A Systems Approach for Engaging Groups in Global Complexity: Capacity Building Through an Online Course |
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Authors: | Tom Flanagan Janet McIntyre-Mills Tony Made Kelly Mackenzie Charles Morse Gayle Underwood Ken Bausch |
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Institution: | (1) Institute for 21st Century Agoras, Providence, RI, USA;(2) Flinders University in Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia;(3) Andover Newton Theology School, Newton, MA, USA;(4) Institute for 21st Century Agoras, Kalamazoo, MI, USA;(5) Institute for 21st Century Agoras, Atlanta, GA, USA |
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Abstract: | Sustainability is not simply about changing practices but more centrally about agreeing to change practices together. To achieve
such an end, groups need to improve processes for making complex decisions together. An online course was designed and tested
linking students in the United States and in Australia. Students engaged in a re-enactment of deliberations based on Hasan
Ozbekhan’s “Predicament of Mankind,” which was constructed originally under assignment from the founders of the Club of Rome
in 1970. This re-enactment included contemporary research for examples of a set of 49 continuous critical problems of mankind,
asynchronous clarification of these problems using a wiki, pair-wise construction of a systems view of problems assessed to
be of highest priority by the class, narrative analysis of the structure, and creative suggestions for resolving the systems
problem based on resources available today. This report comments on the strengths and challenges identified in an initial
application of an approach for building collaborative and systems thinking skills through an online course in a general education
curriculum. Findings are particularly meaningful for contemporary policy makers as well as online educators. |
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