(Description) Figures 3 and 4 The choices that can be made about ‘system’ and ‘situation’ that have implications for systems practice: practitioner 1 (top) situates systems in the world (i.e. conflates system and situation) whereas practitioner 2 (bottom) understands ‘systems’ to be a means of inquiry about situations (adapted from Checkland and Checkland and Poulter, Fig. 1.9, p. 2).

Week 8: Becoming a systems (thinking in practice) practitioner

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This shows to cartoons. The first has a character with a thought bubble saying ‘I spy systems which I can engineer’. The second shows a figure with a thought bubble saying ‘I spy complexity and confusion, but I can organise exploration of it as a learning system’.