Learning outcomes

After completing Part 1 of the course, you should be able to:

• understand systems thinking as conceptual boundary setting
• understand systems thinking as a relational activity in terms of being both systemic and systematic
• describe three activities (as threshold concepts) of systems thinking in practice – understanding inter-relationships, engaging with multiple perspectives, and reflecting on boundary judgements relevant to any situation of professional interest
• understand STiP in terms of situations of change, agency of change (including ‘people’) and tools for managing and making change
• distinguish between difficult and messy situations and explain their significance to systems thinking in practice
• describe a system in terms of entities (variables) and purposefulness
• describe four perspectives on systems thinking in terms of situations of use and users of systems approaches.