Personal Blogs
Link to my blogger blog
Systems Practice - the book
I am finding this book impenetrable.
It is not a smooth read - interspersed with so many references, footnotes and other academic links - all make it difficult to actually 'read' it. Its more like tackling a puzzle, or a maze, where you are presented with many related and inter-related facts and views. You need to take them, separate them out into the constituent parts and then build it back up together to make a coherent whole.
Is my way of thinking, or more specifically, my way of expressing myself, so completely different from Prof Ison? Surely it can't be. There are so many points I empathise with (conceptually) but when he goes into the detail of an explanation I just lose the thread completely. Frustrating doesn’t do it justice as a word.
And on the subject of words or 'living in a language' - this feels like an academic treatise written for an academic audience where the purpose is to impress with use of obscure language. Not just using precise language to articulate a point or convey a specific meaning. But using language which is so far from the norm its incomprehensible eg 'ontolgy'
However, maybe it's all deliberate to force me out of my comfort zone, encourage me to learn and expand my thinking?
What motivated me to start 'Managing Systemic Change'
What 'sticky situation' motivated me to start this module?
I don’t think there was one specific sticky situation - the immediate prompt to go back to studying was providing career summary/ history as part of a supplier pre-qualification process. This made me realise that there was a long gap since I'd last studied or done any personal development. My immediate response was, when I had time, to start looking at leadership development options - not academic study. Although I did want some academic input and challenge.
I found, personal leadership development, in the current market, is mainly available via in-company programmes. There are very few available publicly. And many that are advertised turn out to be much more focussed on coaching skills rather than leadership. So then I turned to look at academic courses - specifically ones which were modular/ part time to enable me to fit them in round my freelance work pattern.
Re-looked at MBAs but they really didn’t appeal - the course material is very set and didn’t offer much flexibility. The OU MSc Open was definitely of interest - except that I wanted to do all the optional modules rather than the core ones. But this did make me consider doing an MSc - so looked in more detail at what was available.
The title of this module 'systemic change' really appealed. Note at this stage I hadn't even looked at the course content. The idea that someone had put some thought into how to manage and achieve sustainable change in a holistic manner was great. I had some early experiences of systems projects (especially IT ones) where the box was delivered and the project considered complete without any recognition of embedding the system, reviewing effectiveness or measuring benefits delivered. Even when a business case had been developed the idea of referring back to it to establish whether the outcomes had been achieved was alien - and in some cases actively resisted.
So I jumped in and signed up for Managing Systemic Change.
Has it turned out as expected? Mmmm not sure yet. But its certainly challenging my thinking.
This blog might contain posts that are only visible to logged-in users, or where only logged-in users can comment. If you have an account on the system, please log in for full access.