Systems Thinking Workshop

Workshop Content

The workshop is designed as a natural progression as each exercise or tool builds upon the previous. Facilitators plan to provide a morning and afternoon break, plus one hour for lunch.

Section	Description	Purpose	Skills practiced
IMPACT: Forestry Edition	Strategic foresight serious game	To help imagine and think critically about the systems of forestry	Systems thinking Cause and effect
Framing the Focus	Overview of the components of a system and how to recognize a systems problem	To scope the exploration of a system and identify systems behavior that stakeholders wish to change	Challenging assumptions Organizational learning
Visualizing the Structure	Hands on practice creating causal loop diagrams and identifying systems archetypes	To draw the components and interactions related to a systems problem that stakeholders agree is important	Cause and effect Systems thinking
Looking for Leverage	Group discussion of intervention levels	To identify possible actions and their potential depth of impact on the systems problem being explored	Risk management Leveraging opportunities
Anticipating Futures	Strategic selection of the components of a preferred future system	To evaluate the effects of various interventions or events on a systems problem and beyond	Strategic foresight Systems thinking