Goal: Understand foundational principles of systems design and thinking holistically about services.
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As we are in the UK, we’ll be mainly following the GDS teachings, but supplement alternatives too
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Systems thinking case study bank
Systems Thinking: What, Why, When, Where, and How? - The Systems Thinker
Introduction to systems thinking for civil servants
Systems-Thinking-Toolkit-Print-Friendly-Version.pdf
teams-PD-C4D-Knowledge UNICEF-UNICEF-systems-thinking-toolkit-FINAL-2.0.pdf
A system is a set of elements or parts interconnected in such a way that they produce their own pattern of behaviour over time. System thinking is a framework for seeing the interconnections in a system and a disciple for seeing and understand the whole system; the structures that underlie complex situations. It's a collection of tools and approaches that help us in thinking systemically about work. System thinking is powerful when applied to complex systems. By creating simple models of complex systems, system thinking can be a useful building block towards understanding and visualising data flows within a system.
A key principle of systems thinking is to consider diverse viewpoints and engage multiple stakeholders to achieve a comprehensive understanding of the system. This involves bring together stakeholders from across the system— including those operating at macro, meso and micro levels — as equal and active partners. Together these stake stakeholders can:
→ Identify Influences within the system
Pinpoint factors that shape system dynamics
→ Analyse patterns and trends over time