Managing complexity: a systems approach

Do you need to change the way you think when faced with a complex situation? Managing complexity: a systems approach, is a free course that examines how systemic thinking and practice enables you to cope with the connections between things, events and ideas. By taking a broader perspective complexity becomes manageable and it is easier to accept that gaps in knowledge can be acceptable.

• Introduction
• Learning outcomes
• 1 Managing complex systems
• 1 Managing complex systems
• 1.1 Thinking about expectations
• 1.1.1 Learning by experience
• 2 Preparing to tackle this unit
• 2 Preparing to tackle this unit
• 2.1 The nature of systems thinking and systems practice
• 2.2 Taking responsibility for your own learning
• 2.3 Appreciating epistemological issues
• 2.4 Review
• 3 Understanding systems approaches to managing complexity
• 3 Understanding systems approaches to managing complexity
• 3.1 Introduction
• 3.2 Making sense of the metaphor
• 4 Systems practice – unpacking the juggler metaphor
• 4 Systems practice – unpacking the juggler metaphor
• 5 Being a systems practitioner
• 5 Being a systems practitioner
• 5.1 The state of ‘Being’
• 5.2 Being aware of the constraints and possibilities of the observer
• 5.3 Appreciating your basis for understanding
• 5.4 Experience – making distinctions based on a tradition and constructing a history
• 5.5 Distinctions about systems practice
• 5.6 Learning and effective action
• 5.7 Being ethical
• 5.8 Reviewing some implications for systems practice
• 6 Engaging with complexity
• 6 Engaging with complexity
• 6.1 Articulating your appreciation of complexity
• 6.2 Experiencing complexity as mess or difficulty
• 6.3 Where is the complexity and what is it?
• 6.4 Choosing to distinguish between complex situations and complex systems
• 6.5 Appreciating some implications for practice
• Activity answers
• Conclusion
• References
• Acknowledgements