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Preparing the Future Leaders of Society with a Systems Thinking Mindset Through Effective Learning and Teaching

by Amrik Singh and Joy Garfield

In a world defined by rapid change, complexity, and interdependence, traditional linear ways of thinking are struggling to keep up. Whether we look at global supply chains, climate challenges, digital transformation, or organizational culture, a recurring truth emerges, everything is connected. This is why systems thinking,a mindset for understanding wholes rather than isolated parts, is becoming increasingly relevant across all sectors (Comstock, 2024). Systems thinking allows us to understand the perspective of multiple stakeholders in the situation and guards against jumping to the right solution, which human nature sometimes make us do. When we understand the notion that problems are multi-faceted and need the buy-in of multiple stakeholders to address the solutions, only then we can really unearth the understanding of complexity and ambiguity of the situation. Higher education students as future leaders of society, need to grasp the concept of systems thinking to explore the complexity and ambiguity of modern-day problems.

Understanding the Complexity of Modern Problems

For much of the 20th century, we operated on the assumption that problems could be broken down and solved independently. Problems and solutions were easily connected. But today’s challenges are mostly complex, dynamic, and interconnected, making reductionist approaches insufficient (Eftekhari Shahroudi et al., 2025).

A decision made in one area can unintentionally trigger effects in others. Without a systemic lens, those secondary impacts are missed until they become major problems. Dynamic conditions change faster than linear plans can keep up. Because challenges evolve through shifting interactions like climate events affecting energy markets, or geopolitical shifts affecting food systems a static, linear approach fails. A systemic perspective helps leaders adapt in real time. Climate change, digital transformation, public health, and security issues span sectors, borders, and disciplines. No single stakeholder can solve them alone; systems thinking helps identify leverage points for multi‑stakeholder actions.

Modern organisations function as complex adaptive systems shaped by culture, relationships, and information flows. Linear change models often fail because they ignore these interdependencies; systems thinking helps leaders identify leverage points, anticipate consequences, and design resilient structures (Ellis, 2024). Systems thinking literature alike argues that traditional problem‑solving methods lose effectiveness as societal and technological complexity grows, strengthening the case for dynamic, holistic approaches in organisational decision‑making (Eftekhari Shahroudi et al., 2025).

A Harvard Business Review article states that innovations often create unintended ripple effects because interactions across systems are overlooked reinforcing the need for a systemic perspective (Bansal and Birkinshaw, 2025). Problems have multiple interacting causes, not a single root. Reductionist thinking focuses on one cause at a time, but modern challenges involve overlapping drivers, environmental, economic, technological, political, and social. Addressing only one strand often creates new issues elsewhere. The demand for systems thinking based pedagogical higher education is thus very real and requires educators to embrace these methods of teaching and learning.

How Can Education and Learning Shift Toward Systems Thinking Literacy

As future leaders in an increasingly complex and demanding world, higher education students need a solid understanding of social, political, economic, and environmental issues, along with the confidence to propose well‑reasoned solutions. Systems thinking is increasingly recognised as a vital pedagogical approach in higher education, enabling learners to understand complexity, interdependence, and uncertainty within contemporary societal and organisational challenges.

As educators prepare students for an uncertain future, systems thinking literacy is emerging as a core skill. The future of jobs report (World Economic Forum, 2025) indicates that systems thinking, and empathy are very essential core skills needed by organisations. Case studies from engineering and technology education further illustrate the value of systems thinking pedagogy. Dhukaram et al. (2016) show how systems-oriented curricula enhance student capability in diagnosing multifaceted problems, fostering collaborative solution-building, and developing resilience in decision-making processes. These studies collectively highlight that systems thinking not only enhances subject-specific learning but also strengthens transferable skills such as critical reasoning, communication, and adaptive expertise, all very relevant to organisations as cited in the future of jobs report 2025.

Systems thinking pedagogy also allows students to dive into the complexity and ambiguity of modern-day challenges and allows them to understand the multiple stakeholder perspectives and worldviews. Only then can a rich picture of the problem can be ascertained. Studying relationships, patterns, and structures fosters deeper understanding than memorising isolated facts or writing notes of the situation alone. Frameworks such as Soft Systems Methodology (Checkland and Poulter, 2006) enhance critical thinking and decision‑making from multiple perspectives. Sustainability education literature also stresses that complex global issues require integrative thinking, interdisciplinary collaboration, and shared sense‑making, the central tenets of systems thinking (Ezeaku, 2024).

Soft Systems Methodology, although not new, has proven effective across a wide range of settings for tackling complex modern-day problems. Its seven-stage process offers a structured approach to exploring “wicked” issues by first examining what is happening in the real world from the viewpoints of various stakeholders. The methodology then moves to imagining an ideal world, one free from constraints, from multiple stakeholder perspectives, helping to surface differing expectations, needs, and aspirations for a future idealised system. Students should be encouraged to use empathetic dialogue to appreciate the diverse viewpoints present in the situation. By comparing real-world conditions with these idealised models, Soft Systems Methodology enables the development of feasible, mutually acceptable paths forward.

