Systems Thinking for Complexity and Leadership


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Overview

Do you or your organisation:

  • Wish to foresee the consequences of your policy and strategic decisions?
  • Have endemic staff morale and productivity problems?
  • Ignore or postpone fundamental solutions to chronic problems?
  • Find dealing with complex situations increasingly difficult?
  • Consistently misjudge symptoms for the cause?
  • Feel trapped in short-term and fire-fighting behaviour?
  • Experience growth in one area but decline in others
  • Wish to free up you and your team’s  thinking
  • Challenge its assumptions and norms
  • Wish to create consensus and harmony in your team
  • Desire to become a Learning Organisation?

Systems Thinking is a holistic way of thinking and a scientific methodology for dealing with complex situations underlying business, economics, scientific, and social systems. Based on a 5-day executive course at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) this Short Course is designed to develop Systems Thinking skills by teaching practical tools in a hands-on environment. The Short Course will introduce Systems Thinking concepts and tools in a step-by-step fashion and will relate them to strategic and chronic issues facing the organisations.

Enrol on this course and you will receive a copy of Introduction to Systems Thinking by Maani & Cavana.

Topics Covered

The Short Course will cover the following topics. You will be working in small supervised teams.

Day 1

  • What is Systems Thinking?
  • Four Levels of Thinking
  • How to Uncover Systemic Structures
  • How to Build Causal Loop Diagrams (CLD)
  • Breaking the Vicious Cycles
  • Learning Activities
  • Dynamics of growth in Hanover Insurance
  • Power of Systems Archetypes
  • How to Identify Leverage Points
  • Systems Thinking and Mental Models
  • How to Start Systems Thinking in Your Organisation?

Day 2

Morning:
This part focuses on company projects generated from participants’ organisations, where they work in small supervised teams and apply Systems Thinking tools to their complex business problems and strategic dilemmas.

Afternoon:

  • Experience a Management Flight Simulation
  • What is a Management Flight Simulation?
    Management Flight Simulation: this fun computer game challenges the participants to manage a call centre by balancing decisions for hiring, quality and call volumes.   Alternatively, the participants could assume the role of a marketing manager responsible for building a new brand by balancing decisions about sales force growth, advertising expenditure and store promotions.
  • The company project and management flight simulation sessions will conclude with group presentations and debrief of the learning supported by eight years of related research.

Who should attend

Professionals and decision makers from all sectors and organisations, including CEOs and senior managers will benefit from this Short Course. It challenges their thinking as well as their strategic and policy approaches. Participation by company teams will be of additional value to their organisations.

Previous participants have included:

  • CEO of Healthcare Organisation
  • Policy and Research Officer
  • HR Manager
  • Clinical Director of Health Services
  • Head of Marketing Strategy
  • Technical Manager

No previous experience with Systems Thinking or computer simulations will be required.

Outcomes

At the conclusion of the Short Course, you will be able to use Systems Thinking tools to model and explain dynamic situations and apply them to complex business, economic or social problems such as strategic and scenario planning, growth strategies,  productivity and performance management, brand development, and restructuring. You will be able to recognise the dynamic and interdependent nature of recurring problems and to identify key leverage points for intervention.

What Participants Say

"Kambiz immediately captured my attention when he said "people complicate problems - problems themselves are not complicated". Systems Thinking is a must for anyone who wants to get beneath the incidents that crowd our day and get to grips with the underlying causes."

Julian Sewell - Policing Development Manager @ New Zealand Police

"I certainly enjoyed the course, and found it most valuable from a problem solving point of view, in that the course enabled me to think about issues and problems from a different perspective. This course encouraged you to think about how all the aspects of the issue inter-related, and how "solutions" can have both intended and unintended consequences."

Louisa Thomas - Health and Safety Manager @ Spotless Services (NZ) Limited

"The Systems Thinking course was both informative and interesting, with a good balance between the theory of systems thinking, and the practical application of this to the work-place. The group sessions were particularly stimulating."

Bruce Kenning - Director of Property Management @ NZ Army


Cancellation
Subject to unforeseen circumstances such as student demand and/or resource availability, The University reserves the right to cancel, or change the content, timing or method of presentation of any course.

All notification of withdrawals, transfers, and substitutions must be sent in writing via email to The University of Auckland Business School Executive Development Team at shortcourses@auckland.ac.nz. Full refunds can be obtained up to 30 days before the program start date. Due to the costs incurred for program preparation and administration, any cancellations or requests for transfers or deferrals received 14 days or less from the program start are subject to penalty fees as described below.

If you do not attend the course and have not advised us in writing or by email before the start date the full fee will apply.

Transfers: Transfer requests must indicate the new dates and/or new program the participant wishes to attend.  If the transfer request is made at more than 7 days from the original course dates - a service fee of $300 is applied, but the 50% cancellation fee is waived. A transfer request made with more than 14 days' notice can be made with no penalty. Transfers are valid only within one year of the original program start date. Your current cancellation policy is intact until you have attended your Short Course or the original penalty will be imposed.

All participant substitutions are subject to the sole discretion of The University of Auckland Business School Executive Development team.  Requests must be submitted in advance and will be reviewed on an individual basis, based on participant qualifications and lead time needed for any program pre-work.

Full enrolment is non refundable under these conditions:

  1. The registrant or substitute does not enrol in another program within one year of the original start date, and/or
  2. The registrant or substitute defers or transfers more than two times.

* The University of Auckland Business School Executive Development team is not responsible for travel or related costs under any circumstances. Participants may want to consider purchasing trip cancellation insurance in the unlikely event that a program is cancelled or they cannot attend for personal or professional reasons.

** For any program with more than two iterations in an enrolment year, tuition is non-refundable after 2nd transfer.

Course Size
Numbers are limited, and enrolment is on a first-come-first-served basis.

Privacy
To keep you informed we will hold your name and address on file. Please advise us if you do not wish to receive further information.

Institute of Chartered Accountants
Chartered Accountants may care to consider this course for inclusion within their professional development programme for the year.

Sales and Marketing Institute of New Zealand
The University of Auckland Short Courses are an accredited education supplier for the Sales and Marketing Institute of New Zealand.

NZ Computer Society
The University of Auckland Short Courses that are IT related may count towards the professional development requirements of the NZ Computer Society.

Choose a Short Course from The University of Auckland Business School
The University of Auckland offers a range of high-quality leading edge Short Courses tailor made for business practitioners.

Each course is presented by an expert in the field - either a member of the staff of The University of Auckland, a visiting guest lecturer from overseas, or a local practitioner with specific expertise.

These are short, sharp, punchy courses that bring practitioners up to speed with a specific topic, act as a refresher course, and provide valuable networking opportunities.

Need a Short Course Calendar?
Email us at shortcourses@auckland.ac.nz or call 0800 800 875.


ENROLMENT FORM - Systems Thinking for Complexity and Leadership

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2. Special Discounts
If you have previously attended a University of Auckland Short Course or are a graduate of The University of Auckland, or two or more people are attending from your organisation, then you are entitled to a 10% discount (only one discount applies):
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