A Systems Approach to Social And Organizational Planning is about systems thinking and its application in health care. Health care systems all over the world are on the verge of breakdown and neither patients nor governments and businesses can afford health care delivery as we know it any longer. The problem is that planners still conceptualize enormously complex biological and social systems in a simplistic manner.

An analysis of the problem indicates that the solution lies in using a holistic apporoach, such as the systems approach, to re-conceptualize our thinking about the problem situation. The result is a systems view of health, which has profound implications for planning and change management in health care. It is a fresh and different approach to an intractable problem and therefore deserves the attention of both systems thinkers and health care planners.

The purpose of the text is to introduce readers to the systems approach and to contribute towards the current debate about health care planning. The target audience is therefore students new to systems thinking and specifically health care planners.

Gerrit Van Wyk has 25 years experience in health care as a physician and manager, during which he observed countless failed interventions in the system from grass roots to government level. The search for a method that has a better chance to produce implementable solutions that will actually make things better for everyone took him on a journey that culminated in a Masters dissertation in Systems Management at the University of Cape Townm, titled Medicine and Medical Process As A Learning System, which was examined externally at the University of California, Berkeley, and an MBA. He lectured and workshopped on numerous occasions to technical and lay audiences on medical topics and his passion for implementable change to health care systems worldwide. He currently lives and works in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.