'managing complexity' - Essay Example

They deal with me instead of me dealing with them because I have a very narrow understanding of them. Hence, they become increasingly disturbing. My approach to solving them or overcoming them has been rather unmethodical. My perspective of the problem is part of the problem or even makes the problem more complex. Having gone through this course, I have an entirely different approach to understanding complex problems. This course has equipped with knowledge and skills of handling complex problems using simple approaches.

The most basic knowledge, which I come to appreciate, is viewing complex problems as systems, and using the system approach to understand and find ways of improving them. I now know that complex problems are made up of ‘components’ (causes, influences, effects, variables, etc). To fully understand these problems, I have to structure them—break them into many bits and reconnect them like a jig saw puzzle taking note of every move I make in the process. I am also equipped with skills of using one or more system diagrams to diagrammatically or pictorially represent the problems.

These diagrams make it easier for me and others to graspingly contextualize your problem with a view to unravelling areas interventions and abstractions for solving or overcoming the problems. With all these knowledge and skills, I am now a system practitioner. I can understand and manage complex problems in my office, home using systematic thinking. For every problem I devote time to study I first look at myself as being a practitioner, I appreciate the complex real world situation I engage with, I put things into perspective to enable me contextualize new and better situations, while I manage my involvement in the situation I am trying to understand and improve.

Now that I can to an appreciable extent juggle with the four balls a system practitioner juggles with, I can explain convincingly why the traffic hold up on my way to the