Maturity Models for Systems Thinking

Pamela Buckle

doi:10.3390/systems6020023

Abstract

Recent decades have seen a rapid increase in the complexity of goods, products, and services that society has come to demand. This has necessitated a corresponding growth in the requirements demanded of organizational systems and the people who work in them. The competence a person requires to be effective in working in such systems has become an area of increased interest to scholars and practitioners in many disciplines. How can we assess the degree to which a person is executing the competencies required to do good systems work? Several industries now utilize maturity models in the attempt to evaluate and cultivate people’s ability to effectively execute complex tasks. This paper will examine current thought regarding the value and pitfalls of maturity models. It will identify principles and exemplars that could guide the development of a Maturity Model of Systems Thinking Competence (MMSTC) for the varied roles people inhabit in systems contexts.

Highlights

There are many aspects of systems science that occupy the minds of its practitioners
Formalization and other efforts to increase the quality of systems knowledge can enable systems thinkers to “gain influence in supporting organizations, and through that influence to better enable systems thinking and acting of individuals and groups, which may lead to more quality in how people deal with complex challenges” [3] (p. 5)
The systemology initiative is working to organize our understanding of the body of knowledge about systems relative to other scientific disciplines and to identify key gaps in that body of knowledge

Summary

Introduction

There are many aspects of systems science that occupy the minds of its practitioners. Increasing the widespread use of high-quality systems thinking is among them. Enthusiasm for this goal is based on the conviction that thinking systemically and applying systems knowledge to critical issues are of evolutionary significance to our world. Fueled by this conviction, the systems body of knowledge is growing, being codified, and evaluated for its progress in occupying a rightful place among other scientific disciplines. Formalization and other efforts to increase the quality of systems knowledge can enable systems thinkers to “gain influence in supporting organizations, and through that influence to better enable systems thinking and acting of individuals and groups, which may (in turn) lead to more quality in how people deal with complex challenges” [3] The systemology initiative is working to organize our understanding of the body of knowledge about systems relative to other scientific disciplines and to identify key gaps in that body of knowledge

Objectives

Methods

Conclusion