“Why Use Systems Thinking In the Classroom?”

“Why Use Systems Thinking In the Classroom?”

“FREE REPORT”

My name is D. Ross Leadbetter M.Ed.  I’ve been studying systems thinking in education for 17 years.  I am still at it.  Enough about me, let’s answer the question.

World renowned systems thinker, Peter Senge, said in his book Schools That Learn that through the use of systems thinking we can actively develop an awareness of complexity, interdependence, change, and leverage.  Those are good things for all of us to develop!

Consider this quote from Einstein:

“You cannot solve a problem from the same consciousness that created it.

You must learn to see the world anew.”

Enough said? Of course we all know that we have to think differently in our emerging world; thereby, as educators, we must teach children to think differently – to see the world anew.

But HOW does systems thinking do this?

Consider this quote from Sir Ken Robinson Ph.D. in his book The Element: “If you have never learned to think creatively and to explore your true capacity, what will you do then?  More specifically, what will our children do if we continue to prepare them for life using the old models of education?”

We HAVE to change how we teach, and systems thinking ADDS to what you already do; it unleashes the interactive and creative power of you and your students.

Systems thinking IS creative and visual, and interactive, and contemporary…. definitely, creative and contemporary.

Again, from Sir Ken, same book:  “The human brain is intensely interactive.  You use multiple parts of it in every task you perform.  It is in fact in the dynamic use of the brain – finding new connections between things – that true breakthroughs occur.”

I LOVE THAT QUOTE.  The Human Brain IS Intensely Interactive, and connections DO create breakthroughs!

Systems thinking is a language; it’s a pattern language; a visual language.  It is broadly concerned with exploring interactions, interdependencies, and connections, especially over time.

Systems thinking is intensely interactive because you CREATE and REFINE your thought on paper or on a board, alone or with others!  It engages, involves, and draws in every type of thinker.  It the ultimate tool in your teaching toolbox. REALLY.

Imagine a group of people milling around an emerging diagram – a diagram that everyone helps create, and that doesn’t have to be pretty to be good.  Imagine the powerful conversation and debate as patterns and connections emerge.

Ask, “why does building more roads cause greater road congestion?”  And then get out of the way.

Or, ask “how does spraying to kill one pest quite often cause EVEN GREATER damage to a crop?”  Again, back away from the board….

That’s of course once you have taught the tools.

Now, systems thinking is a circular language and it is diagram-based.  It helps us look for and find causes and effects, relationships, and interdependence… it’s about as real as reality really is! (whew) “We must learn to see anew.”

We finally have a method for teaching concepts

JUST LIKE THINGS HAPPEN IN THE REAL WORLD.

Do YOU want to create GREAT THINKERS? You’ll be surprised at WHICH students are the BEST and most natural systems thinkers.  I WAS.  And I loved it!  Talk about a leveling tool!

Systems thinking as an approach, can create great thinkers for you… for all of us.

Consider Marzano’s discovery: …superior findings (are) reported for visual and dramatic instruction over verbal instruction in terms of percentage of information recalled by students one year after the completion of the unit.

Or, another great quote by Mr. Marzano:  “What is needed…is a comprehensive approach that allows for student construction of meaning while interacting with content, the teacher, and other students.”  (*****YES!*****)

Systems thinking:

• Helps us explore, understand, and share our mental models;
• Examines the patterns and structures that govern our world;
• Is creative, engaging, interesting, graphic, discussion oriented… because,

“People Gather Around Diagrams”

• An approach based on a visual language, thus allowing us to easily present and clarify complex issues by summing up the key elements involved.
• Is focused upon concision, clarity, presentation, and dialogue.
• Translates communication – stories, relationships, key aspects, causes, interdependence and more – into black and white diagrams that are easily understood
• Adds precision to communication.
• Decreases ambiguity.
• Allows us to poke and prod, inquire and examine WITHOUT ruffling feathers.
• Creates a collective view, so then a collective understanding.
• Discussions are not confrontational; they are about building the best representation of the problem or initiative and being able to consider it from differing angles: focusing on diagrams diffuses defensiveness.
• Looks at the whole, not a reduction of parts.

