Donella Meadows Leadership Fellows Program 20032004

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Donella Meadows Leadership Fellows
Program2003-2004

• Sustainability Institute
• Hartland Four Corners, Vermont

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SI is a think-do tank dedicated to sustainable
resource use, sustainable economics and
sustainable community.
Our Mission To use the tools of systems
thinking, system dynamics and organizational
learning to further a global transition to
sustainability.
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Sustainability Institute works in a variety of
ways to help integrate environmental and social
goals into global systems.
Action-Research Sustainable Agriculture
Renewable Energy Natural Resource Commodities

• Consulting
• Systems Thinking Facilitation
• System Dynamics Modeling
• Collaborative Learning Projects

Publications Research Reports Articles
Opinion Columns Donella Meadows Archives
Leadership Training Donella Meadows Leadership
Fellows Program Sustainable Agriculture
Leadership Lab
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Donella Meadows Leadership Fellows Program
Systems Thinking for Sustainability
To empower the next generation of environmental
leaders with the tools of systems thinking
....Honoring analytic clarity and attention to
spirit, values, and meaning.
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Donella (Dana) H. Meadows(1941-2001)

• Founder of Sustainability Institute, 1996
• Systems Analyst, Teacher, Writer, Journalist,
  Farmer
• PhD (Biophysics), Harvard University
• Professor, Dartmouth College
• MacArthur Fellow
• Pew Scholar
• Leading Voice for Sustainability

"A sustainability revolution requires each person
to act as a learning leader at some level, from
family to community to nation to the world.
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Three qualities that Dana combined
dedication to scientific rigor and analysis
deeply grounded vision of a sustainable world
the ability to communicate well in
writing System tools enabled her to see clearly
the root causes of seemingly intractable problems
poverty, war, environmental degradation. Her
deep affection for people and the earth gave her
a unique power to reach others.
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Danas guiding message was simple We humans
are smart enough to have created complex systems
and amazing productivity surely we are also
smart enough to make sure that everyone shares
our bounty, and surely we are smart enough to
sustainably steward the natural world upon which
we all depend.
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Goal of the Fellows Program
To learn from Donella Meadows life example and
increase the effectiveness of leaders applying
systems thinking to social and environmental
challenges by
(1) Building Fellows skills in systems
thinking, organizational learning, mental
models, and visioning (2) Building Fellows
understanding of systems principles (3) Applying
new skills to projects within Fellows work
environment (4) Building a Fellows community
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Selection Process and Criteria
130 Applicants gt Narrowed it down to
26 Non-profit, government, business,
philanthropy, university Interviewed 26 gt
Choose 17 gt 16 accepted Criteria Scientific
rigor in their analysis of an issue Ability to
work with multi-stakeholders on an issue
Working on an issue that SI has expertise in
Placement within an organization or network so
they can influence others Personal growth
and mastery
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Donella Meadows Leadership Fellows Program
16 Fellows 2-year cycles 4 four-day
workshops Apply learnings to a current work
project Coaching , homework, and community
building
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SI Staff and Fellows
16 Accomplished Environmental Leaders 13 women, 3
men 14 US States 1 International
(Brazil) Representing major cities, rural
communities, tribal lands, university towns
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Areas of Fellows Impact

• ISSUES
• Urban Environment
• Climate Change and Energy
• Sustainable Community Development
• Biodiversity and Land Conservation
• Agriculture and Food Systems
• Pollution Prevention

• STAKEHOLDERS
• Activists Legislators
• Government Officials
• Consumers Farmers
• Industry Executives
• Citizen Boards
• SECTORS
• University
• Philanthropy
• Non-profit
• Government
• Business
• Tribal

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Outcomes of the Fellows Program

• Process Design andFacilitation Skills
• Systems Thinking Skills
• Powerful Relationships Among Fellows and SI
  Staff
• Increased Personal Mastery
• Effectiveness of Fellows Organizations

