12/11-13 Systems Leadership

For our last Systems class, our plan is:

1. Fill out our course evaluations. They are electronic, so please bring a laptop, tablet, or phone with you, as well as your campus login and password.
2. Blog groups to discuss this week’s reading and reflect on what we’ve learned this term, and what next steps we’d like to take to enhance our system understanding and practice. During Wednesday’s class folks volunteered to lead their blog groups – just to be sure, will those folks please confirm via email with me by Monday. For Monday’s class, I’m going to send around a request via email to a member of each blog group to take this role. I would like these discussion leaders to read their group’s blogs and prepare some ideas for discussion, and they will not be required to prepare a discussion reflection.
3. Pecha Kuchas! Hopefully your 3SO groups have this well in hand. If you have not heard from your 3SO “goad” about preparing this, please email me, and I will goad your goad. I am going to ask each of you to evaluate each Pecha Kucha, and will consult your evaluation when making mine – I append the evaluation form, which I will hand out in class.

This week’s reading examines both the “what” and the “who” of system leadership, a fitting place to end our exploration of system thinking and doing. We have two articles by Peter Senge and colleagues – Senge is a global leader in systems thinking and organizational learning, and his work is widely used by practitioners in private sector, non-profits, and government.

The earlier reading, “Collaborating for Systemic Change”, explores how to move from “transactional” relationships to learning communities. They explore three kinds of systems work:

• Conceptual: Understanding the underlying logic and applicability of different system approaches
• Relational: Promoting trust for deep and effective communication
• Action-driven: A toolbox to “get the system in the room” and do effective work together

In the newer reading, “The Dawn of System Leadership”, Senge and colleagues share what they’ve learned about the core capabilities of system leaders, who, despite the opening example of Nelson Mandela, they argue are made not born. These include the ability to see through other’s eyes (think: interpretivist systems), the ability to use tools that enable them to see the larger system (think: functionalist systems), and the ability to move from agenda-driven problem solving to “follow the energy” and co-create the capacity to move toward a shared, desired future (think: complex systems). They end with some general advice on how to develop those skills, and I’d be interested in hearing about how you might put this advice to use in your career planning.

I’d love to hear how this later reading resonated with what you’ve learned this term in Sharon’s class – hopefully there are some synergies to explore.

 

Blog Group:
	Criteria				Comments
	Oops	Ah	Yeah	Wow
Organization of Presentation	I cannot     understand presentation because information is not well sequenced.	Difficulty following presentation	Presents information in logical sequence.	Presents information in logical, interesting sequence
Presentation Content	Uses very poorly designed presentation materials	Presentation materials rarely support presentation and are not organized	Presentation materials relate to material and presentation.	Presentation materials explain and reinforce material and presentation.
Presentation Style	Reads with no eye contact / monotonou, poor timing coordination	Occasionally uses eye contact, but still reads from notes, stilted timings	Maintains eye contact most of the time but returns to notes, good timings	Maintains eye contact with audience, seldom returning to notes, smooth timings
Intellectual Content	Uninteresting or irrelevant to 3SO	Some of 3SO covered in presentation but low info or uninteresting	Good coverage of engaging material	Interesting and engaging selection of 3SO mateiral
Interaction	Does not have grasp of information; cannot answer questions	Uncomfortable with information and answers rudimentary questions.	At ease with topic: answers questions.	Demonstrates full knowledge by answering questions with explanations and skill