In seconds you can slam a Behavior Over Time Graph up on the board and have groups map out the “POWER” of (1) the Romans, (2) Christianity, (3) the Vikings, (4) the Frankish Kingdoms over a period of 1000 years.  I’ve done it!  It is absolutely engaging! Kids LOVE it.

How about having students use Causal Loop Diagrams to show how drug use affects drug dependency in a circular and reinforcing – vicious cycle.  Again, you step out of the picture as ‘giver’ of information and simply facilitate, illuminate and expand upon the very creative and engaging thoughts of your students!

LET their Minds Free!  Students are amazingly creative and thoughtful, and finally you have a tool that you can use in ALL your classes:

• Relate climate change and dinosaur mortality over time.
• Track a hypothetical virus as it becomes an epidemic.
• Predict the outcomes of ‘sustainable fishing or harvesting’ practices.
• Look BEHIND events to see the patterns and the structures that are creating behavior.
• Lock ideas into diagrams.
• Keep conversations focused.
• See the relationships between problems and solutions.
• Understand complexity.
• Create a visual record.

And, there’s so much more at EVERY level of education, K to Adult

Daily, we use the power of metaphor, story, diagrams, graphic organizers, and models.  Kick it up a level!  With a few systems thinking tools and a comprehensive, tried and true approach, you can ACTIVELY ENGAGE EVERY STUDENT!

See student become completely absorbed whey they solve riddles or search for answers using systems thinking tools.

Inference, cause and effect, circular thinking, prediction, relationships, unintended consequences… THIS IS WHAT YOU WANT YOUR STUDENTS TO BE ABLE TO DO.  Moreover, you want them to WANT to do this!  This is it…

It is here.

Systems thinking in Education: www.edu.systemsandsynergy.com

Ross Leadbetter M.Ed

Join us!

“BEING Through The Negative”

“There’s always stuff that happens in our lives that we do not want”

Its how you approach it and how you weather it that makes All the difference in the world.  Read on and find out how to BE through the negative and return to the positive. Read the rest of this entry »

We are like batteries… ! (?)

Human beings are great energy getters — great energy users. 

Like a battery, however, we do not store energy well over the long term. 

It is like this: we eat and sleep and rest to gain energy — when we are active we use energy.  If we practice a disciplined management of the FLOW of our energy between intake and activity, we can create greater and greater capacity for the storage and use of energy.   If we simply store and conserve energy, however, we do NOT get a good return on our investment.

Have you ever had a flashlight sit for a year?  Is it as bright one year later as it was the day it was purchased?  We know from common experience that it will not be as bright.  It loses energy in its lack of use.  The energy dissipates and is lost and is never available for a useful purpose: in this case, the illumination of dark places.

Imagine just sleeping and eating for a year.  Would you be ready to run several marathons and lift copious weights for days and days as a result?  Of course not!  The return on conservation of energy over the long term is not good.

This doesn’t meant that rest and relaxation are not useful and helpful, but we are at our best and our most effective and efficient when we manage our energy in the short term and build our capacity to USE energy.  We are most effective as short-term energy gainers and as energy users.

If you have been reading other entries in this blog, you know that we are energy creators as well…

Create something with purpose,

Douglas Leadbetter M.Ed.

The Grameen bank and You

The Synergy in Life System — Section 20

Ever heard of the Grameen Bank?  No collateral, No legal instrument, No group guarantee or joint-liability.  And… unlike many banks right now, this one is doing FANTASTICLY well!

If there was ever a story worth telling it is of the Grameen Bank and Professor Yunus.  He is a pioneer or magnificent magnanimity.  Below is the 20th excerpt from my book The Synergy in Life System.  Please read about this Nobel prize winning professor and how he helps others.  It has a bearing in your life too.

Helping Others

Some will say that they cannot or should not have affluence because there are so many poor and unfortunate people in the world who have nothing other than misery in their lives.  As you likely are deeply concerned about the plight of poor and unfortunate people, you should spend some of your time helping them.  You can help them best, however, not by giving them some form of material things that will keep them in their place, but through giving them the power of hope and by developing pictures of affluence in their minds, and by helping them to realize their deserved expression of life.  Read the rest of this entry »

What is Systems and Synergy.

