Other Training Programs

The following HSD courses are planned for 2009. Check back often for updates to course offerings.

Influencing Patterns of Change

Facilitators: Kristine Quade, Royce Holladay and Mary Nations
Medium:  Each session is a two-day classroom training

Dates: Beginning January 20, 2009

With globalization, people are experiencing more discontinuity in the world, and organizations are searching for skills that keep them fleet of foot, adaptable, and flexible.  Traditional approaches for working in these systems are no longer effective because they were designed around the idea of controlling the system.  Given the complexity of today’s world, we see that full control is an illusion.  In light of the changing environment, an approach to organizational and group dynamics needs to be more robust. We are at the edge of new learning! Pioneering new theory now lies at the intersection of complexity theory and behavioral sciences. The Dynamical Leadership Academy (DLA) builds on theories, models, and applications of human systems dynamics (HSD) to work with individuals, groups, organizations and communities.

  Our curriculum is offered in two levels:
  • Influencing Patterns for Change (DLA 101) is the foundation and prerequisite for the 200 series courses and covers seeing and influencing patterns, use of the Landscape Diagram, and tools for shifting patterns toward increased responsiveness and adaptation  (offered Jan 20/21; March 16/17 and April 13/14)
  • DLA 200 series courses are deep-dive applications:
o Dynamical Leadership (201) Based on a soon to be released book, Dynamical Leadership: Building Adaptive Capacity for Uncertain Timesthis deep dive explores the impact of global partnerships, ease of information, access and shifting of business skills converge. (offered Feb 9/10)
o Dynamical Groups (202)  A fresh new lens for looking at group dynamics using the principles of self-organizing systems to explore ways to groups form, develop and perform. (offered Feb 11/12)
o Dynamical Community (203)  Using the Sustainability Model, this deep dive is for non-profit organizations and community organizers, establishing a foundation for adaptive and responsive systems. (Offered March 18/19)
o Generative Interactions (204) This deep dive will cover strategies, modes of thinking and ways of leading that are consistent with organizational fitness and the power of differences.  (Offered Sept 2009)
 

Each 2-day course is $580 and goes from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. daily. Course fee includes materials, snacks, and lunch each day.

Download a brochure with more information about HSD & Group Dynamics, or contact Kristine Quade to discuss the course and its implications for you as a practicing professional. 

Human System Dynamics Group: What the Bleep Do We Know About Self-Organizing in Groups?

Facilitators: Kristine Quade, Royce Holladay and Mary Nations
Medium: 3.5 day experiential learning

In order to help advance the theory and practice of organization development and change, the Human Systems Dynamics Institute (HSD Institute) is proud to offer an experiential lab facilitated by Kristine Quade, Royce Holladay and Mary Nations. As global partnerships, ease of information access, and shifting business skills converge, individuals and groups must find a new way to understand speed, disruption, and adaptation. To work with our clients with “self as the instrument,” we need to use new approaches to speed up our own development.

This lab brings the best of the experiential, behavioral science theory T-group together with the metaphors provided by self-organizing systems and complexity theory. The learning tools expand the traditional organization development methods in order to learn a new way of helping our clients thrive in the global market.

Download a brochure with more information about HSD & Group Dynamics, or contact Kristine Quade to discuss the course and its implications for you as a practicing professional.

Customizable Courses

HSD Institute and HSD Associates offer a number of courses and classes that are customizable to your needs. Courses are available on many different topics, some of which are listed below.  Classes can be customized to be ½ to 3 days in length, depending on the needs of your group. They can also be delivered as Online Courses.

Each of the topics unfolds in its training program with clear technical explanations, lively group discussion, engaging stories, and application to real-world issues introduced by participants. Our knowledgeable and experienced presenters, all HSDP certified, are able to bridge the traditional chasm between meaningful theory and effective practice. 

Contact Royce Holladay for more information about this valuable workshop.

Journey from Conflict to Peace:  New Responses to Old Problems

How can we address conflict in complex systems? Human systems dynamics will give you new ways to think about this question and new options for action to make a difference in your family, community, company, nation, and world.

Learn to:

  • Name your intuitions about conflict and its resolution.
  • Adapt your own actions to shift toward constructive conflict.
  • See and influence patterns in human systems at all levels - pairs, teams, communities, and beyond.
  • Use emotions of self and others to support productive action and interaction.
  • Ask key questions that shift a situation from conflict toward curiosity.
  • Set the conditions that encourage constructive self-organizing processes.
  • Develop a network of colleagues who share your passion about peace and your understanding of the dynamics of creating peace.
  • Create a sustainable action plan for one area of your work.
  • Let us customize a time of discovery for your group to unbraid the complex dynamics of conflict in human systems, and help you develop your own capacity for adaptive action.

Contact Royce Holladay for more information.

Dynamical Leadership:  Not Just Another Leadership Class

The field of Human Systems Dynamics is showing us a new path for leaders who are looking for effective ways to deal with the challenges of today's work life. In two days of engaging, interactive work, participants will experience new insights, gain new skills, and engage in activities that will increase their repertoire for facing these challenges.  Learn to see the underlying dynamics at play in your organization and plan for facing those real-life challenges.

Content will include:

  • Use a complexity approach to leadership;
  • Sort out complex issues to find the simple interventions;
  • Learn new theory and application that shifts the way leaders can look at complex issues;
  • Identify strategies to work with people, and systems for maximum alignment;
  • Identify patterns using complexity science to see and work with trends differently;
  • Develop a new understanding of self-organizing and why it is an important concept to understand for successful leaders.
  • Let us customize an engaging and highly informative training to increase your potential as a leader in today’s organization.

Introduction to Human Systems Dynamics

Rapid change and diverse constituencies bring an element of unpredictability to institutional life. Innovative theories from chaos and complexity provide new ways to think about organizations and the people who make them successful. This session provides an overview of the principles and patterns that shape emergent phenomena in complex adaptive environments.

You will learn how to:   

  • Distinguish between the complex and the "merely" complicated.
  • Explore options for responding in unpredictable situations.
  • Think and talk about the unexpected without blaming it on others.
  • Respond responsibly to change, even when it is impossible to predict the outcomes of your actions.

Facilitating Organization Change:  Lessons from Complexity Science

Traditional views of organizational change are based on machine models where a single cause has a single and predictable effect. Today's organizations seldom fit these traditional assumptions. Change in a complex environment depends on self-organizing processes that are neither predictable nor controllable. This session provides insights into a new, self-organizing model for change. 

In this session, you will learn:The conditions for self-organizing in a complex system.

  • The conditions for self-organizing in a complex system.
  • Guidelines for shaping change in unpredictable environments.
  • Tips for planning for an unknowable future.  

Coping with Chaos:  Seven Simple Tools 

Each of us works in the midst of organizational patterns that shape and are shaped by individual choices. Some patterns are characteristic of complex environments, and people can be more effective when they recognize and respond to these patterns appropriately. 

This session presents:

  • Seven common patterns that shape organizational behavior.
  • Tips about how to recognize the patterns and their effects on productivity and employee satisfaction.
  • Approaches that help you use these patterns to build more effective relationships and organizational structures.

Resilience in the Workplace:  Managing Personal Stress

Increasing workloads, performance expectations, technological developments, and customer expectations place new burdens on service delivery personnel. Individuals develop their own techniques for responding to these increased levels of stress, but these efforts are more effective when they incorporate shared understandings and strategies for a working group.  

In this session you will learn:

  • Acknowledge the complex and emergent nature of your work.
  • Recognize the sources of stress in your environment.
  • Work together to shape organizational and individual responses.