Bridging the Systems Thinking Capability Gap

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Enlightened Enterprise Academy

Bridging the Systems Thinking Capability Gap: To Improve Decision-Making and Create a Better World

Leaders in international organisations (UN, UNESCO, OECD, WHO and others), government, business, and the third-sector, declare that the primary issues they face result from increased complexity. They go on to argue that systems thinking and practice are the best way of seeking to understand and manage that complexity:“Unless we adopt a systems approach, unless we employ systems thinking, we will fail to understand the world we are living in” (OECD, 2018). The problem is that systems thinking, as a relatively young transdiscipline, is rarely taught in universities and has largely failed to establish itself as the go-to approach for decision-makers. In this unmissable event we will discuss the nature of the systems thinking capability gap and how we can ensure leaders and other stakeholders have the systems thinking and decision-making capacity to cope with the complexity they encounter in a VUCA world. It is all about changing our ways of thinking.There are numerous examples of institutional failures at the local, national and international levels. Covid-19 exposed many weaknesses in our health systems. We seem unable to tackle inequality and the problems posed by an ageing population; and food, water, and energy crises are increasingly common, even in so-called developed economies. Our event will take place against the backdrop of the COP26 Climate Change Meeting in Glasgow, which is being held from 29/10 to 12/11. Few are expecting that the Glasgow talks will solve the crisis we face. The result of so many system failures has been a collapse in levels of confidence in our political and economic systems, and of trust in our leaders. Citizens frequently complain “the system isn’t working”. And while many leaders readily accept the problems they face are systemic in nature, they seem at a loss at how to respond. It is for this reason that the Enlightened Enterprise Academy has created a Critical Systems Forum with Dr Michael C Jackson OBE, the pioneer of the pluralistic approach to systems thinking and author of Critical Systems Thinking and the Management of Complexity (Wiley, 2019). The Critical Systems Forum will soon become an Institute, and solving the systems thinking capability gap will be a central purpose. But first we will run a conference online on November 4th to explore whether others think the problem is as pressing as we do and, if so, how we can go about addressing it.We will hear provocations from three senior leaders who will discuss the capabilities they see contemporary decision-makers needing. There are then short responses from three systems thinkers (including Professor Jackson) outlining what they think taking a systems approach has to offer. A moderated audience Q&amp;A session and participative discussion follows.​The event will take place online on Thursday 4th November 14.00 - 16.30 BST

The first confirmed speaker is <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/rupertmcneil/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Rupert McNeil</a>, appointed Government Chief People Officer on 1 January 2016, joining the Civil Service from Lloyds Banking Group, where he was the Group HR Director. As Government Chief People Officer, Rupert is responsible for delivery of the Civil Service People Strategy, which sets out what the Civil Service needs to do to attract the most capable and public-spirited people and build a culture and ways of working that are as good, if not better, than anything on offer anywhere else. He provides leadership on the full range of people issues including talent, capability, inclusion, capacity, leadership, pay, performance, employee relations, culture, and behaviours.When accepting the invitation to speak he said: &quot;A great topic and very aligned with the work we are currently doing in the Government Skills and Curriculum unit on capability building.&quot;

The second confirmed speaker is <a href="https://ahpsr.who.int/about-us/governance/secretariat/people/dr-aku-kwamie" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Aku Kwamie</a>. Aku is a health systems researcher. Her work has focused on applying complexity theory to health systems governance, management and leadership. She is particularly interested in district health systems, as well as learning and mentorship in health policy and systems research (HPSR). She leads the Alliance’s portfolios on systems thinking and capacity strengthening for the conduct of HPSR.Aku holds degrees from the University of Toronto, Kings College London, and Wageningen University. She is a Next Einstein Fellow, a commissioner on the WHO-UNICEF-Lancet Commission A future for the world’s children?, a working group member for Children in all Policies 2030, and a former Board member of Health Systems Global. Aku is from Ghana.Her thoughts about this conference: “We often still think about optimizing the system by optimizing the parts. This conference will hopefully get us focusing more on optimizing the interactions between the parts. I’m really excited to join”.

