Guidance

Systems thinking for civil servants

How to use systems thinking to drive improved outcomes in complex situations.

• From: Government Office for Science
• Published: 24 May 2022
• Last updated: 12 January 2023 — See all updates

Documents

Introduction to systems thinking for civil servants

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Introduction to systems thinking for civil servants

PDF, 398 KB, 6 pages

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The civil servant's systems thinking journey

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The civil servant's systems thinking journey

PDF, 308 KB, 13 pages

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An introductory systems thinking toolkit for civil servants

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An introductory systems thinking toolkit for civil servants

PDF, 1.99 MB, 85 pages

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Systems thinking case study bank

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Systems thinking case study bank

PDF, 1.39 MB, 46 pages

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Details

The Government Office for Science, in collaboration with the Policy Profession, Royal Academy of Engineering and the Systems Thinking Interest Group has produced a suite of documents to promote and embed systems thinking across the Civil Service.

The guidance is intended for civil servants working all over government, regardless of grade, department, background or profession.

The documents include:

• an introduction to systems thinking, a short summary of what systems thinking is, when it is useful and why it can be beneficial to your work
• the systems thinking journey, which expands on the content within the introduction to systems thinking and maps 5 systems thinking principles to different stages of the policy design process
• the systems thinking toolkit, which contains step-by-step instructions on how to use 11 systems thinking tools
• the systems thinking case study bank, which contains a collection of 14 personal testimonials from civil servants on their experiences of using systems thinking in their work

This suite of documents aims to act as a springboard into systems thinking for civil servants unfamiliar with this approach. We introduce a small sample of systems thinking concepts and tools, chosen due to their accessibility and alignment to civil service policy development, but which is by no means comprehensive. We hope this acts as a first step towards using systems thinking approaches to solve complex problems and we strongly encourage the reader to go on to explore the wider systems thinking field further. These documents are ‘beta versions’ which we hope to update in the future in response to user feedback.

Other departmental systems thinking resources

Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

• Systems Leadership Guide: how to be a systems leader

This guide introduces senior civil servants and team leaders to systems thinking and gives practical guidance for implementing systems approaches and shifting the culture to more systemic ways of working.

Policy Profession

• Video with Tamara Finkelstein, Head of Policy Profession and Sir Patrick Vallance, Head of Government Science and Engineering

This video sets out what systems thinking is and the advantages it offers for good policy making.

Defra

• Integrating a systems approach into Defra

An introductory document which introduces systems approaches that can be applied to common Defra scenarios.

Contact us

For further support or information on our systems thinking products, contact systems@go-science.gov.uk.

Published 24 May 2022
Last updated 12 January 2023 + show all updates

1. 12 January 2023

   Added link to new guidance for civil servants on how to be a systems leader.

2. 24 May 2022

   First published.