Recent scholarship highlights that real-world, experiential learning environments help students develop the ability to interpret dynamic systems and identify leverage points for meaningful change (Alford et al., 2025). Such approaches support a shift from linear, fragmented learning toward holistic understanding, enabling students to explore the multiple interacting forces shaping modern problems. Soft Systems Methodology can help develop this understanding.

The importance of systems thinking in higher education is also evident in efforts to prepare students for professional environments characterised by complexity and rapid change. As Elsawah, Ho, and Ryan (2022) note, teaching systems thinking requires intentional integration of modelling, reflection, and interdisciplinary engagement to help students internalise systemic concepts. Their work demonstrates that learners benefit from iterative exploration of system behaviours, reinforcing deeper conceptual understanding and long-term retention.

A Mindset for the 21st Century

Across disciplines, systems thinking offers a transformative framework for higher education, supporting educators and students in jointly navigating complex realities while fostering the next generation of holistic, strategic, and future-oriented thinkers.

At its core, systems thinking is more than a method, it is a mindset that promotes deeper insight, anticipatory understanding, and long‑term thinking. Scholars and practitioners argue it is essential for addressing intertwined challenges like climate disruption, social inequality, and technological acceleration (DigitalVital HUB, 2025). By helping individuals and organisations recognise interconnected structures, systems thinking supports more informed, sustainable, and strategic action, shifting us from short‑term fixes to long‑term solutions rooted in an understanding of whole systems (Ellis, 2024).

The combination of Soft Systems Methodology and empathy enhances systems thinking by placing equal emphasis on the human elements and the technical components. It focuses on designing solutions that function not only in theory but also in the complex, unpredictable realities of human‑centred environments. Engaging in empathetic dialogue helps reveal stakeholders’ perspectives and experiences. When problems are rooted in human complexity and ambiguity, the solutions must be human centric also.

We live in an era defined by complexity and constant change. Linear thinking on its own is no longer enough. Systems thinking offers powerful tools for higher education students to see the bigger picture, understanding interconnections, and designing solutions that work not just today, but for generations ahead. As future leaders of society this is a vital commodity that cannot be overlooked. Across sustainability, technology, education, and organisational practice, the evidence converges: systems thinking is shifting from a possibility to a must‑have capability for future leaders (Bansal and Birkinshaw, 2025; Schoormann et al., 2025).

References.

Alford, K.R., Stedman, N.L.P., Bunch, J., Baker, S. and Roberts, T.G. (2025) ‘Real-world experiences in higher education: contributing to developing a systems thinking paradigm’, Journal of Experiential Education, 48(1), pp. 169–188.

Bansal, T. and Birkinshaw, J. (2025) ‘Why you need systems thinking now’, Harvard Business Review, September–October.

Checkland, P. and Poulter, J. (2006) Learning for action: A short definitive account of Soft Systems Methodology and its use for practitioners, teachers and students. Hoboken: Wiley.

Comstock, N.W. (2024) ‘Systems thinking’, EBSCO Research Starters.

Dhukaram, A., Sgouropoulou, C., Feldman, G. and Amini, A. (2016) ‘Higher education provision using systems thinking approach – case studies’, European Journal of Engineering Education, 43, pp. 1–23.

DigitalVital HUB (2025) ‘Systems thinking in innovation design and sustainability: Critical framework for seeing the whole’, 21 March.

Eftekhari Shahroudi, K., Conrad, S., Speece, J., Reinholtz, K., Span, M.T., Chappell, S., Saulter, Q. and Bokhtier, G.M. (2025) ‘Why systems thinking?’, in Practical Systems Thinking. Cham: Springer.

Ellis, J. (2024) ‘Unlocking complex problems: the power of systems thinking’, TheSystemsThinking.com, 30 September.

Elsawah, S., Ho, A. and Ryan, M. (2022) ‘Teaching systems thinking in higher education’, INFORMS Transactions on Education, 22, pp. 66–102.

Ezeaku, E.C. (2024) ‘Systems thinking as a paradigm shift for transformational sustainability’, Global Scientific Journal, 12(1).

Schoormann, T., Möller, F., Hoppe, C. and vom Brocke, J. (2025) ‘Digital sustainability: understanding and managing tensions’, Business & Information Systems Engineering, 67, pp. 429–438.

World Economic Forum (2025) The Future of Jobs Report 2025.

Dr Amrik Singh is a Senior Teaching Fellow at Aston University, UK. He has over 15 years of academic experience in Higher Education. He is also a Senior Fellow of the Advance HE, SFHEA. His teaching areas includes operations management, effective management consultancy, and business operations excellence. 

