The systems school www.thesystemsschool.org – community of practice note on mental models, and info about their December session

The systems school is at www.thesystemsschool.org (based in Australia)

Their next systems community of practice meeting:
interview: bill walker – client voice framework (dhhs vic) for community services
december 12th 11:00-12:30 AEST

you will receive a calendar invitation separately if you are already registered for the community of practice

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1. last session: mental models
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watch the video here https://drive.google.com/open?id=1mtjfH2qkdKx61SSnVi7ouy7CJSxD4Rus

review the slides here https://drive.google.com/open?id=19IHZkQUGYj97gYSYoIwCLMC6734C7ZXI

check out these links to over hundreds of mental models

https://fs.blog/mental-models/

https://nesslabs.com/mental-models

https://jamesclear.com/mental-models

In our group discussion on mental models – we talked about some of the challenges and opportunities working with mental models.

individual mental models/community mental models – powerful social narratives at play
learningful conversation must go with the grain of culture (too often dominant cultures assume ignorance and impose their own ways including technologies of learning rather than accepting everyone has lived experiences eg of poor services/policy failure)
advocacy [from the list of activities to work on mental models] such a missed opportunity – seeking to understand others
maybe one of the hardest bits of being open to evolving mental models is vulnerability…especially when it involves critique from others and self, and the realisation that we are all wrong in some way. that’s a hard place for lots of people to sit!
culture is the mind of the community – you need to address these social narratives at a community level for change to happen
dysfunctional systems arise from dysfunctional shared mental models (and the behaviours and relationships they produce + the expectations these generate)

we don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are
~ anais nin
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2. case study released!
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a few sessions ago we heard from hannah opeskin at caulfield community health service about their use of systems thinking and the systems change framework https://preventioncentre.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Systems-Change-Overview-w-Practices.pdf

read the case study here https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BNCW3vmYOW63JfGSA9WB3B82a-pLlCzC/view

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3. commitment to act
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we have introduced an activity called ‘commitment to act’. these are small exercises to support you staying connected to your systems practice.

at the end of our session i asked our community what their commitment to act:

share systems thinking with my university mentees
reflect more on my own mental models
schedule time for regular reflection – use guiding questions provided
carry this content through into the work and facilitation i have coming up

what commitment will you make to build your systems practice between now and our next session?
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4. upcoming events and training
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introduction to systems thinking

5 week webinar series – starts november 13th – registration starts at $125 for individuals
more details here https://www.the-systems-school.org/webinar-series

we’ve kicked off, but not too late to join as we are sharing the recordings

innovating systems thinking: methods, practice and leadership

2 day event in melbourne february 11-12 202 – for experienced systems practitioners
registrations open november 18th
more details here https://www.the-systems-school.org/innovatingsystemsthinking

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** http://www.the-systems-school.org