Systems thinking

The problem with the deliveries was solved last month, and now it is back on the agenda. Every department has tackled its part, and yet the same pattern returns. In the meeting, everyone puts their explanation on the table, and none of them is completely right.

You feel like you keep patching up symptoms. It is exhausting to look for what lies beneath without a framework to see it.

Complexity is hard to grasp:

• you keep thinking and acting in silos, while problems run across departments;
• the same problems keep coming back, no matter how often you solve them;
• people interpret the same situation differently and keep clashing over contradictory beliefs;
• resistance to change stops every approach.

That is rarely due to a lack of effort. Usually, a framework is missing that brings both the hard systems (organisation, processes, structure, finances) and the soft systems (mindset, drivers, energy, culture, behaviour) into view.

Systems thinking is a scientific discipline, but the focus is on what you do with it tomorrow. You learn to read and adjust complex situations with a fixed set of tools.

Our coaches know the frustration of a problem that keeps coming back. In eight half-days, you work with the iceberg model, Cynefin, Causal Loop Diagrams and systemic archetypes, always with work situations from your own organisation.

This way, from now on you not only look at what happens, but also at what keeps it going.

Systems thinking is a scientific discipline, but the focus here is on practical application. The training consists of 8 workshops of one half-day each, making 4 full days together, online, live or hybrid. You work with the challenges and work situations you deal with daily.

• 1. General framework: the iceberg model, the difference between a mechanistic and integral approach, linearity and complexity according to Cynefin, and switching between analysis and synthesis.
• 2. Quality of perception: the difference between reality and meaning, common thinking errors, conversation techniques to correct them and turning resistance into understanding, involvement and cooperation.
• 3. Mapping causality: causal relations versus correlations, Causal Loop Diagrams (variables, connections, feedback loops, delays and limits) and facilitation techniques to overcome thinking errors.
• 4. Archetypes I: Balancing process with delay, Limits to growth, Shifting the burden and Eroding goal.
• 5. Archetypes II: Escalation, Fixes that fail and Success to the successful.
• 6. Archetypes III: Tragedy of the commons, Growth & underinvestment and the interaction between systemic archetypes.
• 7. Facilitating strategy development: recognising thinking errors and limiting beliefs, dealing with opposing beliefs and resistance, reframing techniques (rethinking) and working methods for strategic and generative dialogue.
• 8. Scenario thinking and storytelling: scenario thinking as a strategic working tool and storytelling techniques to create powerful positive attractors.

With each archetype, we investigate which mindset leads to a pattern and how you can handle that.

Afterwards you keep practising

Every training is extended in the THOC Leerruimte. Your material remains available and you get an AI Coach who knows the lesson.

We work in an experience-oriented way: you immediately get to work with the systemic tools and discover for yourself what difference you can make with them.

For people and teams who work with complex issues and want to look beyond the silo of their own department. It is an in-company training, so we work with your challenges and work situations instead of a purely theoretical approach.

The training consists of 8 workshops of one half-day each, online, live or hybrid. You build from a general framework and perception via causality and archetypes to strategy development and scenario thinking.

With six to twelve participants per group, so everyone can practise and think along. The training is available in Dutch and in English. Let us know which language your team prefers.

Every training is tailored, so we work with a quote after we have heard your question. If you want a shorter version or a combination with other skills, request a tailored training.

Your material remains available in the THOC Leerruimte, along with an AI Coach who knows the lesson. This way, you can keep practising with the systemic tools at your own pace.

• Strategic thinking
• Problem-solving thinking
• Working with change
• All cognitive skills