What you will study
This module aims to help you to engage with and improve complex situations that involve change in all areas of work; evaluate your own social structures and experiences of working groups, communities of practice and networks; and consider possible future alternatives.
The module assumes that everyone is engaged in some form of practice –as a professional, a manager, a parent or a student. Throughout, you’ll appreciate how your own understanding and practice can influence change. You’ll need to think about your own perspective and make explicit your assumptions. The module begins by exploring the nature of change and systems practice and why there is a need to manage systemic change. It goes on to address a simple but profound question: what is it that you do when you do what you do? It then considers the implications of practice in a networked or interconnected world, where groups, teams, organisations, and even nations will have to be smarter in their ways of working together.
Some claim that we now live in a world of short-term projects with pre-specified goals that can no longer deal with the complexity and uncertainty we must manage. This module introduces ‘systemic inquiry’, an alternative way to organise programmes and projects – to better manage the complexity and uncertainty associated with, for example, adapting our institutions, organisations and practices for living, managing and governing in a climate emergency.
The world of the future will require more skills and understanding of flexible and adaptive managing – placing more emphasis on learning as we go and making sure the learning changes our practice and organisations. A promising way to do this is with systemic inquiry. The module will make it possible for you to start to organise and manage this type of practice – a form of research accessible to all.
More effective collaborative working will be a demand placed on more and more people. This will make new demands on meetings, teams, projects, committees, as well as interagency and cross-professional and cross-cultural groups. This module will consider the theory and practice of ‘social learning systems and communities of practice’ to develop your understanding of how separate groups might better work together using systems thinking in practice. You’ll be able to critically evaluate your own processes, structures and experiences – in your working groups, communities of practice and networks – and consider possible alternatives for the future.
Through developing an understanding of social learning systems and communities of practice, you’ll aim to develop capabilities for working with others in a practical way to bring about systemic change. You’ll learn from your systemic inquiries to design learning systems that can effect change that’s systemically desirable and culturally feasible. Social learning and communities of practice are at the forefront in managing. This material will be particularly useful to those who have encountered organisational structures that unhelpfully separate interconnected issues of change (managing them in ‘silos’), or those who need to develop skills to work with multiple organisations.
You can do most of the work online or offline. We encourage you to use online forums to interact with other students in appreciating multiple perspectives, including your own.
Vocational relevance
By studying this module, you’ll be able to take stock of your past experience; examine issues in your own working life; make sense of them using a range of innovative ideas, tools and techniques; and extend your competence as a professional. In our contemporary world, where all organisations face increasing uncertainty and complexity, the experience of our students is that successfully completing our systems modules not only benefits them personally, but is of great benefit to the organisation in which they’re employed.
The module will meet the needs of anyone engaged with taking action in situations that involve complex inter-connections, multiple stakeholder interests and have problematic boundaries. It will meet these needs by providing practical and conceptual foundations for managing in the broadest sense.
This module is ideal for those people who are in situations such as:
- inspiring innovation and/or creativity
- providing leadership – especially system-change leadership
- having to work with others to get something done – particularly where you want to feel good about working together
- having to work across boundaries (internal or external)
- undertaking tasks that involve professionals with different perspectives on issues (e.g. groups of policymakers and other practitioners; public sector agencies; groups including business, government and NGOs; health services; scientists and non-scientists; project teams, etc.)
- having to engage others in what you are doing (i.e. building stake holding) either within or external to your organisation or project
- those where you and others are uncertain about the nature of the problem and thus what would constitute a solution (i.e. dealing with wicked problems)
- developing new policies that will affect a wide range of people
- managing change of some form or another but being able to go beyond first-order change to enacting second-order change (change that changes whole systems)
- project or programme development and/or delivery
- participating in or managing multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary research
- interdepartmental working parties, groups, committees
- managing a staff team
- policy development or implementation
- working more effectively with your colleagues and communities in developing your practice
- governance reform and innovation.
From the module you will begin to appreciate the limitations of many current ways of thinking and learn how they can exacerbate complexity, creating unintended consequences that can lead to systemic failure. When you finish you should be able to think and act differently, not only as an individual but in your working with others. Your ability to work with others will develop by understanding what social learning and communities of practice are, and how you can participate in, and contribute to, both.
Entry
There are no entry requirements, but we do assume that you have already done some study up to HNC, HND or bachelors degree level, or have equivalent experience from your employment.
Gaining some prior awareness, knowledge and experience of systems thinking will help you benefit more from the course material – for example, by engaging with open educational resources on OpenLearn. A complete list of systems thinking resources is available on our School of Engineering and Innovation pages.
Your spoken and written English must be of an adequate standard for postgraduate study. If English is not your first language, we recommend that you will need a minimum overall score of 6 and minimum score of 5.5 in each of the four components: reading, writing, speaking and listening under the International English Language Testing System (IELTS). Please see the IELTS website for details.
If you have any doubt about the suitability of the module, please speak to an adviser.
You’ll need broadband internet access and a desktop or laptop computer with an up-to-date version of Windows (10 or 11) or macOS Ventura or higher.
Any additional software will be provided or is generally freely available.
To join in spoken conversations in tutorials, we recommend a wired headset (headphones/earphones with a built-in microphone).
Our module websites comply with web standards, and any modern browser is suitable for most activities.
Our OU Study mobile app will operate on all current, supported versions of Android and iOS. It’s not available on Kindle.
It’s also possible to access some module materials on a mobile phone, tablet device or Chromebook. However, as you may be asked to install additional software or use certain applications, you’ll also require a desktop or laptop, as described above.