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Whole System Change

September 9, 2011

There are many proven methods to engage employees and citizens in organizational and community transformation. While these methods derive from different disciplines, they share a common premise and goal. That is to empower people to envision and shape their own future in a practical collective process. “People need an emotional, gut-level connection to a challenge  … Because group energy is contagious, it can be highly effective in replicating its benefits, through creative and collaborative peer-to-peer interactions.” The Change Handbook identifies several features of successful high-participation, system wide change methods. People are involved in a meaningful way. They discover and share assumptions. Their individual/collective awareness and connectedness is improved. They use their creative powers to the fullest in actualizing their shared vision. “This capacity to generate authentic human connections across siloed organizations, among diverse demographics, and between highly conflicted factions in a community, is a central strength of effective large group change.”

Incomplete List of Methodologies

• Appreciative Inquiry
• Collaborative Loops
• Community Weaving
• Dialogue & Deliberation
• Dynamic Planning Charettes
• Future Search
• Integrated Clarity
• Open Space Technology
• Participative Design Workshop
• Rapid Results
• Scenario Thinking
• Search Conference
• Technology of Participation
• World Cafe
• Whole Scale Change