Hosted by the Graduate Program in Critical and Creative Thinking, UMass Boston
Monday, February 24, 7:00-8:00pm ET, online in Zoom
Free and open to all. RSVP here to receive the Zoom login information.
Systems Thinking refers to a collection of approaches, tools, and concepts to help people to understand the world around them more holistically and act accordingly. When we seek to explore wider systems — complex arrangements of interconnected parts — we can further come to see problems and solutions in new ways by examining relationships between the parts. The Systems Thinking approach can then help us to see new possibilities in organizations, communities, families, cultural institutions, and economic and political environments, for example. In this mini-workshop, we will consider how using tools of systems thinking might help us to not only address wider issues but also reflect on our own positions within our systems and make choices about how to develop our own practices (i.e., our specific ways of operating as we seek to meet the needs of our job or life). We will use multiple brief reflective activities to experiment with these tools at a general level and consider how they can foster change.
References:
- Capra, F., Luisi, P. L., & Cambridge University Press, editor. (2019). The systems view of life : a unifying vision (9th printing.). Cambridge University Press.
- Meadows, D. H. (2017). Thinking in Systems : a primer. Chelsea Green Publishing Company.
- Senge, P. M. (1999). The fifth discipline fieldbook : strategies for building a learning organization ([Rev. ed.].). Nicholas Brealey.
- Stroh, D. P., & Chelsea Green Publishing. (2015). Systems thinking for social change : a practical guide to solving complex problems : avoiding unintended consequences, and achieving lasting results. Chelsea Green Publishing.
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