In 2020 I heard about a new suite of project management apprenticeships that were being developed with the support and input of Health Education England. At this time I was also considering my next steps in my own postgraduate study and when hearing about a new higher level qualification call Systems Thinking Practitioner and I immediately wanted this to be my next step in my educational journey. Roll on to February 2024 and I receive the email that tells me I have passed my assessments and I have passed the apprenticeship, this is a little bit about the journey.
When I tell people about systems thinking I am often met by blank looks, so what is systems thinking? My description (other definitions may vary) of it is stepping back and looking at the bigger picture and understanding the many interconnected elements that make a problem complex. There is a arrange of methodologies that exist that then help with the unpicking of the problem and allowing what emerges from this process to inform intervention design. This also was met by my own blank stare in December 2021 when I had my first taught session with the JGA group and my tutor Martin Parr. My cohort and I had monthly teaching sessions and in the weeks between look at how to apply our learning in a workplace setting. And to be honest for the first year my blank stare persisted and I wondered why I had chosen to study this subject. However, very slowly the lager concept started to become clearer and the pieces to drop into place as I started to understand the underpinning laws, concepts and approaches, at its core in the same way the resolution to a problem emerges when using a systems thinking approach.
I particularly enjoyed the apprenticeship approach because it enabled me to apply my learning directly to real world situations, and despite learning some very complicated methodologies and approaches it didn’t feel over intellectualised, which suited my learning approach. One of the biggest challenges I did find was, in a traditional apprenticeship setting you learn from a practitioner in the workplace, however, there are very few systems thinking practitioners and certainly none who recognised themselves as such but I was able to seek out support from other organisations and in particular I felt really welcomed by Systems and Complexity in Organisation (SCiO) who are more then willing to share their expertise and experience. I also had an amazingly supportive line manager and team who were keen to learn about the subject and offered me the space to reflect my learning back to them.
A core part of the apprenticeship approach is assessment based on real world situations and I was fortunate that very early on in the course I had identified a problem that could potentially benefit from systems thinking: evidence shows that staff with a long term health condition tend to have a less positive experience in the healthcare workplace and I wanted to gain a further understanding of what the real world experience of those staff with a long term health condition compared to what we perceived the problem to be based on data. By utilising a range of methodologies, for example Soft Systems Methodology, I was able to add dimension to what we, as an organisation understood to be the problem, and design a selection of targeted interventions. I have been able to implement one of these interventions but it is too early to tell what the outcome will be. Overall however there has been a great deal of interest in the research element of the project and those I have shared it with have taken away a new perspective with a number of people planning to implement a similar approach in their organisations.
As with all educational endeavours, the apprenticeship was stressful, I didn’t think I would ever complete my portfolio or get through the assessment process, but somehow I did and I passed, although there are still days I don’t quite believe this and I have to double check the certificate. As a result of the standards on which the apprenticeship was built I have also been accredited as an advanced practitioner from SCiO, however, I recognise that the apprenticeship is just the first step on my systems thinking journey and there is so much still to learn, I have a huge pile of books on methodologies, transformation and change approaches and crochet (I got a bit behind on my crafts when studying) to work through and I look forward to continuing to network with and learn from my peers. This also now opens up lots of career opportunities for me to explore and decide which direction I would like to go in.