Systems Thinking
How to recognise and avoid potential problems in complex situations
Have you noticed that many solutions that are implemented in your organisation eventually create more problems than they solve?
Like a money-saving solution that turns into a losing-money problem.
You can see this happening in many business areas - in manufacturing, operations, human resource, information technology, marketing and management. Done initially with good intentions, many of these solutions eventually turn into problems and unintended consequences.
This situation can be avoided if you know how good solutions can become potential problems.
This workshop will show you how to use systems thinking tools to recognise system patterns that lead to problems and how you can avoid them.
Systems Thinking
In today's world, there are many changes that are occurring in our lives, institutions and organisations. While these changes bring benefits in our lives, they also bring chaos and problems into our society.
To solve these problems, many of us use analytical thinking. We break down the problems into their smallest elements and attempt to solve each one separately. But this does not give long-term solutions as the elements are interlinked. Changing one will affect another.
By shifting to systems thinking, we move away from seeing single elements, functions and events, to seeing the processes in which they inter-relate with one another. It is through this process of thinking that will help us find more effective and longer-term solutions to our complex problems.
From an early age, we are taught to break apart problems in order to make complex tasks
and subjects easier to deal with. But this creates a bigger problem. We lose the ability to see the
consequences of our actions and we lose a sense of connection to a larger whole.
Peter Senge, The Fifth Discipline
Benefits
At the end of this workshop, you will be able to:
- Understand the characteristics of systems
- Draw causal loops that will help you analyse system flows
- Manage your business using systems thinking archetypes
- Foresee possible unintended consequences
- Recognise and avoid potential problems in complex situations
- Improve your organisation's objectives and functions
Who should attend
This workshop is designed for business managers, problem solvers, school principals and department heads interested in using systems thinking tools for problem solving and improving systems flows.
What you will cover in this workshop:
Systems Theory and Systems Thinking
- What is a System
- Characteristics of Systems
Systems Thinking Tools
- Causal Loops
- Behaviour Over Time Graphs
- Systems Thinking Archetypes
- How to use Archetypes to spot potential problems
Recognizing and Avoiding Potential Problems
- Setting goals and objectives
- Developing appropriate Vision and Mission statements
- Using feedback information, performance indicators and benchmarks to predict potential problems
- Why short-term solutions usually fail in the long-term
- Why many information technology projects fail to deliver
- Why many human resource policies become unintended consequences
- Potential pitfalls in project planning and strategic planning
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