RSS Feed
Systems Thinking in a Complex World
January 4 – 21, 2011
Hardin Tibbs, Philip Franses, Jean Boulton, Gunter Pauli
Consider any of the problems or challenges facing our modern world and it will quickly become apparent that they are part of a whole complex system which we ignore at our peril. Failure to think systemically is likely to mean that well intentioned initiatives result in unforeseen and undesirable outcomes. Yet our educational system rarely prepares us to operate this way. Therefore, we have to re-learn how we understand the world. This course provides an introduction to systems thinking and its application to sustainability, ecodesign, organisational and social change, industry, business and enterprise.
This series can taken as a one, two or three-week series of courses. Full details are below.
Systems thinking and eco-design for sustainability, Hardin Tibbs and Philip Franses (4 – 8 January)
Living and working in a complex world, Jean Boulton (10 – 14 January)
A Systemic Business Model: Industrial Ecology and the Blue Economy, Gunter Pauli (17- 21 January)
Click here to book your place online.
Systems thinking and eco-design for sustainability (Week 1)
Hardin Tibbs and Philip Franses
Hardin Tibbs will introduce the basic concepts of systems thinking and explore their centrality to the challenges of sustainability and planning for the future. Blending theory and practice, the group will work with case studies and examples in the fields of ecodesign, participatory design, and holistic management. Phil Franses will introduce participants to complexity theory and how it affects our understanding of the world.
Further details
A blend of theory and practice, examples and cases, and hands-on work in groups focused around practical examples
- What systems thinking is and why it is important
Understanding and addressing complex problems, understanding the link between system structure and patterns of system behaviour, framing issues in systemic terms, identifying the nature of needed solutions, creating shared constructs for participatory design and problem solving - A brief history of systems thinking
- The tools and methods of systems thinking
Systems mapping methods and notation, stocks and flows, computer-based systems dynamics modelling (Stella/iThink, etc.), potentials and limitations - Exposure to training models (e.g. Beer Game, Fishbanks, microworlds)
- Systems thinking and sustainability
Sustainability is an issue best understood in systemic terms, human operation at global scale means whole systems responsibility, Limits to Growth and the need for both technological and social changes, human activity within the Gaian “safe operating space”, ecological fit, industrial ecology, systemic thinking about material flows and energy futures, the preconditions for optimism - Eco-design
Eco-design as the problem-solving mode that can enable sustainability, based on systems thinking as the link between human needs (societal and individual) and design of technology & the built environment (cities, infrastructure, buildings, products), design that aims for synergy with nature not autonomy from nature, principles of eco-design and holistic management, design of community for ecological quality of life - Using systems thinking to facilitate stakeholder understanding and action
Choice of focal issue, system level/boundary (contextual, transactional, organizational), use of visual mapping and influence diagrams, choosing the right level of detail, ‘soft’ systems modelling, content-enabling facilitation, balancing workshop and offline work, criteria for group process - Systems thinking and intellectual frontiers
Ecology, complexity, holism, autopoiesis, emergence, qualitative science, etc.
Living and working in a complex world (Week 2)
Jean Boulton
Once we understand the systemic reality of our world, we have to learn to act differently, in a way that takes into account complexity and uncertainty. Planning and strategy have to take on new forms. This week explores complexity in more depth, particularly in relation to the behaviour of individuals, organisations and communities.
Further details
If we understand the world as essentially complex, interconnected, where new patterns emerge and the future cannot be known in advance, how do we go about living our lives? How do we manage organisations? How does this thinking impact on governance, sustainable economics, political thinking? In this week, we will consider the theory of complexity. What is it? Is it new or re-packaged ancient thinking? How can we be sure it is useful and relevant? We’ll then go on to consider how these ideas are relevant for individuals, organisations and wider contexts. How should we develop strategy? What does it mean for leadership, for shaping organisations and facilitating change? What can we learn to help us live and work sustainably, ethically and successfully?
A Systemic Business Model: Industrial Ecology and the Blue Economy (Week 3)
Gunter Pauli
In the final week, the course will look at how a systemic view of the world could transform the material and social world through a new model of business and enterprise. Gunter Pauli has spent the last five years developing a model called The Blue Economy, which instead of taking profit as its bottom line, is based on collaboration, the generation of social capital rather than debt, and innovations which model ecosystems by cascading nutrients and energy and eliminating waste. His new book describes over one hundred such innovations which have been benchmarked and brought to fruition in different parts of the world.
Further details
Gunter will start by introducing the principles on which The Blue Economy is based, and then will look at the interplay of physics, chemistry and biology as the underpinning scientific hierarchy for doing business in systems based on both business cases and science. He will discuss the role of the manager vs the entrepreneur as an opportunity to implement business as a system design, comparing core business, core competences, and supply chain management with how an ecosystem inspired business operates. Finally, he will look at applications of The Blue Economy, particularly in relation to Bhutan, where he is working with the government on developing projects which contribute to the Gross National Happiness as well as generating employment, meeting basic needs and encouraging social cohesion.
