Highlights from a Critical Systems Thinking Dialogue With John Kay
In late 2022 the Enlightened Enterprise Academy delivered the first introduction to “Critical Systems Thinking and the Management of Complexity” programme, with Dr Mike Jackson OBE, author of the book with the same title.
The programme’s eight modules were delivered over eight weeks. Each week a module was released as a folder containing a package of content in multi-media format available on-demand to a global audience of busy directors and executives from a range of sectors and industries. This was supplemented with weekly live-streamed sessions featuring Mike in dialogues with subject matter experts; one in the morning and another in the afternoon to accommodate various world time-zones.
The first module, designed as an introduction to the programme, included a dialogue that featured John Kay, one of the world’s leading economists.
John is also a frequent columnist for the Financial Times and a range of magazines, and the author of many books relevant to our programme. He was also the first Dean of Oxford University’s business school, and is a policy advisor who was also commissioned by the UK Government to produce what came to be known as the "Kay Review" following the global banking crisis in 2008.
To give you a taste of what the live dialogues are like, I have edited some highlights from the dialogues between John and Mike. It also gives you some insight into what “Systems Thinking” is, and what “Critical Systems Thinking” in particular is, and why it is important.
Often, I refer to the #SystemsThinkingCapabilitiesGap that exists in most businesses and organisations. I hope the video has given you some sense of the reasons why addressing it should be a major concern for all directors and executives. If it has, then read the details of the programme.