Productive Conversation & Systems Thinking

1. Productive Conversation &Systems Thinking A Fifth Discipline Presentation Katie Waller, Jeannette Dixon, Mark Crow & Jennifer Lazzaro

2. Productive Conversations • Check-in • Classroom discussion rules • Dialogue • Discussion protocols • Balancing advocacy with inquiry • Check-out • Reflection

3. The Conversation Loop Inquiry Agreement Check-in Check-out Advocacy

4. Classroom Discussion Rules • Introduce mental models • Ladder of inference • Iceberg • Explain balancing inquiry with advocacy • Create safe environment to raise issues • Students address other students, not professor

5. Ground Rules • Each person supports deep level of conversation • Underlying concerns (i.e. race, culture, gender) must be laid on table • Impasses & conflict must be worked through • Listen for understanding • To build on, or • To ask about thinking behind comment • Value silence – time to reflect • Do not criticize • Forbidden phrase – “Yes, but..”

6. Dialogue J Where do you want to go for lunch? B I don’t know, where do you want to go? J I want Chinese. B Oh no, I had Chinese yesterday. What about Thai at Golden Room, it’s never crowded. J I hate that place! B I love the food there. What don’t you like about it? J It’s torpid! B Torpid, I thought that meant hibernating. Is that what you mean? J No, more like dead, nobody ever eats there. It’s dorky - they serve rice in the shape of Texas! B I understand your position, we won’t go there. I sense you are getting annoyed. Is something bothering you, or are you getting crabby because you are starving? J Yeah, sorry, I need to eat right away. I forgot to eat breakfast. B Okay, we’ll think of someplace in the neighborhood but no Chinese. J Well, I guess it’s got to be DaCapo’s then. B We could go there, but it sounds like you think DaCapo’s is the only choice. Can you tell me more about your thinking here? J That’s where you like to go with your friends, so I thought it was top of the list. B You know, we do this all the time. We wouldn’t have to eat out if you’d buy groceries? B Wait – I think we’re getting side-tracked – let’s go to Berryhill’s – its fast, its close, you like the soup, and I’ll get a fish taco. J Good idea! While we wait for our food, you can help me make a list of all the places in the neighborhood that we both like for lunch. B Yeah, and we can get groceries together after we eat!

7. Identify Impasses • Strong view presented without reasons or examples • Going off on tangent • Taking position without explaining reasoning • Negative emotions are conveyed but not explained • Loaded term sets off emotions

8. Dysfunctional Responses • Withdrawing • Leaving the room, falling asleep, disengaging • Interrogating • Why can’t you see that your opinion is wrong? • Dictating • This is how we’re going to do it, because I say so! • Politicking • Keeping a closed mind while pretending to balance advocacy and inquiry

9. Neutral Responses • Bystanding • Making comments about the group process, not adding to the content. • Sensing • Watching, observing, listening intently without saying much.

10. Positive Responses • High positive • Testing – Here’s what I say, what do you think? • Interviewing – Exploring others’ point of view • Dialogue – Suspending assumptions, collective thinking • Asserting – Here’s what I think, and here’s why. • Medium positive • Clarifying the issue • Explaining – Here’s the way the world works and why I can see it that way.

11. Advocacy/Inquiry Palette Testing Politicking Dictating Explaining Dialogue Skillful Discussion Sensing Withdrawing Clarifying Interviewing Interrogating

12. Why Problems Exist in a System Many short-term decisions jeopardize long-term goals; often, there is no connection between them We only choose to look at the visible events that have just happened (top level) We neglect patterns, trends, and root causes We don’t understand the forces and unrelated factors that interact together producing cause and effect relationships Our Mental Models are misleading, incorrect, and go unchallenged; they should be brought to the surface through inquiry discussion Our thinking/impressions allow things to persist based on our values, attitudes, and beliefs

13. Intro to Systems Thinking:What It Is & Why It’s Important • System: any perceived whole whose elements “hang together” because they continually affect each other over time; systems are circular-not linear • Systems Thinking: is a way to look at problems and goals-not as isolated events but as components of larger structures Objectives: • To understand the systems in which we work and live • To develop skills such as clarity, consistency, and the ability to see interrelatedness • To give students confidence to shape their own futures and to allow innovation

14. Why Should StudentsThink Systematically? • To develop awareness of complexity, interdependencies, and changes that occur which lead to greater understanding • getting the “big picture” • Examples: burning hand at the stove, why do you need this machine that gets hot, how does it work • They should work in groups which enhances the testing of their thinking • By working in groups they are much more likely to ask new questions about a problem which lead them further in their studies

15. Using Systems Thinking in the Classroom • In general: population growth; causes of a war; traffic patterns • Students should attempt to identify the parts of each system, understand dependencies among the parts, conditions that create interdependencies, and effects over time • Classroom Uses of Systems Thinking • Graphing rabbit population over a specified period (6th grade Science) • Earning simple or compounded interest on money in a bank (7th grade Math) • Drug use which causes drug dependency which causes more drug use (Health) • Texas becomes a Republic & Anglo immigration occurs; Lamar dislikes native Americans and forces them off the land; leads to more Anglo immigration (7th grade Texas History)

16. Behavior Over Time • Most basic of the models • Good for spotting patterns and trends • Looks at a single behavior in a system • Examples: Weight Gain, Marketing Time

17. Causal Loop • Displays basic cause/effect feedback cycles • Two Types: Reinforcing and Balancing

18. Stock and Flow • Most flexible: allows use of “soft” variables • Can be used for developing computer models • Software options: Inspiration, IMHS CMapTools

19. Additional Models • Computer Models • Formulas: Excel • Simulations • Games: Sims, Wars • Medical Models • Aviation • Need to select the model that’s right for the level of the learner!

20. It’s Story Time! Learning Systems Thinking with Sneetches and Other Stories by Dr. Seuss

21. What Happened? • What systems concepts do you see portrayed in this story? • Behavioral Model • Simple interconnectedness • Oscillations • Causal Loops • Systems cycles • Balance feedback loops • Stock and Flow • Unintended consequences • Systems cycles • If you visited the Sneetches would you try to break the cycle? How?

22. Sneetch Systems Cycle

23. Summary • How does Productive Conversations fit into the 5th Discipline? • Could the Sneetches have benefited from Productive conversation techniques? • How does the 5th Discipline fit into our thought process as Instructional Designers? • What other theorist(s) would be interested in the 5th Discipline?