Introduction and Aim
• In highly complex adaptive systems, such as health and social care organisations, Systems Thinking is considered the most meaningful way to understand and learn from how systems function and how outcomes are achieved.
• We do not have a shared understanding of Systems Thinking and related principles, and how adoption of this mindset or philosophy can radically change for the better the way we respond to and learn from safety occurrences, including how we treat those impacted by events.
• We aim to work with informed health and care professionals and safety experts to build consensus on a series of useful Systems Thinking principles that can be integrated into related policy, education, research and practice to influence our understanding of how and why ‘success’ and ‘failure’ are achieved from everyday care work, and how we learn holistically from these system outcomes.
