking (Box 1) in Part 2 of the course and systems practice (Box 2) can be distilled into three core activities associated with systems thinking in practice:
- understanding interrelationships (uIR)
- engaging with multiple perspectives (eMP)
- reflecting on boundary judgements (rBJ)
When working together in particular situations of interest, these activities contribute to your STiP capabilities.
The three activities are derived from the perspective given on purposeful orientations described in Systems approaches (Introducing Systems Approaches (section 1.4.2). The activities can be translated into a learning system or heuristic (a learning device) which is called the systems thinking in practice heuristic (Figure 6) – a further development of Figure 1(a) presented earlier as a mental model of STiP.
The STiP heuristic is a mental model of a learning system. It is used as a guide for using ‘systems’ in your own area of practice. The STiP heuristic is then itself a systems tool (i.e. a mental model) as part of a wider systems approach (i.e. STiP). As with all systems approaches and associated systems tools that you may come across, the heuristic is there for you to use and adapt as you feel appropriate.
Activity 6 Context Matters
Read the beginning of section 1.2 and continuing into 1.2.1 in Introducing Systems Approaches. Then read the final section of 7.3 ‘Context Always Matters’ from the Systems Approaches Epilogue. The first reading provides a description of three media stories of 2009 – the Hillsborough football stadium tragedy in the UK, sea piracy in Somalia, and protection of Orangutans in Indonesia; all three of which encapsulate ‘messy’ situations. The second reading provides a brief sketch of possible uses of tools from each of the five systems approaches in dealing with each of the three situations. The reading describes the three stories in terms of:
- i.key inter-related variables
- ii.different perspectives
- iii.boundary conflicts.
In reflecting on your own area of practice (e.g. your own professional practice or an area of practice that you may have an interest, such as health, business management, education, sustainable development, family welfare etc.) make some brief notes on:
- a.some key interrelationships between variables
- b.some contrasting perspectives
- c.some possible tensions among practitioners regarding levels of uncertainty or conflict in perspectives.
From your brief introduction to systems thinking in practice in this course, describe how systems approaches might offer support towards designing systemic strategies to improve the situations that you have noted.
Comment
In this introductory course you will not be expected to have gained know-how in the application of any of the five systems approaches introduced. But generically, you hopefully will have gained some appreciation of the potential in your chosen area of practice for systems tools to provide:
- i.a more holistic picture of the variables and their inter-relationships
- ii.a means of depicting perspectives as systems of interest using different modelling techniques (SD, VSM, SSM, cognitive mapping, CSH reference systems…)
- iii.a means of resolving issues of conflict by making boundaries of what’s in and what’s out explicit – countering claims of holism, and making boundaries of perspectives (viewpoints) explicit – countering claims of pluralism.
The context of using systems thinking in practice involves not just the variables (complicatedness), perspectives (complexity), and boundaries (conflicts) in the area of practice, but also your own experiences and enthusiasms drawn from whatever background or tradition of practice that you may come from. Systems tools – whether from the five systems approaches or other approaches – are not necessarily introduced as yet another alternative set of tools, but rather a complementary set of ideas that may help enhance your existing practice. The enactment of STiP capabilities through the STiP heuristic can sometimes be referred to as a methodological approach of STiP bricolage.