Systems Thinking

An interesting mind map showing lineages and connections of various systems theories: http://eyeonsociety.co.uk/resources/systemsGenealogy.pdf

Interesting that this website also includes this book which may prove useful in my trajectory: Raven, J (1995). The New Wealth of Nations: A New Enquiry into the Nature and Origins of the Wealth of Nations and the Societal Learning Arrangements Required for a Sustainable Society.

Also with some links to chapter pdfs available here: http://eyeonsociety.co.uk/resources/fulllist.html#new_wealth

MY REFLECTIONS FROM INTRO TUTORIALS (SAT 5 NOV):

When asked to mark on screen how I was feeling abt TU812 (on a linear scale of happy-face to sad-face) I wanted to put mark nearer to sad face bcs I feel daunted by TU812 & undertaking this study. So many other marks were being made on screen by fellow students closer towards the happy face or that side of the middle-marker. So I didn’t even feel strong enough to mark the screen honestly abt what I was feeling (I ended up putting my mark just to the sad-face side of the middle-marker). Why did I do that? Afraid even of putting an anonymous mark on a screen. [Read more…] about Reflections: Intro Tutorials

This post reviews the purpose, aims and learning outcomes of the OU module TU812 Managing Systemic Change: inquiry, action and interaction (OU, 2010) to act as an ongoing reference point for me during my studies.

Key themes of the module:

Change, what it is and how to manage it in an inter-connected world.

Managing change is meant, in terms of this module, as having a positive bearing on change, in both its nature and direction. [Read more…] about Aims and Learning Outcomes

One of my fellow students on the Managing Systemic Change module I’ve just started studying recommended mendeley.com as a great free resource (provided by the academic publisher Elsevier) for bookmarking, annotating, organising and quickly/easily citing from academic papers in your area of study or research. It looks like a great tool so I decided to sign up and start using it. [Read more…] about Defining a multi-disciplinary field

I never really wrote much about my explosive ‘career-reset’ moment of late last year. On one level it was brought about by the equally-explosive changes taking place at the company where I worked, and an increasing realisation that I was neither value-aligned nor in agreement with their strategic direction. (There were other reasons too which I can’t go into in a public forum at this time.) But it was just as much caused by the slow simmer of change that’s been brewing in my personal life – no, let’s say “in my true self” – for a good few years now. [Read more…] about Meta-morphosis

Here is a growing list of resources related to Systems Theory, Systems Thinking and Systems Practice.

Introductory Level:

• Systems explained by Sir Geoffrey Vickers in 1978 (OU – video)
• Systems explained by Peter Checkland, creator of the “soft systems methodology” approach to management problem solving (OU – audio)
• Systems explained by Russell Ackoff (OU – audio)

[Read more…] about Systems Thinking Resources