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October 18, 2006 Issue 79


“You cannot go on having absurd amounts of wealth when other people have problems of survival. If you can bring an end to poverty, at least from an economic point of view, you can have a more livable situation between very rich people and very poor people, very rich countries and very poor countries. That's our basic ingredient for peace."
—Muhammad Yunus



SAVE TODAY!
Just a few seats left! Register for the Pegasus Conference by October 27 to secure your place and save $200 off the standard price!

Pre-conference Workshops on
the U-Process, Conversational Leadership, and Systems Thinking in Change Management
Learn more or register...

For the First Time Ever, Pegasus Endorses a Diet!

Low Carbon Diet
by David Gershon

The typical American household generates approximately 55,000 pounds of carbon dioxide annually (compared to Sweden’s 15,000 pounds per household). We know we have an "overheating" problem; but what can we do about it? This entertaining workbook helps you make the cool choice to quantify and reduce the impact you are having on the planet. Its 23 practical steps are embedded in a social change technology that leverages relationships to help people move from ideas to action. Go on this low carbon diet with family, friends, co-workers, and neighbors, and learn as much about each other as you do about climate change.

Order #ST013, softcover book, 71 pages, $12.95

Related Event
Empowerment Institute Certification Program
Part One: January 4-7, 2007, Rhinebeck, New York

Led by David Gershon and Gail Straub, the Empowerment Institute is a three-part professional certification training that combines residential study and workshops, homework, and coaching via telephone. Each participant specializes in one of the five empowerment tracks and is assisted in developing a successful business or career application.

Tuition for the program is $3450. Register by calling 1-845-331-1312. Mention that you learned of the program through Pegasus when you sign up and receive a free copy of David Gershon's new book, Low Carbon Diet.

Learn more about the program at the Empowerment Training web site.

Systems Thinking and Modelling: Understanding Change
by Kaambiz Maani and Robert Cavana

This book is a comprehensive, accessible introduction to the field of systems thinking and modeling theory and application. Its content ranges from basic systems theory and causal loop modeling to dynamic modeling, microworlds, and learning laboratories. Step-by-step methodology, numerous examples, and extensive real-life cases from healthcare, business, and social systems are all presented in a simple way that can be easily understood by a wide range of people. An excellent resource for managers, as well as a powerful text for students. Accompanying the book is a CD-ROM, which includes the models presented in the book as well as the run-time version of ithink, to allow users to create their own models.

Order #SD007r, softcover book, 262 pages, illustrated, CD-ROM, $55.00

Introduction to Systems Thinking
 Daniel H. Kim

Systems thinking is one of the key management competencies of the 21st century and the crucial “fifth discipline” of organizational learning. Discover how the perspective, language, and tools of systems thinking can dramatically strengthen your ability to grasp complexity and manage your organization more effectively. Using compelling examples and numerous illustrations, this volume serves as an excellent primer for the field.

Order #IMS013E, PDF, 21 pages, $10.95
Order #IMS013, softcover booklet, 20 pages, $10.95

Organizing for Learning
Daniel H. Kim

Nothing about business is usual anymore. New technologies, global markets, and the growing importance of knowledge assets over capital are forcing us to rethink what has long been taken as fact. The latest buzz in management circles is around the topic of knowledge management. But a more important challenge is for organizations to develop the capacity to organize for continuous learning—to go beyond managing existing knowledge to creating new knowledge. Designed for executives and front-line managers alike, the book is organized around three major themes: Organizational Learning and Knowledge Creation, The Power of Theory, and A Systemic Approach to Creating Enduring Change. Through his insightful and systemic exploration of these themes, Daniel Kim offers concrete ideas and suggestions for building a work culture where learning can thrive.

Order #OL017r, softcover book, illustrated, 112 pages, $24.95


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Pegasus Communications provides resources that help people explore, understand, articulate, and address the challenges they face in the complexities of a changing world. Since 1989, Pegasus has worked to build a community of practitioners through The Systems Thinker® Newsletter, books, audio and videotapes, its annual Systems Thinking in Action® Conference, and other events.
 



FACE-TO-FACE
 Changing Policy, Changing Lives
An interview with Marlene Seltzer

PEGASUS CONFERENCE UPDATE
 • Just a Few Seats Left! Register Now and Save!
• Pre-conference workshops offer focused learning with noted thought leaders

LEARNING LINKS
The Double-Loop Learning Matrix 
FROM THE FIELD
Visionaries Wanted: Angel Funding for Social Entrepreneurs
 



FACE-TO-FACE
Changing Policy, Changing Lives

Jobs for the Future (JFF) is a national nonprofit that engages in research, policy development, advocacy, and consulting in the areas of education reform and workforce development. President and CEO Marlene Seltzer will lead a panel discussion on their work at the upcoming Pegasus Conference. She recently spoke with Leverage Points editor Vicky Schubert about their approach to large systems change.

LP: Give us a little background on Jobs for the Future (JFF).

