Storying systems: Managing everyday flux using Mode 2 soft systems methodology

This paper examines work with managers who used a narrative approach to sys temic thinking. Storytelling is incorporated within Mode 2 SSM involving a flexible approach to the analysis of complex or "messy" situations at work. Mode 2 SSM is presented as a thinking mode by those within the problem sit uation, involving the use of various devices of rich pictures, relevant sys tems, and root definitions, whereby managers and others may make sense of t heir experiences from within the flux of everyday life. The focus of the ap proach is learning through reflection on events and activities to consider potential actions and improvements in difficult situations. The findings sh ow the initial difficulty and disappointment of learning to deal with compl exity and the unexpected but how quickly the "gain outweighs the pain." as managers learned to attune themselves to the flux of situations, to identif y how to work with flows and energies more creatively, and to become consci ous of what was happening on the edge of awareness.