Workshops and Coaching

Deeper Thinking. Better Outcomes.

For Schools

  • EQUIPPING LEADERS AND CHANGE AGENTS

    Students today will enter a workforce unlike the one you and I did. That is, many of the jobs they will have don’t even exist yet. That means the way we equip them must also be different.

    Incorporating Systems Thinking as an instructional strategy seamlessly gives children the tools to approach complex ideas and problems in a way that deepens their understanding and sharpens their critical thinking skills. They see connections between subjects that once seemed disconnected. They arrive at new and more nuanced conclusions. And they are inspired to act. These are tools that will help them better engage with the curriculum in the present while shaping their approach to the challenges, opportunities, and unknowns in their future.

    BUILDING CHARACTER

    Teachers can also use Systems Thinking to reinforce character development, build conflict resolution skills, and encourage good citizenship in the classroom and beyond. The result? Good students and good people.

    CULTIVATING CULTURE

    Schools are dynamic places with complex problems as diverse as the communities they serve. Teachers and administrators deserve supportive, energizing, intentionally-designed places to work as they pour into students and families. And they deserve to have the problem-solving tools that make their jobs a little easier.

    Systems Thinking provides a framework for exploring challenges, tensions, and inefficiencies in a way that honors everyone’s role and experience. Whether your team could benefit from some empathy mapping, you need to re-evaluate your approach to an underperforming initiative, you want to strengthen team collaboration, or you need new protocols in various areas, Systems Thinking can provide the tools and structured pursuit of deeper understanding and viable avenues for change.

For Businesses and Organizations

  • Systems Thinking provides a framework for exploring challenges, tensions, and inefficiencies in a way that honors everyone’s role and experience. Whether your team could benefit from some empathy mapping, you need to re-evaluate your approach to an underperforming initiative, you want to strengthen team collaboration, or you need new protocols in various areas, Systems Thinking can provide the tools and structured pursuit of deeper understanding and viable avenues for change.

    Maybe you have a new employee engagement partnership that is underutilized. You worked hard to get it set up, and everyone seemed excited. What gives? We can dig into that in a systematic way to ensure that your efforts are not wasted and that new resources are positioned to add value.

    Perhaps your programs are struggling to meet the strategic objectives, despite an airtight plan. It’s going to be hard to renew funding without better outcomes/proof of impact. Let’s move through an appreciative inquiry process using Systems Thinking. Your team will build the capacity to analyze a problem in a way that celebrates all that is going well and come away with a plan for improvement for the things that could be better.

    Best of all, a team well-versed in Systems Thinking is well-equipped to use the tools across the organization, from leadership decisions to programmatic changes to interpersonal conflict. Using the habits and tools gives everyone a common language to collaboratively uncover counterintuitive insights and identify the levers that have the most potential for change.

“What are Systems Thinking habits and tools? How can they help me?”

So glad you asked!

Systems Thinking habits and tools are a collection of specific mindsets and frameworks that allow us to systematically explore all of the elements of an opportunity, problem, or lesson for deeper understanding.

In workshops and in 1:1 coaching, I help you and your team build the skills to apply the habits and tools to any context. Whether that’s classroom management, exploring a literary character’s development over time, or navigating new policies related to organizational culture, Systems Thinking habits and tools allow us to unearth complexities and then plan, solve, and draw more nuanced conclusions with them in mind.

The result is deeper thinking. Richer insights. More efficient and engaged solution-finding. Better—and more actionable—learning.

For a glimpse into how we might use one of the tools to better understand an organizational challenge, click here.

Images credit: Waters Center for Systems Thinking