This pre-recorded course of 32 minutes plus exercises originally took a 2-3h session to work through in a group.
This is the first session of a pair (7 & 8) that could sensibly be taken together, and they are part of a ten-session Foundations of Applied Systems Thinking course.
This session covers four main topics:
- Changing as a system is challenging – why is that?
- Four ‘rules’ of systems that apply (especially) to change.
- Boundary choices – efficacy, ethics and legitimacy.
- Power: power analysis; mitigating power differentials and leveraging power assets..
During the session, we will take you through the following methods, tools and models: system, environment and strategy; adaptation rate; settling rate; steering your system by using purpose and ethos to broker the tension between today/delivery and tomorrow/change (System 3-4-5 homeostat); boundary and emancipation (inclusion, legitimacy and ethics); power analysis.
Objectives
Following this session, you will:
- Understand how four rules of systems affect and are integral to system change. Appreciate how these rules constrain or create risks to systems, to your options, and to system change.
- Be able to identify where these four rules have affected systems you work in so you can diagnose them in future.
- Understand how your boundary choices for your system of interest and the perspectives you include or exclude affects the quality, legitimacy and ethics of your system change.
- Be able to analyse power types and differentials among stakeholders in your system; be able to identify power assets that you may wish to leverage.
- Appreciate the links between power, perspectives, partiality and bias, and how bias creates risks to your system change.
Trainer
These courses are delivered by John Rogers, a Systems Thinking Consultant & Practitioner.
John Rogers is an accomplished systems thinking consultant and former public sector leader with over 30 years of experience driving purposeful, systemic improvement in complex, multi-agency environments. As Director of Entelechy Consulting and Systems Practitioner Assessment Ltd, he advises, trains, and assesses leaders and organisations in systems thinking, with recent work including frameworks and training for NHS Integrated Care Systems. Formerly Head of Systems Thinking at Wiltshire Council, he led transformative initiatives across children’s services, adult social care, and policing, and pioneered immersive systems training for 1,500 staff. John combines deep practical expertise with a background in consultancy, leadership, and clinical practice, and is a driving force in shaping systems thinking education and standards in the UK.
This material is Copyright and should not be used without discussions with the trainer.