Joy Garfield holds a PhD in Informatics from the University of Manchester, UK.  She is a Senior Teaching Fellow and Deputy Head of Department for Business Analytics and Information Systems at Aston Business School, Aston University, UK.  With over 20 years of experience in academia, Joy is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.  Joy is currently an external examiner for the University of Westminster Tashkent, Uzbekistan and a member of the Governing Council of the Society for Research into Higher Education.


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Understanding complex ambiguous problems through the lens of Soft Systems Methodology

by Joy Garfield and Amrik Singh

As the future leaders of a society that is increasingly complex and challenging higher education students need a good grasp of social, political, economic and environmental issues and need to feel equipped to propose reasonable recommendations. This can seem a daunting prospect for anyone, let alone higher education students who may have little or no prior experience of working in these areas. Students need to understand the world view of the stakeholders and the what, how and whys of the situation being explored. What is the problem situation, how will we understand it, and why are we trying to understand it? Here we describe an approach successfully used in our postgraduate teaching at Aston Business School, UK.

Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) (Checkland, 1986) has been successfully used in many different contexts for complex problem-solving. With its seven-stage structure it provides a framework for structuring/framing wicked problems by initially thinking about what is happening in the real world from the point of view of different stakeholders. An idealised world without any constraints is then explored from different stakeholder perspectives so that different wants/needs for a new system can be considered. Students are encouraged to use empathetic discourse to understand the multiple perspectives of the stakeholders in the problem situation. The comparison between the real world and idealised worlds allows for an eventual accommodation of future ways forward.

Soft Systems Methodology is currently used to teach complex problem solving to postgraduate students at Aston. The module team have developed a group-based approach that has been found to produce a deeper understanding of concepts and yield better overall results, particularly given that students are mostly international postgraduate students. For most of the students their first language is not English, and they are new to complex problem-solving.

Teaching sessions are structured around the different stages of the Soft Systems Methodology. Group work is used so that students support one another in their learning of the concepts and then apply these individually to their chosen assessment topic. The UK criminal justice system is taken as an in-class example and students are asked to think about a particular complex area to focus on, eg overcrowding in prisons in a particular city. Terminology can be particularly complex and hard to grasp if your first language is not native English, so the language used to explain concepts is kept simple and a number of areas of scaffolding are used to help to support the learning.

The first task related to SSM involves students identifying the stakeholders and their power/interest in the complex situation. Students are then taught the concepts of a rich picture and they draw a rich picture as a group for their chosen problem situation using white board paper (example below). The rich picture itself enables students to understand the real world, stakeholder issues, conflicts, and relationships together with who interacts with the problem from outside of its boundary.  Students present their rich pictures to the wider group for formative feedback.

This helps with constructive feedback and a deeper understanding of the complex issue. The rich pictures may seem simple, but simplifying a complex problem is complex in itself! This helps students to understand and tease apart the complexities of the problem situation. The rich picture depicts the problem situation better than just making notes alone.

For the realisation of the idealised world, students put themselves in the shoes of the stakeholder.  This involves empathetic discourse whereby students interview one another about what they would want for a system, without taking into consideration any constraints from different stakeholder perspectives. Students are then able to expand these statements as a group to take into consideration the different aspects. From this, students construct a model which helps depict the transformation activities that the stakeholders wish to conduct to reach their desired output.

By gaining a better understanding of the real world from drawing the rich picture and thinking about an idealised world and possible transformation activities, students can then gain an understanding for the changes going forward.

Topics chosen by students for their assessment have included: housing refugees in the UK; online exams or in person exams at university; homelessness; impact of the pandemic on tourism; child marriages in India; a start up in France to reduce plastic packaging; finding the appropriate route for a railway between two cities in Germany. These are all complex and ambiguous problems that need to be understood before any potential solutions are made.

During the module students develop confidence in the application of SSM and come to a true understanding of the process of accommodating different stakeholder perspectives – especially when consensus is not always possible. What we understand from this journey is that there is no ‘one shoe fits all’ solution when understanding complex ambiguous problems.

Empathy enriches the SSM process by ensuring the human side of systems is as important as the technical side. It helps to create solutions that work not just in theory but in real, messy, human-centric environments. Empathetic discourse is very valuable to understand the voice of the stakeholders. What we have learned from the delivery of the module is that when complex ambiguous problems are human centric, then the solutions are human centric also.

Checkland, P (1986) Systems thinking, systems practice Chichester: Wiley

Dr Joy Garfield is a Senior Teaching Fellow and Director of Learning and Teaching for an academic department at Aston Business School, Aston University, UK.  Her subject discipline area is information systems, particularly systems modelling and complex problem solving. With just over 20 years of experience in academia, she has worked at a number of UK universities. Joy is a Senior Fellow of Advance HE and is currently an external examiner at Sheffield Hallam University and the University of Westminster. 

Dr Amrik Singh is a Senior Teaching Fellow at Aston University, UK. He has over 15 years of academic experience in Higher Education. He is also a Senior Fellow of the Advance HE, SFHEA. His teaching areas includes operations management, effective management consultancy, and business operations excellence.