Finding your way in times of significant uncertainty can take all you’ve got. COVID-19 has magnified both urgency and unpredictability for us, our clients, and our communities. What if you could find a way to navigate radical change that wasn’t so exhausting? What if there were some navigation points that could open up possibilities, increase energy, and even release joy? We believe there are.
Human Systems Dynamics has focused on rapid, systemic, unpredictable change for the last 30 years. We have drawn lessons from complexity science and applied them to real world challenges across sectors and around the world. We’ve been preparing for this moment, and we’re eager to share our lessons and insights with you. In this Adaptive Action Lab—you bring the problems that resist solutions—personal, global, or anything in-between. We’ll share concepts and tools, and you will practice what you learn on your toughest issues you face today.
During our sessions on June 23rd and 26th, you will:
- Distinguish simple and complex change.
- Recognize the challenges of wicked issues.
- Identify and practice three competencies to help you tame wicked issues and thrive in complex change.
- Practice those competencies, give and receive peer feedback.
- Apply what you learn to tame your own wicked issues.
- Find hope in the chaos of complex change.
- Share what you learn to help your team break free of their wicked issues.
If you want to know more, drop us an email at info@hsdinstitute.org. We look forward to seeing you there!
Faculty & Coaches
Dr. Glenda Eoyang works with public and private organizations to help them thrive in the face of overwhelming complexity and uncertainty. She is a pioneer in the field of human systems dynamics (HSD), which she founded. Through Human Systems Dynamic Institute, Glenda uses her Models and Methods to help others see patterns in the chaos that surrounds them, understand the patterns in simple and powerful ways, and take practical steps to shift chaos into order. Her clients include Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Oxfam International, Canada School of Public Service, Cargill, Fraser Health Authority (BC), and Roche/Genentech.
Glenda’s latest book, with co-author Royce Holladay, is Adaptive Action: Leveraging Uncertainty in Your Organization (Stanford University Press, April 2013).
Laura Williams first encountered the early seeds of human systems dynamics when, as a young professional, she was given a wicked problem. Serendipitously, she met Dr. Eoyang early in her project and made quick and frequent use of her consulting and coaching to innovate a ground-breaking approach to improving systems' responses to sexual assault. Later, as a founder and former program manager of the Sexual Violence Justice Institute, Laura wove human systems dynamics into her coaching, writing, and teaching with multi-agency, multi-disciplinary response teams across the United States.
Today, Laura supports other leaders of local, state, and national initiatives with the concepts and methods they need to influence change within complex systems. Her consulting focuses in the areas of human systems dynamics, institutional change, sexual violence intervention and prevention, youth resiliency, adaptive action and social justice. In addition to this consulting, Laura is the Director of Strategy at the International Institute for Community and Adolescent Resilience (ICAR-US, LLC). This rapidly growing enterprise translates youth development research into a framework that provides both teens and adults pathways to enriching their developmental ecology. In addition to designing client initiatives and supporting the Institute’s growth and reach, she loves the time she spends in classrooms, church basements, conference rooms, and around campfires with youth and adults building webs of support.
Laura holds a Master of Public Affairs in public and non-profit leadership and management from the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs, and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Carleton College.
