System planning in government and in education

Iain MacLeod

Over thirty years ago, I posed myself this question: “What are the processes and guiding principles that support the success of professional engineering outcomes?” I needed answers to that question to inform research work in computer aided design and also to help students to develop their professional competence. My quests for answers has continued over the years. I have re-phrased the question to be more generic: “How are successful outcomes achieved in situations of complex uncertainty?” and I use the term system planning to represent the processes and principles. I offer here some answers to the this question. Consideration of the wide use and success of system planning in society, raises two further questions: First: “Why do we allow politicians to go ahead with strategies aimed at solving problems of very high complexity that have not been subject to system planning?” Second: “Why is learning for system planning not a main activity in education?” In the paper, I provide some thoughts on the second of these questions that may also provide some answers to the first.