Course: Systems Thinking and Complexity

Our answers to the last three questions are given below. Was the decision-making subsystem effective? Clearly the decision-making was flawed on this extreme occasion. More specifically, there was control room …

Week 1 introduced the basic ideas of systems thinking including the use of systems diagrams for representation, analysis and modelling. Week 2 begins by defining the Formal Systems Model. This …

Policy is the art of achieving a desired outcome in the presence of constraints and differing priorities. It is largely a coordination problem, and data and systems models can help …

As presented on this course, the use of systems thinking is motivated by the desire to plan and manage systems better and to analyse systems so that they can be …

By themselves, the traditional sciences such as physics, chemistry, biology, sociology, psychology, economics, etc. cannot be applied to complex systems. This is because policy-relevant systems tend to cut across many …

The study of systems thinking and complexity is motivated by the desire to understand and design a better world. This can mean designing better products, but it also includes designing …

What makes a system ‘complex’? There is no agreement on how the word ‘complex’ should be defined, but there is wide consensus that complexity can arise in systems that have …

One of the major discoveries of the twentieth century was that deterministic systems could be inherently unpredictable. In the 1960s the weather scientist Edward Lorenz observed that minute variations in …

This article concludes the Systems Thinking and Complexity course by showing how the ideas we have considered are designed to be used for policy and action. This course began with …

In the 1950s the WHO sprayed part of Borneo with DDT to combat an outbreak of malaria that was affecting the Dayak people. According to this video, a chain of …

The sign graph above [1] gives our summary of the video in the previous step. Collapsing roofs and an infestation of rats were unintended consequences of the DDT spraying problems. …

System Map of Gold-Silver-Bronze Command and Control The figure above shows the Gold-Silver-Bronze command and control (GSB C&C) represented from a systems perspective. The three levels of command are seen …

A Formal Systems Model representation of the GSB C&C system. This application of the Formal Systems Model sees: Gold as the wider system, Silver as the system, and Bronze as …

Many studies have been carried out that have used the Formal Systems Model. Recurring themes emerge from these studies such as: Deficiencies in the structure of the system, such as …

The diagram above, which you first saw in Week 1, shows a generalizable model of a robust system capable of purposeful activity without failure. It is called the Formal Systems …