4 Summary
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in
The Leonard Cohen verse was used at the beginning of the first part of this course. I thought of the bells that still can ring as tools collectively constituting the five systems approaches. To some extent they are disembodied and externalised. You can learn the techniques of ‘bell ringing’ through practicing with the use of systems tools in your own area of practice, and in so doing make use of them as a practitioner.
But behind the techniques in any situation there are the bell ringers. Not only do they have the experiences that they bring to bear on the skill of bell-ringing (tool use), but also the uniquely human qualities that determine how and why they do it as they do, and that allow them to enjoy and appreciate it. Such practitioners are the users of the tools – including myself, you and others studying this course.
Systems thinking in practice requires prime attention to the present context and the foreseeable future. I have emphasised the importance of relationship between:
- situations of interest (in areas of practice) as raw material for using tools
- practitioner or tool user attempting to improve the situation
- actual tools used.
The term ‘tools’ is used in a generic sense to incorporate the systems thinking and systems practice ideas embodied in the systems approaches introduced in this course. Other ideas from outside the systems approaches can provide an additional source for reflecting upon the use of systems tools. Systems thinking and systems practice provide conceptual tools for dealing with three features of complex situations of change encountered when thinking strategically:
- making sense of countless interrelated and often interdependent variables
- engaging with multiple contrasting and often conflicting perspectives
- dealing effectively and constructively with boundary tensions arising from inevitable uncertainty about interrelationships and interdependencies and conflicts between contrasting perspectives.
The five approaches were chosen because of their respective pedigrees in supporting decision making in different and changing contexts. Each approach embodies all three imperatives of systems thinking and systems practice summarised above. But each approach also has an historic slant towards one imperative: system dynamics and the viable system model are historically significant in dealing with interrelationships among variables. Strategic options development and analysis (with cognitive mapping), and soft systems methodology historically significant in dealing with multiple perspectives; and critical systems heuristics historically significant in dealing with boundary tensions.
The important point to take forward if practising tools from any of the five systems approaches is to continually reflect on how the approaches and their respective tools can enrich your existing capacities and competencies for in developing your STiP capabilities. The elements of systems thinking literacy introduced in this course are aimed towards complementing rather than replacing your existing skill-sets from whatever tradition of practice (professional or non-professional) that may be familiar to you. They are meant to assist dealing with present messy situations of interest commonly encountered across a range of domains in order to improve them for the future.
OpenLearn Courses associated with STiP
Systems thinking in practice (STiP) is the namesake of an innovative Open University postgraduate programme of study that was launched in 2009. The core STiP modules were designed to draw upon and develop experiences and skillsets of mostly mature-age students wanting to enhance their individual professional practice (ranging from engineering to community development) with systems thinking. Alumni from the STiP programme initiated a process towards eventual UK Government approval in 2020 for a Level 7 (PG) Systems Thinking Practitioner Apprenticeship (STPA).
Since the PG curriculum launch, the term STiP has gained international recognition and a growing currency amongst systems thinking practitioners (STPs). The ideas of STiP as taught at the OU are distilled into two separate OpenLearn courses – Understanding STiP and Practising STiP (which will be available to study in late 2025). However, an important feature of STiP is the focus on ‘praxis’ (understanding in practice). Both OpenLearn courses attend to the interplay between understanding and practice, though with different starting points and emphases.
The OL course Understanding STiP emphasises understanding some basic principles for enhancing systems thinking literacy. The OL course Practising STiP (available to study in late 2025) emphasises practise as a means to develop STiP capabilities. The two courses can be studied independently of each other, and/or in any order of your choosing or preference.
Further learning
OpenLearn Systems Thinking Hub [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)]