Reference no: EM133581797 , Length: word count:2000

Systems Thinking

Assignment

Adopt a critically reflective approach to the topic of Systems Thinking and its relevance to your professional practice.

You may create your own title to focus our attention on the area(s) that are prescient to you.

The focal point could be the use of Systems Thinking to tackle a specific project you are undertaking at work or to explore a challenge your organisation is facing (e.g. using SSM to help explore stakeholder requirements for a new IT Systems you are responsible for implementing). If there are no such opportunities available to you then you may focus your assignment on a challenge that you see in wider society. However, you will still need to be explicit about the insights you take from this and how you could transfer the learning [pertinent to systems thinking] back into your professional role.

This assignment will be
a) a demonstration of your systems thinking practice (i.e. can you use the technique to understand organisational or societal challenges);
b) a demonstration that you are informing practice this through an engagement with academic literature beyond the core material presented in the videos (i.e. have you drawn on articles that go beyond the module videos and the core chapters from Reynolds and Holwell etc.) and
c) a demonstration that you are attuned to the individual skills you have (or may want to develop) to support your application of systems thinking.

In this way the assignment speaks to the Hand (a), Head (b) and Heart (c) aspects of learning and I encourage you to explicitly address all of these in your assignment.

You may want to explore either 1 or 2 illustrations of your practice (i.e. the whole assignment looking at applying causal loop diagrams to examine a key topic at work or to split the assignment and look at the use of cognitive mapping and Soft Systems Methodology in your practice).

Note: it is acceptable to use the weekly tasks or the discussions as a starting point for this assignment. By this I mean ensure that you have pushed your thinking further through the formative feedback you have received from myself and your peers. If you merely repackage the weekly tasks and submit these as your assignment then this would not be acceptable.

2 x 900 words on the topics (i.e. do not spread the words too unevenly such as having 1200 words on topic 1 and then 600 on the other).
For this c.900 words you might want to

i) Briefly introduce the context / problem situation you want to focus on (100 words)

ii) Apply the technique to the problem situation. This could be a revised version of one of the weekly tasks you have submitted. If this has gone through various iterations (and these are helpful to your argument) then you may want to present these in the assignment and/or as an appendix. You would also have a brief description (or some footnotes) to explore how this model works (or to articulate the assumptions at the heart of it). This section will have few words (you do not need to count the words in the SSM model etc.)

iii) The demonstration of the application is supported with a discussion of the insights you are drawing from the literature about the technique. This literature could be used to gain insights FOR practice (e.g. what did you go and learn before you applied systems thinking to the topic), IN practice (e.g. what did you need to go and learn about as you started to apply the technique) or FROM practice (e.g. having used the technique what is it that you are curious about to enhance your performance for the next time you use this technique). This section could be in the region of 500-700 words.

iv) As well as providing insight into the techniques you will also reflect and provide insight into your application of these techniques. Here you are using the literature to develop your appreciation of the skills you want to develop to enable you to become a more adept systems thinker (e.g. do you need to develop a style of conceptual thinking or engaging with different worldviews). Again, you may want to reflect on what YOU needed to do before applying the technique; or what YOU needed to do whilst deploying the technique or WHAT you needed to do after you used the technique (to learn for the next time). This section could be in the region of 300-500 words.

I would suggest that your assignment includes diagrams, systems maps, rich pictures. If these are central to your argument then place these at the point of interest in the main body of the assignment (rather than as an appendix)

I appreciate you may want to create these diagrams etc. by hand. That is perfectly fine. Just take a photo and insert it in the relevant place in the assignment. However, make sure that the clarity and the presentation of these are akin to a document you would place in a board report.

When you are inserting pictures / diagrams etc. ensure that the text in them is equivalent to Calibri 11 point or similar so I can easily read and understand them.

You may produce the pictures / diagrams etc. in colour or monochrome.

Note: Avoid writing a generic assignment on leadership or strategy; ensure you are clearly focussed on developing your systems thinking capability, capacity and commitment.

Note: You are advised to sketch out an assignment plan and send it through for comment before you start writing in detail.

Assessment Criteria for Assignment

For the individual report essay you should follow standard writing protocols and include an introduction and conclusion in your essay.

Make sure you define all your terms, using either your own definition, a definition discussed in class, and/or a definition from our texts.

When referencing texts using either direct quotes or paraphrasing, please make sure you cite the text using Harvard referencing. You are welcome to reference the literature assigned to the course or any other materials relevant to the assignment.

Please note the word limit which is 2000 words (+/- 10%) excluding references and appendices.