1.3 Competencies (and capabilities)
Box 2 continues from the listing of competencies in Box 1.
Box 2 Systems competencies 2: systems practice
- Systems practice is reflective practice.
- Part of the skill of an aware systems practitioner is their ability to use systems thinking as part of a process of learning (by them or with others), in which the outcome is some improvement to a situation of concern.
- The particular form of learning at the core of systems practice is concerned with enabling effective action among stakeholders in complex situations. This involves collaborative action or social learning.
- Systems practice recognises the significance of making boundary judgements and continually exploring purpose.
- In addition to problem solving, systems practice can help identify what other problems might be relevant to a situation.
- Systems practice is a transdisciplinary skill used to complement and support an existing skill set from a single discipline.
- Part of the transdisciplinary skill is in using a systems literacy that helps facilitate interdisciplinarity.
- Systems practice draws on, but is different from, systems science or complexity science in that it attends to judgements on boundaries and values as much as judgement on facts.
Activity 3 Systems thinking in practice in other skill sets
From the list of competencies in Box 2 make a note of any competencies that you feel represent an existing strength in your own practice and one that is less strong.
Actually applying competencies in real world situations of practice can often be very challenging. STiP is more appropriately regarded as an artisanal craft skillset – one that is continually adaptable to particular circumstances at different times. Here the term ‘capability’ is more appropriate. Systems thinking practitioners (STPs) may have acquired a competent systems thinking literacy yet when performing in some situations, their practice may not deliver anticipated outcomes. Capabilities are by definition less easy to measure or define. Below is a definition of STiP capabilities from the OU STiP team:
Developing capability is an ongoing practice of enabling a purposeful practitioner the freedom (emancipation) to choose pathways of action that may be different from pre-determined (purposive) systems of action associated with the situation at hand. Such expressions of capability may involve emancipation from others' (extrinsic) definitions of competence if they choose it to be the right thing to do under the circumstances. Capabilities are, by definition, less easy to frame. They relate to personal learned experiences of applying tools in different circumstances and being able to adapt and adjust to the situation by nurturing a wider variety of choices available.
A particular competence or capability might be described in terms of a willingness to be disturbed. Thinking differently can be experienced as discomforting in that it often requires disturbing conventional ways of thinking and doing. This is related to recognising traps and thinking of strategies for avoiding them and/or escaping from them.
The next section describes three common traps and gives a rationale for the selection of the five systems approaches chosen as a means of avoiding or springing the traps.