Teachers
Hardin Tibbs is a UK-based strategy consultant and futures researcher with extensive experience of scenario-based strategic thinking. He is a strategic analyst, process facilitator and presenter, with a background in product development and visual communications. In addition to his strategy work, Hardin has made significant contributions on issues involving technology and environment. He is CEO of Synthesys Strategic Consulting Ltd. in London, and he is an Associate Fellow at the Saïd Business School, Oxford University, where he helped to develop the executive education Scenarios Programme. Previously, Hardin was a senior consultant with Global Business Network (GBN) in California, playing a role in its development in the 1990s as an influential scenario consultancy. Before this Hardin was a consultant at the Cambridge, Massachusetts headquarters of Arthur D. Little, an international management, technology and environmental consulting firm. Hardin is the author of an influential white paper, Industrial Ecology: An Environmental Agenda for Industry (Arthur D. Little, Inc., 1991, and GBN 1993). This paper helped define industrial ecology, a new approach to industrial sustainability. Hardin has an MSc in Management and a BA degree in Industrial Design Engineering. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce (RSA) in London, UK.
Philip Franses studied mathematics at New College Oxford from 1976 to 1980. Academia’s dull explanation of the world inspired Philip on a counter-journey into the depths of experience, travelling and a re-sensitisation to quality. In 2005, after a fifteen-year career designing intelligent software, culminating in a programme now used in The Netherlands by all Dutch courts, Philip had a chance encounter with Satish Kumar and was moved to come to Schumacher as an MSc student. Here he was especially inspired by the work and scientific approaches of Goethean scientist Henri Bortoft, the physicist Basil Hiley and the late Brian Goodwin, professor of biology. Philip now runs local workshops in Goethean science, offering people a foundation to a “whole way” of seeing the world; and with Basil, Philip began the forum Process and Pilgrimage, inaugurated in 2009 at Birkbeck College. From 2006 Philip worked with Brian on a computer model exploring the interpretation of meaning within the DNA code. Taking up Brian’s work on complexity and chaos theory has also led to an exciting partnership with Aboca herbal health company, restoring the whole herb as the qualitative source of health.
Jean Boulton PhD, MBA is Visiting Fellow at Cranfield School of Management and also at Bristol Business School. She has a PhD in theoretical physics from the University of Cambridge and a first degree in physics from the University of Oxford. Since 1999 she has worked with the Complex Systems Research Centre at Cranfield and led the design and delivery of complexity teaching to MBA students for several years. Since 2006 she has also taught complexity theory on the MSc in Responsible Business Practice at the University of Bath. She is Chair of Sustain Ltd (www.sustain.co.uk) and Chair of Social Action for Health (www.safh.org.uk). Research interests include: policy development in times of uncertainty; action research as a grounded methodology for exploring complexity theory and complex problems in practice. Her consultancy work centres on strategy and organisation development in times of uncertainty (see www.embracingcomplexity.co.uk). Jean is currently co-authoring ‘Embracing Complexity’ with Professor Peter Allen, to be published by Oxford University Press in late 2010.
Gunter Pauli is a born entrepreneur whose scope of initiatives spans business, culture, science, and education. In 1994 – with the support of the Japanese government and the United Nations University – he launched an initiative to design an economic framework and business model that converts all waste, including emissions, into a value added cascade, modeled on ecosystems. In 2004, he launched a research project identifying the innovations that will shift business towards higher levels of competitiveness and sustainability, while generating millions of jobs through the creation of a platform for entrepreneurship. In early 2010, he will personally direct a two-year initiative that each week for one hundred weeks will present another business model to inspire entrepreneurs to translate these opportunities into worldwide business initiatives. Pauli is the author of seventeen books published in twenty-one languages, and of thirty six fables that bring science and entrepreneurship to children at an early age. His latest book is The Blue Economy: 100 innovations – 10 years – 100 million jobs.
Course Fees
Any One week £750
Any Two weeks £1,450 (Save £50 over weekly course price)
Three weeks £1,900 (Save £350 over the weekly course price)
All course fees include accommodation, food, field trips and all teaching sessions.
Apply
Book your place now! – click here to access our on-line booking system
Book by fax or mail! – click here to find out how
For further information about Schumacher College please see About the College
Reserve your place now
To provisionally reserve a place for 5 days, email us your contact details and the name of the course admin@schumachercollege.org.uk
We will hold the place for five working days for reservations – three weeks before a course or earlier. After five days we will automatically offer your place to someone else if we have not received your application.
Schumacher College is part of the Dartington Hall Trust, a company limited by guarantee, registered in England and as a charity (company no. 1485560, charity no. 279756). Registered office: The Elmhirst Centre, Dartington Hall, Totnes, Devon TQ9 6EL, UK.