Replying to LO24487 --
Hello Mark --
I'm assuming you're talking about "systems thinking" as presented by
Senge.
For starters, you should try the System Dynamics Society web site where
you can obtain materials for the Beer Game, a time-tested simulation
http://www.albany.edu/cpr/sds/ and in particular...
http://www.albany.edu/cpr/sds/Beer.htm
Pegasus communications publishes the newsletter "The Systems Thinker" and
a series of 10 to 50 page books. I often use their reprints and/or the
books in teaching systems thinking. http://www.pegasuscom.com or
781-398-9700.
A one and a half day program is relatively short for teaching systems
thinking. I recommend you focus on a small set of topics and drive them
home with practice exercises. For a program of this length, I usually do:
- an example to illustrate
- perhaps an exercise/simulation (but this takes a lot of time)
- events/patterns/structure or the vision-deployment matrix
- steps in a systems thinking process
- links, loops, reinforcing and balancing; practice finding R-loops
- Mental models; adding thought bubbles to the diagrams.
- system archetypes introduction
- present and practice Fixes that Backfire, Shifting the Burden, and
Limits to Success. Practice these with real examples from the group.
- typical system interventions
- debrief
For a longer program, I would add
- creating causal loop diagrams (without the guidance of the archetypes)
- practice the "steps" with a packaged case
- a serious "own case" exercise
I specialize in teaching this material and would be happy to have a side
conversation with you... If interested, just give me a call.
Finally, LO readers might have additional suggestions if you want to say a
bit more about the context and the objectives of the program.
Hope this is helpful.
-=- Rick
>I'm conducting a one and a half day seminar on systems thinking. I was
>wondering if anyone knew where I could find videos, simulations and/or
>materials that relate to systems thinking?
>
>Mark
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