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The Fellowship Program Provides Both Practice And
Application
Workshop 2 Process Design
Workshop 3 Project Clinics
Workshop 4 Fellows Support
Workshop 1 Foundational Skills
Skill Building Systems Principles
Learning Projects
Fellows Teambuilding Co-learning
Practice with disciplines
Project Work
Project Work
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Core Capabilities of Learning in Complex Systems
reflective conversation
strategic thinking
aspiration
capacity to reflect on assumptions and patterns
of behavior
capacity to understand and change complex systems
capacity of individuals and teams to orient
towards what they truly care about
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Skills Fellows Learn Include

• Strategic thinking
• Systems thinking
• Causal loop diagramming
• Action to outcome mapping
• Reflective Conversation
• Collaborative learning
• Inquiry based intervention
• Organizational learning
• Aspiration
• Visioning
• Networking and community building

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What Are Systems Tools for?

• To move focus away from events and symptoms and
  toward system structure.
• To elicit and articulate mental models, then
  expand them
• by accounting for feedback, time delays,
  non-linearity, and other components of complex
  systems.
• To test and improve mental models via simulation.
• To develop shared mental models within teams and
  communities.
• To understand where leverage points are and are
  not.
• Better mental models lead to better decisions
  about how to lead the transition to
  sustainability.

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The Iceberg A Metaphor for the Level at Which
We Address a System
Events
Patterns of Behavior
Systemic Structure
Mind-sets
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Objectives for the First Workshop, June 23-27,
2003

• Build Fellows skills in systems thinking, mental
  models, and vision.
• Build Fellows understanding of systems
  principles.
• Prepare for applied projects within Fellows work
  environment.
• Build a Fellows community.

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Uniting Strategic Thinking, Reflective
Conversation and Aspiration for Effective Change
Strategic Thinking Reflective Conversation
Reflective Conversation
understand current reality -- whats happening
and the underlying drivers
take action based on a strategic understanding of
the system
Aspiration
develop a shared vision of the future we are
trying to create
Adapted from the U Leadership Model
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The first Fellowship workshop was extremely
valuable because it taught us a means of
describing complex problems in such a way that
reveals the underlying drivers.  When we are
aware of what is causing a problem we can focus
more of our productive energy on finding
solutions and acting upon them, rather than
addressing symptoms of the problem. John
Fisk Food and Policy Consultant to the Kellogg
Foundation
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Systems thinking will be an extraordinary tool
for me to analyze the issues and projects on
which I work.  Connecting the daily living of the
Cobb Hill community to the workshop was an ideal
way to ground the experience and gave us such
inspiration and optimism. Angela Park
Environmental Leadership Program
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Objectives for Workshop 2

• Introduce and practice next level of systems
  concepts and tools.
• Reflect on the goals and meaning of leadership
  for sustainability.
• Design projects for Fellows to apply the workshop
  learnings and disciplines within their home work
  environment.

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Individual Projects can be one of the following

• 1) New Work Initiative a new multi-stakeholder
  forum to achieve an outcome in the system.
• New Process Initiative a new framework to
  engage colleagues in making an existing work
  effort more effective.
• Specific Opportunity a specific challenge
  where the learning tools could be tapped to
  improve a project.
• Personal Mastery Aspiration an effort by a
  Fellow to address who they are in their work.

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Fellows in Action
Mark Spalding is opening a neutral third-party
hosted dialogue among corporate and environmental
stakeholders to address solutions to the
management failures of the Marine Stewardship
Council.
Lynn Stoddard is preparing comments on cultural
change to submit to an agency reorganization
group.
Angela Park plans to create a training on systems
thinking as part of her leadership programs
curriculum, integrating the ladder of inference
and reflective listening.  
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Suggestions for Capstone Program
Clarify vision of what the program hopes to
accomplish Develop curriculum, framework,
models, tools Foster teambuilding among the
participants Use systems thinking to
integrate the interdisciplinary goals of the
program analyze the roots causes of
issues see the interconnections between
issues 1) Post preparation materials on the
WWW 2) Gather together in a workshop 3)
Follow-up and expand on the WWW
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A sustainability revolution requires each person
to act as a learning leader at some level, from
family to community to nation to the world. And
it requires each of us to support leaders at all
levels in their learning by creating an
environment that permits them to admit
uncertainty, conduct experiments, and acknowledge
mistakes. Donella Meadows, 1992