Here you can find out about how to progress your learning and practice of systems thinking. If you are ready to begin your journey of learning and practice, please continue on this page. However, if you are new to systems please visit the ‘Why Systems?’ page first, where we outline benefits and key features of core systems thinking approaches.
Learning Pathway
Developing your learning and practice
Learning about and then beginning to practice Systems Thinking can feel daunting …
- the situations we inhabit are complex …
- the relationships we have with others in those situations are messy …
- the language of systems thinking practice can be esoteric …
- the landscapes we inhabit; with colleagues, and advocates, are multi-layered …
Because of the complexity that we face, both in the system in focus and in the intervention into that system, SCiO believes that practitioners need to be able to …
- apply systemic approaches to situations; practice expectations are set out in Skills England’s Systems Thinking Practitioner apprenticeship standard, and the approaches listed in SCiO’s professional standard competency framework,
- apply these in multiple as part of a systemic inquiry in any given situation or context,
- inquire into situations in a systemic way, making sense of: multiple perspectives, inter-relationships, boundaries, and patterns within a situation.
To aid practitioner development, and recognise the unique capabilities of Systems Thinking professionals, SCiO accredits professional qualifications - there’s more about this on our Professional Accreditation page.
A model for learning or developing
To support and enable practitioner development we have visualised the learning model as a ‘broken comb’ – see the figure below …
- you need a reference point of knowledge about systems, as well as a grounding in the concepts providing foundations for practice,
- core methods are proven and established, and promote sense-making, so you may need to adopt these at variable depths of practice, i.e. learning and using many at an introductory level, some more fully, and a few at an advanced level,
- you will need to learn to practice multiple core methods, especially as you will encounter a variety of situations – systems thinking is rarely a one-method discipline,
- you may find it useful to supplement core methods with specialist single-subject learning, e.g. CONAN, Patterns of Strategy, to extend your portfolio of skills,
- you will most likely bring knowledge and skills about interventions, from a range of sources, and these, whilst useful systematic, can lack a systemic inquiry focus, e.g. six-sigma, data gathering, project mgmt., stakeholder mapping, facilitation, etc., so it’s worth understanding how they fit and can be used,
- depending on context, people and situation, you’ll need suitable ways of bringing participants together; via workshops, interviews, etc.
From the experience of our members – the most fruitful practice results from deeper knowledge of one or more core methods combined with the ability to deploy them effectively through intervention approaches; “theory without practice is just as incomplete as practice without theory” (Shakur).
Each situation is unique, so practice demands can vary hugely, and you can think of the systems thinking learning pathway, practice trajectory, and built experience as having four inter-related activities, with key steps illustrated by the figure below …
You're hopefully now ready to make a start on your learning ...
- you can discover more about opportunities for learning at the SCiO Courses menu ...
- you can develop your practice without being seen as, or becoming, technocratic … find out more about the discipline in the SCiO professional standard competency framework ...
- and since every learner has a unique ‘trajectory’, what destinations are there and how dynamic can learning be within the discipline?
These evaluate-learn-apply-reflect activities form a cycle, that allow you as a developing practitioner to start from a base of a single systems thinking method, combined with familiar intervention skills, until you build a personal portfolio suitable for your professional area.
Once you’ve built up your capabilities and experience you can also be assessed for a SCiO Professional Qualification using the same Competency Framework you used for self-assessment.
Where to go to learn more
Resources - SCiO has collected guidance about how systems thinking methods can serve to address problematic situations in all types of organisations and institutions, at our Why Systems? page, and from an extensive range of practitioners’ direct experiences, at our Resources page,
SCiO suite of practice-oriented courses - they are typically split into:
- ‘introductory’ - you might wish to try a couple of these to explore whether the method feels applicable to your situations, as per the ‘learn’ step - as above,
- ‘core-skills’ - these provide knowledge and learning practice to allow you to use the methods learned in real situations,
- ‘advanced’ - these provide a useful ‘toe-dip’ vs ‘heavyweight’ learning opportunity, as well as refinements to help you integrate the methods with other aspects of systems thinking practice,
Events which are either; open (to anyone) or developmental/workshops (typically for SCiO members),
Other activities such as action learning sets, common interest groups, mentoring, ALC’s (active learning circles), and method-based tools like the Organisational Maturity Model (OMM),
There is also a variety of advanced developmental activities accessible to all SCiO members, such as; creating case studies of practice, or applying systems laws and underpinning principles. Practitioners can also collaborate to develop multi-method and novel approaches to problematic situations, or using particular systems thinking methods, and these can be ways for members to progress to professional fellowship.