Critical Systems Practice 2: Produce—Constructing a Multimethodological Intervention Strategy

This is the second of a series of papers on the stages of critical systems practice. Critical systems practice is a multimethodology that seeks to employ the ideas developed in critical systems thinking to intervene in and improve complex real-world problem situations. It has four stages-Explore (the problem situation), Produce (an intervention strategy), Intervene (flexibly) and Check (on progress)-called to mind as EPIC. The aim is to set out where thinking has reached on the best way to carry out each of these stages and to invite comment on what more needs doing. This second stage, Produce, is concerned with the design of an appropriate multimethodological intervention strategy based on the outcomes of Explore. The first pass through the Produce stage concludes when it becomes possible to set objectives for the intervention and to structure and schedule its delivery.