There are always good questions and comments regarding Systems and Synergy.  Orlando recently checked in with a nice comment.  In my daily life, people keep asking me questions like: ”So, just what is this systems and synergy you write about.”  I always try to explain with… well, too many words. Then I realized just the other day that to have a practiced, concise answer to this good question is not slick or glib.  I realized that a precise and concise answer is important and necessary.  Here is the answer: Read the rest of this entry »

Consider this…

The Institute for Global Ethics has conducted research around the world attempting to find out if there are a CORE set of values common to all people.  Their findings are … there are.  If this is true — and when you have visited their site and read their research, there is no reason to think otherwise — then this knowledge represents a powerful knowing.  It points to a similarity amongst all good people.  If we all have a similar basis for our values, then our understanding of one another can be placed upon a stable foundation — one that we can see and understand in one another.

And while this similarity holds for all people across the globe, it also holds for people near you.  And knowing this gives you a powerful tool for creating positive change and making positive influence.  Do you want to know what they are…?

There’s compassion, honesty, fairness, responsibility, and respect.  All cultures value these regardless of creed or color or religious background.  So, if your actions and the actions of groups you work with are focussed upon using these core values in reaching your goals, aims, and objectives then anything you attempt to accomplish will be guided by natural ‘laws’ of being human.  That’s powerful!  Agree to keep these words central to your team, your group, your family and you are agreeing to synergize your energy through positive, natural, and globally acceptable actions that are based upon core values to being human.  This is truly profound. 

New book coming out soon… Look for it!  This one is focussed on the communication patterns and synergy of groups.  THANK YOU to everyone who has purchased The Synergy in Life System.  The PDF’s are rolling out hot.  Its great to serve!

Douglas

Principle Centered Leadership :-)

Stephen Covey wrote a great book… a great big book many years ago.  Principle Centered Leadership.    Here’s what it means to me…

Covey expends a great deal of time and effort focusing the readers attention on natural metaphors.  The enduring law of the farm is the grand, guiding theme of this book.  The first sixteen chapters focus greatly on the development of self, and they culminate in a management model called the Principle Centered Leadership paradigm. It is constructed on the following foundations: the alternate life centers of security, guidance, wisdom, and power; the characteristics of highly effective people; the resolutions of discipline, character and competence, and service; integrity, maturity, and abundance; growth; moral compassing; Principle Centered Power; communication; influence; and balance.  What does all of this mean to me? Read the rest of this entry »

Beyond Ego-centrism !

Big word — ego-centrism.  It explains young kids.  They believe themselves to be the center of their own worlds.  Their egos are central to their experience.  Somewhere during the toddler years, almost every child has a profound experience of realization.  They realize that they are not in fact the center of the universe.  That they and others share a larger system in a dynamic dance.  Mankind had a similar – albeit slow — realization when the theories of Copernicus in the 1500’s were supported by Galileo in the 1600’s hundreds through the use of the telescope and mathematics.  It was at this time that mankind slowly began to accept that the earth is NOT the center of the universe.  An interesting parallel. 

A funny thing happens when children realize that there are in fact other people that have needs and wants that might conflict with or compete with their own.  They start to group.  A new phase starts and this new phase is punctuated by the coming together with others in ways that allow groups to identify themselves.  It is an extension of ego-centrism that I call social ego-centrism.  The structure of singular ego doesn’t go away, but is largely consumed by and morphed into a group ego.  This group then thinks that they — their likes and dislikes, their drama, triumph, and difficulty — are the center of the universe.  It is from this construct that we see prejudice, distrust of others that are unlike ourselves, stereotypes, and many other less than helpful mindsets that impede growth, development, and performance. 

The question that arises from this discourse is: “in your family, social group, or work-group do you transcend social ego-centrism and discover the liberated capacity for high performance, or do you live within your universe center, unable to see the systems you exist within?”    Gaining objectivity is the gaining of perspective that leads to the ability to change, adapt, leverage for power, and design systems for positive gain.  Living in the center of social ego-centrism is living lost in a tiny yet encompassing universe that generates, feeds upon, and supports itself in impotent ways.

