6 Developing options – a systems thinking approach
Having chosen and used your preferred approach for futures planning and started to identify possible options, you may have noticed that they often make reference to drawing on systems thinking to help develop options further. Systems thinking is just one tool but is frequently used by most organisations.
Systems thinking enables you to grasp and manage situations of complexity and uncertainty in which there are no simple answers. It is a way of learning your way to effective action by looking at connected wholes rather than separate parts.
Activity 22 What is ‘Systems thinking’?
Read and listen to the audio file in the OpenLearn article below and reflect on how systems thinking could help you in develop your options further.
Systems explained by Peter Checkland [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] (The Open University, n.d)
You may wish to make notes in the box below.
Systems thinking tools help you by visualising the information and what might be possible. They allow you to share and collaborate on ideas quickly and provide a different way of thinking. It is useful to when working with these tools, to remember that you do not own an idea and that anyone can adapt and change your ideas, so that you maximise the opportunities for understanding a problem and new ways of working.