MS: We were co-founded in 1983 by Arthur White and Hilary Pennington. Arthur was a partner in a very successful marketing firm who had a passion around those who were being left behind by the economy. His vision was to create a nonprofit that would help states reinvent and transform their workforce development and education systems to be more responsive to changes in the economy. Hilary was a recent business school graduate from Yale, working for a management consulting company, who had a desire and passion to make a difference in the world. They built JFF together. And I came on in 1995 and have worked to grow the organization along with Hilary and Arthur since that time. Our work has evolved over time to focus more specifically on the growing population of those who are being left behind. If you look at high-school graduation and post-secondary completion rates for kids and adults, you know we have a problem in this economy.

We pursue innovative models of workforce development and education to accelerate the learning and advancement of entry-level workers and youth. And we focus on understanding how you would scale these models up in communities and states. This has taken us deeply into the question of how systems reform affects individual lives.

LP: Is your emphasis on research, advocacy, or consulting?

MS: Actually, it is the integration of all three. Much of our success has come from the quality of the research that we’ve done to understand these systems and deepen our knowledge about what kinds of interventions work on the ground. By giving visibility to both the issues and real solutions to address those issues, JFF has become a go-to organization for states and funders who care about these problems and want to fix them. As a result, we’ve expanded our partnerships with other national groups, as well as those at the state level, and with key institutions and stakeholders within communities. We are also increasingly active not just in analyzing policy, but as advocates of the kinds of policies and legislation that are necessary to support and grow programs that really work.

Continue reading this interview...
 



PEGASUS CONFERENCE UPDATE

16th Annual Pegasus Conference
Leading Beyond the Horizon: Strategies for Bringing Tomorrow into Today's Choices
Westin Waltham-Boston Hotel
Waltham, Massachusetts, November 13–15, 2006

There are now just a few seats left for this extraordinary learning experience. Register by October 27 to secure your place and save $200 off the standard conference price!

Download final brochure.

Pre-conference workshops offer focused learning with noted thought leaders
Sunday, November 12, 9:00–5:00
$895 for full day experience

Leading Systemic Change: Building the Future From the Past and the Present
David Peter Stroh, Bridgeway Partners; Michael Goodman, Innovation Associates Organizational Learning
Integrate the disciplines of systems thinking and change management to achieve more sustainable results based on a clear appreciation of the past and the present. More...

Conversational Leadership: An Essential Strategy for Innovative Action
David Isaacs, Clearing Communications and the World Cafe Community Foundation
Learn and practice World Café design principles for leading strategic conversations. Use this pre-conference learning community to explore how you will bring these techniques to real-life challenges. More...

The U-Process: From Theory to Practice
LeAnne Grillo and Adam Kahane, Generon Consulting
Practice the capacities needed to navigate the U-process of transformational change from sensing, through presencing, to realizing. Learn how this process can help organizations and multistakeholder groups address problems in a systemic, creative, and participative way. More...

To register or learn more about these and other program highlights, check out the conference website.
 



LEARNING LINKS
Working In High-Leverage Zones With The Double-Loop Learning Matrix
by Brian Hinken

The Double-Loop Learning Matrix is a tool that teams can use to uncover and articulate high-leverage change initiatives. This matrix is an integration of three vital learning tools: (1) the phases of the classic learning cycle—observe, assess, develop, implement; (2) Chris Argyris’s double-loop learning framework; and (3) the levels of understanding of systems thinking as articulated by Daniel H. Kim—events, patterns, structure, mental models, and vision.

Single- and Double-Loop Learning
Single-Loop Learning Cycle. The classic learning cycle begins by identifying the intended outcome of the change initiative and then observing the actual outcome.

Double-Loop Learning Cycle. Instead of assessing additional corrections we must assess our beliefs about why we value the intended outcome and why we assumed the previous strategy would work.

Learning Matrix
When we superimpose the double-loop learning cycle on the systems thinking framework, we create “leverage zones.” By linking the uncovering and testing of beliefs and assumptions in double-loop learning and systems thinking/mental model work in the matrix, we can draw attention to the fact that systems work at this level is about making our causal assumptions explicit and visible—and thus testable. By adding the systems thinking framework, we facilitate double-loop learning by explicitly moving from “event and pattern thinking” to the “high-leverage zones” of structures, mental models, and vision.

Events and Patterns. Our typical problem-solving orientation usually keeps us at the level of events and patterns—a single-loop learning process.

Structures. When we venture down into the structure level, we begin asking more difficult questions such as “What are we doing that causes this pattern to continue to happen?”

Mental Models. At the level of mental models, we ask ourselves, “What beliefs do we hold that cause us to value this intended outcome?”

Vision. At the level of vision, we are clarifying what we want to create together.

Read the complete article or see The Systems Thinker, V12N8 (October 2001).

Subscribe to The Systems Thinker.

 



FROM THE FIELD
Visionaries Wanted: Angel Funding for Social Entreprenuers

Here is a great opportunity for systems thinkers and other innovators with groundbreaking social visions to obtain start-up funding for a new take-action organization.

Echoing Green, a provider of first-stage funding and support to visionary leaders with bold ideas for social change, has put out a call for Fellowshp Applications to meet their initial December 1st deadline.

Through a two-year fellowship program, the organization helps passionate social entrepreneurs develop new solutions to some of society’s most difficult problems. Echoing Green Fellows receive up to $90,000 in seed funding and support to launch an organization that turns a great idea into action.

Check out the Echoing Green web site for all the details.

 



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