Can your group see itself?

Finding ‘UP’ through Systems Thinking

If you are sick, you really don’t have to do anything… at the very least, people don’t expect much of you.  That’s fair because most people feel a little low now and then and getting cut a little slack can go a long way to recovery.

BUT

What if there is no direction for a recovery?  To recover, you are returning to a state of balance and if you don’t know what or where that balance is you don’t know what direction to head for an optimal state of being. Kind of like jumping from a height into a lake and losing the ‘UP’direction for a moment.  That’s a bad moment.  It feels very out of control.   Now, what about organizations?  What if they are ’sick’ and no one expects much of them because they don’t have the talent, the funding, the facilities, the management team, the support, the recognition….  What if your organization is sick and you are floating along with no where to recover to?  No ‘up’.

What if?

You have to know where you are going in order to get there…. That’s what forecasting is all about and planning.  Do they work?  If the road you are driving on leads to a cliff, then all the planning in the world, all the best talent on board, the best equipment etcetera will not mean much by the time you reach the end of the journey!  Forecasts and planning must be made in health and plan for health.  A sick organization is not the best planner.  Its like a sick person.  It just wants to get better and lays low and does its best to recover.  Luckily for individuals, we are — most of us — able to return to relative health after being ill.  Thankfully, gratefully, we return to health.  An organziation doesn’t have such sophisticated organizing power as does the magnificent human body… so, it needs to see itself as a system — and within the system that it inhabits — before it can find its up.

The systems thinking exercise in objectivity is done through symbolic conversation.  Using symbols to ‘tell the story’ of the organization helps everyone first SEE what the parts make and then realize — collectively — just WHAT the organization is.  After this, purpose and direction are determined.  And THEN strategies can be implemented — but ONLY those that make sense in terms of the system’s organization, structure and capacity.  And, all along the way the tools of systems — the symbolic language of organizing — are used for deep conversation and clarification.  They are used to CREATE the organization’s picture and its story.  Complete a systems thinking exercise in objectivity and you are ready to apply energy and find the correct times and places to influence for gain, for good, for improvement.  Its the only way that works.  It is the way.

Douglas Leadbetter M.Ed.

Systems Thinking in Daily Life: variation

You must read this post! It contains important information about your application of simple systems concepts to daily living both as an individual and as a member of a group. The assumption made throughout this post is that you would like to increase the occurrence of positive moments, actions, and directions for yourself and for your group(s). If this statement rings true for you, then have a look at how understanding variation gives you power.

Everything in our world is subject to variation. This is easiest to see in organic organisms in cycles such as sleep, growth, decay, times of high energy and times of low energy. The variation of inorganic organisms with the rhythms of electron orbits and string vibration is not as important to this topic, so we’ll leave that for another time. We are living organisms that have variation in our daily cycles of life. The key question to this post is “can we affect these variations to lessen the bad and increase the good?” YES!

Let’s first look at a hypothetical variation graph. This one will represent the variation we see in ourselves and groups with highs and lows in our states of mind, our peak functioning, our effectiveness, success… etc.

In this simple representation of variation, the vertical or ‘y’ axis represents highs and lows. The upper peak of each of the curves represent positive, and the lower peaks represent less positive or negative. The horizontal or ‘x’ axis represents time. So, in a simple analysis of this particular graph we can see that the curved line represents movement between positive and negative states over time. The constant horizontal arrow represents the midline or base state.

So, how do we get more of the ‘good’ and less of the ‘bad’?  One secret for both individuals and for groups lies in the arrow.  The arrow is the midline of contentment… or simply, being.  Think about the diagram and think about yourself.  When you are on a ‘high’ it feels pretty good.  You are elated, full of energy, electric.  When you are on a low, it doesn’t feel good; lows are just low and not any fun at all.  The midline though… it’s quiet contentment.  Just being is a nice place to be.

Think about this in a group.  Have you ever been in a group where a member is trying to hard to ‘make’ something happen?  They are trying to make things fun or they are trying to show themselves off… or, or, or.  You know what this feels like.  It’s tense.  Maybe you are lucky enough to have been or be part of a team or a work-group where everyone is content… wow!  That’s the place where things get done!  A contented person will work harder, longer, care more, and do more for the company or group and for their co-workers.  Read the studies on successful corporations, and you will see that this has been proved as truth over and over again. 