Our Third and Final Speaker is <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/tony-reeves-0753a3b0/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Tony Reeves</a>, Chief Executive of Liverpool City Council. He was Chief Executive of Bradford Council from September 2006 to November 2014 and prior to that Deputy Chief Executive of Wakefield City Council from March 2003 to September 2006.In 2014 Tony joined Deloitte as Local Government Advisory Partner supporting local Government in areas of strategy and policy, transformation, reorganisation, health and social care integration, regeneration, economic development and housing. In October 2017, Tony, via Deliotte, was engaged to work with Liverpool City Council providing strategic support and advice around the implementation of the Mayor’s Inclusive Growth Plan, development and implementation of a transformation programme for the Council, performance and programme management systems and the development and implementation of directorate delivery/business plans. In July 2018, Liverpool City Council appointed Tony as Chief Executive. He has worked with the key partners in the city to develop the City Plan, a collaborative approach to the delivery of public services and transform outcomes for the people of the city.Tony&#x27;s contribution will be in the form of a discussion with <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/katie-johnston-94b92810/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Katie Johnston</a>, Director of Government and Health Industries at PwC

<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/ray-ison-0621117/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Ray Ison</a> will be one of four systems thinkers responding to the presentations by the speakers. Ray developed and sustained his systemic sensibilities growing up in rural NSW, Australia. He writes: “It is hard not to live a systemic sensibility growing up in a farming community. Financial destitution would have been the result of ignoring the wider world and human relationship with the biosphere. Fresh from University, I told my father what I thought he should do on the farm - he began the changes but they did not work. What I understood was not who he was. We each act out of our own traditions of understanding. Systems thinking in practice (STiP) begins with this realization, inviting other perspectives, and finding ways to organise your own thinking so that what you do has a chance of being systemically desirable and culturally feasible”. Ray has employed this mode of STiP in a range of research and consultancy fields and in co-designing the learning systems in STiP for which the Open University has become internationally recognised.

<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jean-boulton-6856471/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Jean Boulton</a> will be one of four systems thinkers responding to the presentations by the speakers. Jean&#x27;s PhD was in quantum physics and so, she says, “my brain got addled early. I thought in fields and uncertainties”. She left research for applied engineering and then management consultancy, then management, then back to academia in the social sciences. When she caught up with complexity theory, in the 1990s, it made perfect sense to her as a way to understand the world in which we live and work. She writes: “The world seems ever more interconnected, fast-changing, uncertain, volatile and emergent. I think first and foremost complexity thinking wobbles the implicit ‘mechanical’ worldview that things are largely predictable and success resides in clarity, planning and evidence. Secondly, complexity theory gives a more nuanced view of what the world is like – it says more than ‘the world is complex, get over it.’ Exploring complexity and systems theories helps to shape our approach to strategy, to how we explore the contexts in which and with which organisations operate, and our theories of change and leadership”.

<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrick-hoverstadt-3666b4/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Patrick Hoverstadt</a> will be one of four systems thinkers responding to what the speakers have to say. Patrick says that he first came across ‘Systems’ when he was at school reading the Limits to Growth, and the thinking in it made sense immediately to him. “I picked it up seriously”, he writes, “many years later doing a course at Business School and once again the systems courses were not only the most interesting, but more importantly gave the most useful and convincing answers when dealing with problems of complexity and uncertainty. A quarter of a century later, the approaches we consistently use in our consultancy are all systems-based, whether that’s in diagnosing or designing organisation or multi-agency systems, developing strategy, or in system transformation. &quot;For me, systems approaches have consistently proved themselves fast, sophisticated and rigorous in addressing complex systems in what is a complex and uncertain world,” he says.

<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-mike-c-jackson-obe-b27b7a12/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Mike Jackson</a> will be one of four systems thinkers responding to what the speakers have to say. Mike has worked in the civil service, in academia and as a consultant. 40 years ago he established a research programme at the University of Hull which led to the establishment of the ‘Centre for Systems Studies’ and to the birth and development of ‘critical systems thinking’ (CST) - a topic on which he has published ten books and over 150 articles. He writes that: “In today’s world, decision-makers increasingly have to manage issues that arise unexpectedly, generate uncertainty, are characterised by interconnectivity, and spread across traditional boundaries. CST aims to assist decision-makers to think differently about the issues they face, understand the strengths and weaknesses of different systems approaches, and use them in combination as a means of ensuring responsible leadership in a complex world”. Mike’s latest book Critical Systems Thinking and the Management of Complexity was published by Wiley (2019). He sees the role of the Critical Systems Forum precisely as ‘helping to bridge the systems thinking capability gap’.

<h2>The Agenda</h2>14.00 Welcome and Intros14.10 Rupert McNeil14.30 Tony Reeves &amp; Katie Johnston14.50 Aku Kwamie15.10 Intro to systems thinkers15.15 Three Systems Thinkers (10 mins each)	- Ray Ison	- Patrick Hoverstadt - Jean Boulton 15.45 Moderated Audience Q&amp;A with speakers and systems thinkers16.10 Reflections Mike Jackson16.25 Closing Remarks16.30 End of formal sessions16.35 Optional Breakout Discussion Session17.00 Finish

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Bridging the Systems Thinking Capability Gap

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