Strategies for system planning

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Figure 1 Features of an 'engineered' process

An engineered outcome results from the use of a range of control strategies that are appropriate in situations of complex uncertainty. The strategies used have universal application in complex problem solving. It is not only engineers who use them: Scientists 'engineer' the development of a drug; professional engineers will engineer the design and development of an aircraft. Businesses are 'engineered' (or 're-engineered').

The strategies form the basis of a 'engineered process' that is used to control the risk of unsatisfactory outcomes.

Figure 1 shows some features of an engineered process.

Key issues are competence, i.e. the skills of those inolved and governance, i.e. how responsility, authority and accountabiliy are allocated.

Competence is shown as having two main components:

• Disciplinary expertise i.e. the abilities of those involved to carry out specific tasks. It is common to require expertise from several disciplines
• Ethos - the principles that guide the actions of the participants.

Whereas 'what you know' might be described in term of disciplinary expertise, ethos is 'how you think'.

Critical thinking may be the most important feature of an engineered process. Critical thinkers identify and use guiding principles that lead to engineered outcomes.

Deep collaboration within the project team with unswerving commitment to the project goals are also key features of an engineered process.

Closely related to commitment is the requirment that the process is underpinned by the highest levels of professional integrity.

Critial thinking

Critical thinking implies the use of principles and processes that are used when addressing situations of complex uncertainty, i.e. that may involve: competing goals; high levels of risk; technical, environmental and societal issues.

It is mainly concerned with ethos i.e. the principles that guide your actions.

Critical thinkers discipline their minds to reduce the risk of unsatisfactory outcomes.

Use of the word critical here denotes that this mode of thinking (a) is critical in the sense of being analytical about ideas and (b) is an essential strategy in situations of complex uncertainty.

Guiding principles

Critical thinkers constantly look for guiding principles. They seek to identify and use the principles that will lead to success. Here are some guiding principles:

Actions

• Test proposals, critique, review.
• Use, where appropriate the Engineer-it strategies
• Reflect: question, consult, challenge, be challenged, expect to be challenged.
• Submit to reason: use logic and evidence to the limits of their potential before making informed judgements.
• Think for yourself but not by yourself.
• Adopt a system approach: consider the system as a whole as well as its parts.
• Adopt a holistic approach: take account of all relevant isues.
• Be humble, be prepared to change your mind.
• Learn from successes, learn from failures.
• If a feaure can be quantified, quantify it. Use predictive models, use data.
• Be sceptical about the validity of all information.
• Constantly seek to improve products and processes.

Seek to:

• embrace integrity without question: honest, trustworthy, reliable,
• be open, friendly, respectful
• be committed
• be collaborative, inclusive
• be disinterested in outcomes

Avoid being:

• autocratic
• deferential

Learning for critical thinking

The development of good habits should start as early as practical in your life. That learning for critial thinking should start in primary school and be addressed continuously in education is becoming recognised. Critical thinking should be treated as a discipline in education i.e. as a branch of learning - see Section 4 (page 10) of the Discipline for critical thinking paper.

However, you cannot rely on being coached to be a critical thinker. People need to discippline their minds to develop critical thinking skills, Strategies for doing this include:

• Be a student of crtitical thinking. Collect guiding principles. Write them down,memorise and use them.
• Watch how other people operate and identify the principles that guide them to be successful. Discuss the issues with them. Add their good ideas to your list of principles.
• Read about contexts where critical thinking was needed to identify principles
• Identify the reasons for people to be unsuccessful. Actively avoid copying them.
• Remember that some guiding princples are context specific. You are not using a set of fixed rules that result in success. You need to use critical thinking about your critical thinking strategies.
• If you have a leadership role, work with your colleagues to develo the principles under which the team will operate.