This subject guide was developed to serve the needs of UW-Extension, Cooperative Extension faculty and staff. The primary objective was to provide a quick start to those developing educational activities related to systems thinking and organizational learning across WI.

Overviews

• The Learning Organization: principles, theory and practice @ the encyclopedia of informal education.
  14 page overview by Mark K. Smith, c2001.
  
  
• Peter Senge and the Learning Organization
  21 page summary and analysis by Mark K. Smith.
  
  
• A Quick Tour of Systems Thinking and Organizational Learning (Pegasus Communications)
  Short explanations of principles and tools including What is Organizational Learning.
  
  
• A Primer on Systems Thinking & Organizational Learning
  Easy to understand. By John J. Shibley of the Portland Learning Organization Group.
  
  
• What is a "Learning Organization"?
  2 page table of learning organization characteristics with best practices. From University at Albany, State University of New York.
  
  
• Transformative Learning: Applications for the Development of Learning Organizations.
  "Human Resource Development (HRD) strategies together with adult learning practices can support the development of learning organizations. " By Sheila McCutcheon.
  
  
• The Fifth discipline fieldbook : strategies and tools for building a learning organization / Peter M. Senge

Systems Thinking

• What is Systems Thinking? (Pegasus Communications)
  What's a system, its characteristics, systems thinking as perspective, language and set of tools.
  
  
• Causal Loop Diagrams: How to Depict Your Understanding of a System (Pegasus Communications)
  A systems thinking tool to describe how a variable affects another variable. See also the Language of Links and Loops describing symbols used in causal loops.
  
  
• Making Loops: A Method for Drawing Causal Loop Diagrams
  How to take a story and turn it into a reinforcing/balancing causal loop. See also Tips on Drawing Causal Loops.
  Briefcases has sample stories to use to try drawing causal loops. By John J. Shibley.
  
  
• Behavior Over Time Graphs (Pegasus Communications)
  A systems thinking tool to "depict patterns of behavior."
  
  
• Stocks and Flows (Pegasus Communications)
  Systems thinking tool to represent the structure of a system.

Personal Mastery

• Leadership in a Learning Organization
  2 page pdf from Kansas State Cooperative Extension.
  
  
• From Terrorism Response to Software Project Management: The Importance of Personal Mastery
  Readable, well referenced summary by Shannon Phillips and Howard Baker.
  
  
  
• Career Anchors Revisited: Implications for Career Development in the 21st Century
  "A person's career anchor is his or her self-concept consisting of 1) self-perceived talents and abilities, 2) basic values, and, most important, 3) the evolved sense of motives and needs as they pertain to the career." 1996 paper by Edgar H. Schein, MIT Sloan School of Management.
  
  
• Leading Through Learning (Gerry Campbell)
  Need for continuous learning rather than just taking in information. Uses a trout fishing example in this UWEX newsletter article.
  
  
• Self Improvement and Lifestyle Management (George Mason University)
  Applies systems thinking to self management level using weight loss as an example.

Mental Models

• Mental Models (putting strategic ideas into practice (Peter Senge)
  Article from Planning Review (a publication of the Planning Forum) p4(8) March-April 1992 v20 n2
  
  
• Mental Models (Gender Equity Project: Changing Faculty through Learning Communities)
  Short description with sample ladder of inference showing process of reasoning as you progress from observation to action.
  
  
• Use of Theories and Mental Models in the Study of Organizational Behavior
  By Richard W. Scholl, Professor of Management, University of Rhode Island.
  
  
• Mental Models and Knowledge Management for Government Organizations
  Pdf slide show by Niki Steckler, using mental model example of digital government forestry portal.

Shared Vision

• Shared Vision: Managing Natural Resource Disputes (University of Nevada Cooperative Extension)
  What is a shared vision, why, when and how to develop a shared vision.
  
  
• Identifying a Shared Vision for Student Learning (Education Alliance at Brown University)
  Protocol exercise of 4 steps: freewrite; shared and distinctive beliefs; team beliefs; and belief statement.
  
  
• Charting Workbook 1: Setting Our Course (Penn State Cooperative Extension)
  12 page pdf workbook on creating a shared vision in a community.

Team Learning

• Introduction to Team Learning (Baylor College of Medicine)
  Benefits and background info for small teams in large classes.
  
  
• Center for Team Learning (Boston University)
  Has knowledge base of articles, books, and presentations.
  
  
• SHEILA: SHared Experience Interactive LAboratory
  Web Based collaborative exercises to facilitate team building.
  
  
• Building Learning Teams: The Key to Harnessing the Power of Small Groups in Higher Education
  "Based on an article by the same title in Collaborative Learning: A Sourcebook for Higher Education, Vol. 2. State College, PA: National Center for Teaching, Learning & Assessment, 1994 . By Larry K. Micahelsen.
  
  
• Building Blocks for Teams (Penn State)
  Extensive list of links, including ice breakers to get new teams interacting.
  

Appreciative Inquiry

• What is Appreciative Inquiry? (Appreciative Inquiry Commons)
  Brief explanation.
  
  
• Appreciative Inquiry Commons (Case Western Reserve University)
  Major site. Under Practice and Management navigation bar link find AI Tools.
  
  
• Appreciative Inquiry and Community Development
  (IISD International Institute for Sustainable Development)
  Describes 4 steps of AI: Discovery, Dream, Design and Destiny. Has links to case studies.

World Cafe

• World Cafe
  Principles, tools, questions and more on using conversations to shape the future.

Evaluating Organizational Learning

• Evaluation of Capacity-Building Programs: A Learning Organization Approach
  Has evaluation questions based on the five disciplines. JOE article by John Gruidl and Ronald Hustedde.
  
  
• Program Development and Evaluation (UWEX)
  Evaluation studies, instruments, and curriculums and online courses.

This subject guide was developed in collaboration with the UW-Extension, Cooperative Extension, CNRED, Systems Thinking Team, Co Leaders Annie Jones, CRD Kenosha County and Gerry Campbell, UW-Madison/Extension

Disclaimer

By listing a site on this page UW-Madison and UW-Extension doesn't provide any endorsement of the ideas or content of any of the pages.

 

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Steenbock Memorial Library is the primary resource library for the University of Wisconsin-Madison's College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, School of Human Ecology, School of Veterinary Medicine and UW Extension, Cooperative Extension.