The Business Opportunity for Systems Thinking
Douglas McKelvie
The Symmetric Partnership LLP
[email protected]
Industrial Perspective
The Business Opportunity for Systems Thinking
System Dynamics Key Concepts
Systems Thinking combined with Computer Simulation
multiple applications in Health and Social Care
•
•
•
•
Applies an operational understanding of things to strategic thinking
“Whole system” strategic service planning
Problems that cross organisational or functional boundaries
Interconnections between population need, a presenting problem, an
intervention, its impact on the whole (e.g. cost)
• Conceptual toolkit of stocks, flows, causal relationships, feedback
loops, “change over time”, “system as cause” explanations (not always)
• Methodology, lends itself to participative approaches such as Group
Modelling Building using iterative learning cycle
• Advances in computer technology make “productisation” of SD models
more possible
Industrial Perspective
The Business Opportunity for Systems Thinking
Opportunities
• Changing landscape of commissioning, SD provides a means of
facilitating discussion / negotiation between commissioners and
providers
• Renewed emphasis on Public Health
• “Integration” agenda between health and social care
• Need to build bridges with “health economics” approaches
Challenges
• Nobody is required to have a “model”; most organisations choose
to plan without a formal model
• Supply of practitioners is limited (hence need for Cumberland
Initiative); what would happen if everyone suddenly wanted a
model?
Industrial Perspective
The Business Opportunity for Systems Thinking
innovation
potential adopters
+
hundreds
+
+
word of mouth
+
adopters
ex-users
tens
???
• Government
Departments
• Clinical Commissioning Groups
- (212)
and clusters
practitioners
• Health and Wellbeing
Boards (152 LA’s)
more
• “commissioning
support”
+
N=?
detail
• Providers too
• pressure
And that
onis just England
capacity
-
quality
Industrial Perspective
Supporting
Practice: Some
Challenges for
Cumberland
Initiative
The Business
Opportunity
forthe
Systems
Thinking
How to get OR
graduates to follow a
career in Health /
Care Sector
Support for existing
practitioners to ensure
retention
How can experienced people
effect a career change?
How to get
interest of people
from the domain
Models of delivery of
simulation and modelling
How to identify and work
with the facilitators and
translators
Industrial Perspective