New events in 2005 |
Building capacity for Public Sector reform
A Systems Practice for Managing Complexity workshop on 14 January
2003
Franklin Wilkins House, Waterloo, London
Workshop mapping
This event built on all of our previous events and duplicated a design found useful in an earlier event when two consultant/academic systems practitioners presented (Peter Checkland and Patricia Shaw). One of the issues to emerge from this and other events was the extent to which systems practice was a silent practice - particularly in terms of the communication between external consultant and client. In this event we took another look on this same issue - but this time from the perspective of systems practitioners operating inside their own organisation.
In this event we were fortunate in having two practitioners who work in two different public sector institutions - the Police Service and the NHS. Both situations present many systemic issues as outlined in our initial event. The guest speakers for this workshop - Andy Humphreys and Steve Clarke also come from different traditions within Systems.
Andy Humphreys
Andy Humphreys
Andy Humphreys is director of performance and service
delivery at CENTREX (Central Police Training & Development Authority).
He has a background in criminal investigations, has carried out work
with Special Branch and work on Command and Corporate Development
for Basic Command Units. He is well versed in anti-terrorist matters
and is a member of the National Major Disaster advisory team.
Andy took a year out from his police career in 1994 to gain a Masters
in Management Systems at the University of Hull. He will share his
experience of utilising soft systems methodologies within a Total
Systems Intervention framework overtly within the North Yorkshire
Police and subsequently in his 'silent years' in strategic policing
management arenas.
Steve Clark
Until recently Steve worked in the NHS where he started using SSM
with Peter Checkland. He is an independent management consultant working
for public sector organisations especially the NHS where he is currently
contributing to national projects. He uses systems approaches in process
modeling, as a vehicle for the change process and to inform a methodology
for the management and control of projects. He was a contributor to
the 30 year retrospective put together by SSM practitioners in a special
edition of Systems Research and Behavioural Science.
Steve Clark
Steve's presentation was headed "The
needs of change" and will be about how systems approaches support
the transition that needs to take place in people's beliefs and attitudes
to achieve successful change. Change evolves from dissatisfaction
with the way things are. On the one hand, we can celebrate this dissatisfaction
for it is what brought humanity into groups, to cultivate and to organise.
On the other hand, where you start so do you end. This means that
as the originating idea is dissatisfaction, then the outcome will
also be dissatisfaction - unless during the change process we change
our mind, our belief. We need, therefore, to change to a more optimistic
frame of mind.
So here lies a dichotomy. Discontent with the way things are both
drives us to seek change and also denies us the benefits we seek.
How do we consciously move through the change cycle without inherent
failure? SSM provides a vehicle that readily supports this transition
of beliefs.
Steve Clark Presentation Slides
Workshop Reports: