…and why systems can be a good idea…
The cartoon shows why having systems can be a very good idea. Systems help simplify complex interacting phenomena into predictable and manageable ‘chunks’.
What is a system?
“A system is a coordinated series of actions that efficiently achieve a consistently high-quality result.”
Bruce Tuckman defines the phases that organisations such as not-for-profits, businesses and schools tend to go through as they develop. These stages are:
- Forming
- Storming
- Norming
- Performing
Systems are developed during the forming stage but are refined and bedded down during the norming phase.
This is an example of how change is implemented. For some reason it is called ‘teaching as inquiry’ which has always seemed to me to be a slightly precious and unnecessarily complex name for what is a change cycle:
Here is a more generic version of the same thing: