Systems Thinking for a Turbulent World

Anthony Hodgson is currently a trustee and research director of H3Uni – A University for the Third Horizon, a research fellow at the University of Dundee, director of Decision Integrity Limited and a founding member of the International Futures Forum. He has a B.Sc. in chemistry from Imperial College London and PhD in systems science from the University of Hull, Centre for Systems Studies. He has over 30 years of experience as a consultant facilitator in strategy and foresight.

• List of Figures and Tables, Acknowledgements, Preface, Introduction, CHAPTER 1 – HEALING OUR FRAGMENTED WORLD, Step 1 Seeking the Ox., Thinking Differently, A Systems Worldview, CHAPTER 2 – REHABILITATING THE OBSERVER, Step 2 Finding the Tracks., Paradigm Shift, Thread 1 – Presence of the Observer, Thread 2 – Observation, Intervention and Ethics, Thread 3 – Reflexivity and Reciprocity, Thread 4 – Circularity and Re-entry, Thread 5 - Reflection and Perception, Thread 6 – Transdisciplinarity, Thread 7 – Multi-perspective Dialogic, Weaving the Threads, CHAPTER 3 – REPERCEIVING THE FUTURE, Step 3 - First Glimpse of the Ox. , Changing Boundary Perception, Anticipating the Unpredictable, The Three Horizons, Deepening the Paradigm Shift, CHAPTER 4 - ANTICIPATORY SYSTEMS ARE DIFFERENT, Step 4 Catching the Ox., Foresight as Anticipation, From First-order to Second-order Anticipatory Systems, Taking a Transdisciplinary Viewpoint, The Structure of the Anticipatory Present Moment, CHAPTER 5 CULTIVATING DECISION INTEGRITY, Step 5 Taming the Ox., The Trap of Rationality, Decision as Learning, The Notion of undecidable questions, The Navigational Implications of Second-Order Decision, Implications for Management and Governance, , CHAPTER 6 – THE CO-CREATIVE WAY, Step 6 Riding the Ox Home., Pattern Thinking, The Gestalt of Pattern Recognition, The Practice of Repatterning, Participative Repatterning, Cognitive Kinetics, Idonics – the Key Tool, Facilitating Participative Repatterning, CHAPTER 7 – TRANSFORMING IN THE NOW, Step 7 - The Ox Out of Sight, the Self Alone., Perception within the Present Moment, The Four Modes of Anticipation, An Exercise of Anticipatory Consciousness , APM Exercise 1 – The Stretch, APM Exercise 2 – Reflexive Questions, Tapping Our Potential , Getting to Grips with The Now, CHAPTER 8 – NATURAL SYSTEMS THINKING, Systems Thinking as Qualitative Practice, References, Index