4.5.2 Preparing the World for Complexity: A Systematic Approach

The increasing level of complexity in most aspects of today's world requires that government, industry, and society, in general, produce integrated systems and products more fully capable of addressing that complexity. Unfortunately, the high degree of fragmentation in our current educational system does not adequately provide graduates with the knowledge and skills necessary to produce integrated systems. This demand for integration has created professional opportunities in the way of new careers, such as systems engineering, but has not yet driven the broader application of systems principles by other professionals. Even today's interdisciplinary teams must possess the ability to visualize the entire system they are working on prior to applying their individual skills toward developing and producing integrated solutions. This paper highlights proposed interventions at all educational levels (i.e., elementary, secondary, and college educational settings, as well as in the workplace) to introduce systems thinking as a more desirable way of performing any professional activity. In particular, the college freshman level has been selected to conduct an initial intervention to test this hypothesis. Systems approaches and principles will be presented and discussed in a formal classroom setting between issuance and evaluation of pre‐ and post‐presentation questionnaire. It is expected that this intervention will result in increased knowledge of system principles and concepts, and an increased understanding of how these principles can be applied by this target audience.