Systems Governance

... systems thinking, the idea that changes need to be conceptualized in the context of the total system. Most educators are no accustomed to thinking in a systems fashion. I suggest that Total Quality Management is a means by which systems-level thinking can be both encouraged and translated into action. Next outcome-based education is introduced, described, and analyzed as the framework within which systems redesign can occur.

Outcomes-based education was designed as the system-level application of mastery-learning concepts (Brandt 1992/1993).

Variations on the outcome-based model are appearing with ever-increasing frequency due in part to the fact that OBE is a systems approach to change. All elements of program and practice must be reviewed, reordered, and reinforced to ensure that desired outcomes are achieved.

Outcome-based education, like Total Quality Management and systems thinking, requires a reconceptualization of the organization at a fundamental level.

— David T Conley; Roadmap to Restructuring; Eugene, Oregon: University of Oregon; ERIC; 1993

My introduction to systems thinking as a management and leadership discipline came from Jay W Forrester, and he has been my mentor for some twenty years now.

— Peter Senge; The Fifth Discipline; The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization; New York: Currency Doubleday; 1990.

╪