Systemic Design Thinking with Jan Noga

This episode I chatted with Jan Noga about systemic design thinking. There’s a wealth of resources and information provided below!

Contact information:

Jan Noga
[email protected]
www.pathfinderevaluation.com

About Jan Noga:

Jan Noga is an independent evaluation consultant based in Cincinnati, Ohio. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Stanford in developmental and counseling psychology with specialization in early and middle childhood and a master’s degree from the University of Cincinnati in instructional design and technology. Jan has worked in the non-profit and public sectors in human services and education for more than 30 years in roles spanning teaching, research, policy, and program planning and evaluation. As a program evaluator, Jan has planned and conducted both large and small-scale evaluations and provided organizational consulting and capacity building support to clients. She has also taught courses and workshops on such topics as systems thinking, systemic design thinking, research methods and techniques, program planning and development, and survey design and analysis. Jan has been a member of AEA since 2000 and was one of the founding members of the Systems in Evaluation TIG, serving as program chair and then TIG chair from 2004-2012. She is particularly interested in the use of systems approaches as a foundation for design, planning, implementation, and evaluation of change efforts in the human service and education arenas.

Systems Thinking Resources for Evaluators:

Hands on resources:

• Williams, Bob. 2020. Systemic evaluation design: A workbook. Available for download from https://bobwilliams.gumroad.com/
• Williams, Bob. 2021. Systems diagrams: A practical guide. Available for download from https://bobwilliams.gumroad.com/

Good for starting out

• Anderson, V. & Johnson, L. (1997). Systems thinking basics: From concepts to causal loops. Waltham, MA: Pegasus Communications.
• Meadows, D.H. (2008). Thinking in systems: A primer. White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing.
• Ramage, M. & Shipp, K (2009). Systems Thinkers. New York: Springer.
• Sweeney, L.B. & Meadows, D. (2010). The systems thinking playbook. White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing.
• Williams, B. & Hummelbrunner, R. (2011). Systems concepts in action: A practitioner’s toolkit. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
• Williams, B. and Imam, I, eds. (2007). Systems concepts in evaluation: An expert anthology. Point Reyes, CA: EdgePress.
• Williams, B. and Van’t Hoft, S (2016). Wicked solutions: A systems approach to complex problems. Available at http://bit.ly/1SVoOH3

Good for more advanced reading:

• Bamberger, M, Vaessen, J., & Raimondo, E. (eds.) (2016) Dealing with complexity in development evaluation: A practical approach. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
• Cabrera, D., Colosi, L., & Lobdell, C. (2008) Systems thinking. Evaluation and Program Planning, 31(3), 299-310.
• Cabrera, D. & Cabrera, L (2015). Systems thinking made simple: New hope for solving wicked problems. Odyssean Publishing.
• Capra, F & Luisi, PL (2016). The systems view of life: A unifying vision (6th printing). New York: Cambridge University Press.
• Checkland, P. (1999). Systems thinking, systems practice. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Cunliff, E., (2002) Connecting systems thinking to action, The Systems Thinker, 15(2), 6-7.
• Eoyang, G.H. & Holladay, R.J. (2013) Adaptive action: Leveraging uncertainty in your organization. Stanford: Stanford Business Books.
• Karach, R, (1997) How to see structure, The Systems Thinker, 8(4), 6-7.
• Patton M.Q. (2010). Developmental evaluation: Applying complexity concepts to enhance innovation and use. New York: Guilford Press.
• Patton, M.Q., McKegg, K., & Wehipeihana, N., eds. (2015). Developmental evaluation exemplars: Principles in practice. New York: Guilford Press.
• Senge, P. (1990) The fifth discipline: The art and practice of the learning organization. New York: Doubleday.
• Stroh, DP (2015). Systems thinking for social change. White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing.
• Ulrich, W & Reynolds, M (2010). Critical systems heuristics. In: Reynolds, Martin and Holwell, Sue eds. Systems approaches to managing change: A practical guide. London: Springer, pp. 243–292.
• von Bertalanffy, Ludwig. (1950). The theory of open systems in physics and biology. Science,
• 13, 23-29.
• von Bertalanffy, Ludwig. (1968). General systems theory. New York: George Braziller, Inc.
• Wolf-Branigin, M. (2013) Using complexity theory for research and evaluation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Some other resources:

• International Society for Systems Sciences
• https://aea365.org/blog/systemic-design-thinking-for-evaluation-of-social-innovations-a-pd-for-intermediate-and-advanced-evaluators-by-jan-noga/
• http://www.epreconsulting.com/SETIG%202018%20Principles.pdf
• https://systemic-design.org/
• https://modus.medium.com/what-the-is-systems-design-e005c1e9fef8
• https://rsdsymposium.org/
• Martin Reynolds Open University

Music by Matt Ingelson, http://www.mattingelsonmusic.com/