So, the question now remains, “how do we get to the arrow?”  Or a question like that would do.  Well, as individuals we try to simply ‘be’.  I explain this in great detail in my book.  There’s a bit of letting go and there’s a bit of constructing thought.  There’s a dynamic tension, but its attainable and in quite practical ways.  In groups, you need to define what a simple contentment looks and feels like.  Everyone wants to come to work to do a good job, feel good about their work, and go home feeling they have done a good day of work.  The problem is in the systems we set up around us.  There are things that frustrate and confound in every organization and without a good or even a professional facilitator to help you address your situation objectively,  you are often doomed to steep in your own self-created mess.

Seeing systems is half the solution.  Truly.  The other half is in learning how to direct the natural flow of systems.  Not so much trying to control, but working to steer and direct.  Its a soft science kind of like the soft martial arts that would rather redirect the energy of another and not meet it head on.  Why ‘take on’ your systems when you can influence them? 

There’s another place to focus upon for both groups and individuals and that is in the ascending curve just as it passes the midline of the arrow.  At that moment, one should work towards building the next success.  Build on the upswing.  Direct thought and action to the attainment of positive success at the upswing and you can move from one success to the next. Charles Handy, in The Empty Raincoat discusses this with charming alacrity as it applies to business success.  It applies to individuals as well.  Athletes do it all the time.  When they have achieved one level of a training cycle and got that success under control they reach for another, higher level of success.  If an athlete spends too much ‘down time’ they lose all their gains and have to fight twice as hard to train their way out.  No, the smart ones build success upon success.  A jet airliner spends a lot of fuel to get off the ground, but once up they use far less.  Its like that in our understanding of variation.  Think about, construct and direct success as you experience success and continually reach for the next success.  This is a powerful mental model for you to begin using.  Comments?  Tell me about a time you have used any part of these ideas.  Tell everyone about using them successfully in the next few weeks.  It works.  That’s all.

Systems Thinking — Business Energy

Lately I have been navigating the WWW looking for sites that share similar ideas to this one.  So far a few have popped up and I’ve left comments and joined discussions. For a moment I would like to present one that is called Business Energy written and managed by Penelope Else.  She struck me with her interesting and voice-laden article about the need for business people to twitter.  I think she convinced me to tweet and twit etc.  More than that, however, it was when I read her ‘about’ page that I knew there was someone to recommend to readers at this site.  In blue below is a section of that page:

What is Business Energy?  It’s the vibe that your business puts out into the marketplace: the energy with which you create and implement new ideas, cohere as a team and engage with your customers.  It’s the source of your attractiveness for new business opportunities and the cause of your success.

It comes from a combination of: clear goals & planning, creativity, leadership resilience, good social networks and a healthy, motivating attitude towards staff and clients.  These don’t always come naturally, but they can all be learned.

If you have spent any time at this site looking around, you will recognize immediately what I like about Penelope’s words.  Vibe… vibration?  Energy….  Cohere as a team = alignment and synergy.  Clear goals and planning are right there with determining a purpose.  Good social networkers….

I have a great feeling about this site and Penelope’s work; I am grateful to her for creating such an enriching site.  I want to take just a moment to reflect on good social networking; it is at the root of building direction, alignment, purpose, and the synergistic focus that truly brings high performance results. Furthermore, I am becoming convinced that the web is presenting to all of us who are tuned in an opportunity to make connections, mine knowledge, stay current, make good decisions and so much more. If used correctly, I find that the web and related tools offers an opportunity to find streams of energy and thought that are useful and helpful in each of our growth and success. We have at our finger tips through techniques that can be learned, an opportunity to meet with people from all around the world in what Will Richardson calls intraspaced communities built around passion.  We are able to become more than the sum of the parts through working together towards common aims.  We are truly able to find others who align with what we align with and create vibrant cadence in positive directions.  Thanks for reading.

Douglas Leadbetter M.Ed