Introduction to Systems Thinking

Welcome to this Introduction to Systems Thinking course. My name is Mick Chesterman and I’m a tutor at Manchester Met and a maker and educator at Scavenger Labs. Systems Thinking is a key skill when responding to real life problems. This introductory course covers core concepts and explores how to communicate them. 
Systems are all around us, you can think of technical, social or natural systems as examples. In essence, systems thinking gives us the tools we need to make sense of systems. In particular, systems thinking approaches to analysing the context of problems are useful skills for those wanting to change things for the better. 
This course has a broad scope and the concepts involved are applicable to many different fields. We’ll cover case studies to explore those different contexts, look at hands-on techniques to map systems and end with applying this knowledge of systems.
In summary, as part of this course you will:
– gain an understanding of the value of systems thinking in a variety of contexts
– learn and apply mapping and diagramming techniques to represent systems
– analyse and reflect on systems models in the form of games
– reflect on existing ways of communicating systems thinking and systems stories