Systems Thinking Systems Changing

The illustrious Team B (MAELM @ RRU)  

Systems Thinking Systems Changing by The Network

During our residency at Royal Road University in July, we played a team game named Systems Thinking Systems Changing.  Not only did we have to work together as a team, we had to strategically think about how a team of teachers in a school district would experience change.  The objective was to get all faculty and leaders to move though the awareness state to the preparation stage and into practicing, mastery and renewal.  Not everyone deals with change the same way.  Over three hours, representing three years in the game, our group worked to agree on the appropriate strategies.  The group dynamic in this particular experience was really exciting because as a group we had already had to complete an assignment together which pushed us to critique an academic research article. We had to achieve this task having never met each other and having barely any time to really form a group dynamic.  We struggled under the pressure of the time crunch and having to write a research critique for the first time, but we came through stronger.  We realised how the pressure had put pressure on our relationships, and Systems Thinking Systems Changing was a perfect redemptive experience.  We each took on a role, we negotiated ideas.  We listened to each other and we considered the rationale of each idea presented.  It was a turn around proving that not only could our team work well despite our rocky start, but we could really excel in achieving the best result of the day.  As you can see in this picture, we managed to move everyone across the board, even the three faculty who were reluctant to come along.  I will continue thinking about this experience for a long time.