The rise of Systems Thinking within the UK

Evolving Enterprises: Stories of Growth Transformation

Today I will talk about the rise of systems thinking and how an increase in demand for systems thinking and increase in supply of systems staff has changed the way in which complex projects are delivered in the UK. This change has been gradual and there is a big difference from when I started using systems thinking 20 years ago. Now systems thinking is welcomed across the public sector and private sector, it is being used in UK government departments including Defence, Defra, Transport and Education. Last week I organised a conference with a group of friends which brought together some of the UK practitioners and academics from government, industry and the voluntary sector. We considered behaviour change and how that can be encouraged and brought about. We considered governance and what we can do to govern complex systems really well. I am sharing some highlights of the conference. There is a great deal that I can’t put into a podcast because we talked about real systems that are confidential. In the afternoon we applied systems methods to some key problems which was an immensely interesting way of eliciting information and having really productive and efficient conversations.