Systems Awareness (Expert / leading)

Applies tools for making sense of systems and their 
behaviour. Advises on changes to system settings 
to improve policy proposals.

• Leads the use of appropriate tools and approaches when developing policy 
  advice on system transformation, and actively advocates for use of systems awareness in policy development.
• Supports others in their organisation and sector to make sense of systems (sensemaking).
• Guides others in applying systems thinking.
• Uses systems awareness to support better decision making by senior leaders and ministers. 

70% on-the-job learning

• Lead complex cross-sectoral projects that involve systems thinking.
• Contribute a systems awareness perspective to vision setting, strategic direction and longer-term outcomes at agency and sector level.
• Lead system-scanning activities that identify emerging behaviours and practices and their strategic implications for policy direction.
• Lead the selection, design, and application of systems tools and techniques to explore possible system shifts and develop future informed policy responses.
• Lead and advise on appropriate system actions that could be taken (particularly in complex situations) that can support changing system behaviour to a more positive state.
• Identify and give advice on best practice systems thinking, and the role experts may play in supporting good practice.
• Lead an approach that incorporates a mātauranga Māori examination of the system and its actors to bring a different way of seeing the interrelationships between people and elements in the system.
• Identify the skill sets, data sets, organisational processes, and culture needed for building systems awareness capability and capacity across your organisation.
• Facilitate workshops to test new ideas and approaches for systems awareness.

20% learning from others

• Keep up to date with new tools, techniques, and thinking that others are using to build their systems awareness capability.
• Connect with other experienced colleagues, within and across agencies to build an ongoing community of systems awareness practice.
• Seek out internal or external expertise in mātauranga Māori and learn how it can be used as part of a systems thinking approach for your organisation. 
• Delve more deeply into systems awareness by building your knowledge in complex systems theory and practice, including sensemaking and constraints. This can be started by reading blogs and watching videos such as:
  • the Centre for Systems Awareness 
  • the Cynefin Company blog page: Our thinking
  • System Design Framework – the Design Council project on merging design and systems thinking.

10% formal training

• Attend courses that help you understand complexity, systems features, and constraints. Seek training that will support developing better policies and guide effective change from a systems perspective. For example:
  • Learning and Development Centre and the Australia New Zealand School of Government courses
  • courses on building ongoing knowledge and understanding about mātauranga Māori.