Systems Thinking Competencies and the Learning Organisation

Public and private sector managers are starting to talk of ‘systems thinking’ as one of the key business competencies of their staff. At the same time, training managers in some enterprises, including the Defence Organisation, are demanding that University management schools introduce a more structured ‘competency based’ approach. But what are ‘systems thinking competencies’? Is “competency based” education and training an appropriate approach to achieving them? Competency based education is the norm in technical and further education, and competency frameworks have been accepted by professional bodies such as the Institution of Engineers Australia and the Australian Institute of Project Management. The University sector has been less than willing to embrace this paradigm. This paper seeks to foster debate on the competencies required for a system dynamics professional and on the education and training framework to achieve them. Existing business core competencies are analysed and compared with the characteristics identified by Peter Senge in an ideal ‘Learning Organisation’ (Senge 1990).