SYSTEMS THINKING TRAINING

Training outline

Introduction

Systems Thinking is both a powerful collection of tools and a holistic mindset that equips us to see the world not as isolated events unfolding, but as expression of underlying systems and mental models that drive the behaviour we observe.

Adopting these mindsets, tools and methods will help individuals, teams and organizations move from short-term fixes, burden shifting and unwanted patterns of behaviour to lasting change, collaborative solutions and a holistic worldview.

Location

Online or in-person (based in Central Slovenia, but organization of trainings is possible across Europe)

Target Audience

• Organizations and businesses engaged in solving real-world problems, looking to upskill and empower their teams to better understand them, develop solutions in a collaborative way and improve their organizational systems and teamwork.

• Individuals wanting to improve their capacity for understanding complex situations both within them and in the outside world, and finding leverage for addressing them.

Time and Duration

• Trainings for organizations are organized on demand - contact us for inquiries. Each of the modules described below lasts 3 hours.

• For individuals, we occasionally organize open training sessions. Check for upcoming events to see if there is a session coming up.

Price

For organizations, the list price is €690 per module, with discounts possible per agreement. Even though the modules are connected (as is expected in systems thinking), they can be chosen independently. For open sessions for individuals, the price depends on the session and is published there.

Modules

Systems Mindset

• We learn what systems are, recognize them everywhere around (and inside) us and acknowledge our existential interrelation with them.

• We distinguish between problems and symptoms.

• We focus on systems designed by us and switch the mindset from working in the system to working on the system.

• We learn about the iceberg model and experience how different situations require us to operate on different levels - from reactive to creative and generative.

Feedback Loops

Delays & Information Flows

• We unpack the basic building blocks of what makes systems tick - feedback loops - and train our mind to see beyond linear cause-effect logic.

• We get familiar with two types of feedback loops - balancing and reinforcing.

• We find numerous examples of loops from everyday life and wider systems such as businesses and see how they drive our behaviour and behaviour of larger systems.

• We see how changing feedback connections can impact outcomes.

• We learn how delays in information or in effects of actions can drastically impact behaviour of systems - both in constructive and in destructive ways.

• We connect delays with feedback loops and embody the understanding through practical exercises.

• We focus on information flows within systems and see how changing the flows and their speed can alter the nature of the system.

• We find examples from experience and work on practical improvements.

Assumptions & Worldviews

• We turn our attention to worldviews - our sets of assumptions and models of how things work or should work - and see how they set the constraints for everything we create.

• We discuss how we form worldviews and how each one of us may have formed different ones, which is the reason for many conflicts.

• Through exercises, we experience how wrong or incomplete our worldviews can be.

• We train awareness that no worldview is the truth and the capacity to understand others.

Systems Archetypes

Stocks & Flows

• We meet Systems Archetypes - the patterns of systems behaviour (or traps) that occur extremely often in all sorts of systems - from individual psychological mechanisms and communication to economies and politics.

• We dive deeper into 3 of the most important ones that everyone will benefit from recognizing - Escalation, Addiction and Limits to Success.

• In each of them, we discuss what makes them emerge and find leverage points to break free from the pattern and change the dynamic.

• We learn about another way of mapping systems - with stocks (quantities that are relevant to the system) and flows (where and at what rates these quantities flow).

• We learn how to distinguish between stocks and flows and why this is crucial for the long-term function of the system.

• We map examples from personal experience - from individual behaviour to organizational structures and the sustainability of economies.

• We learn how mismanaging stocks and flows leads to systemic failures.

"Pull a thread here and you’ll find it’s attached to the rest of the world."

- Nadeem Aslam