2017-02-15

February 15th is the forty-fourth meeting for Systems Thinking Ontario. The registration will be on Eventbrite.

Gaming for Interconnected Systems Thinking

At Systems Thinking Ontario we often read about and discuss concepts, theories and scholars that enrich our understanding  of Systems Thinking, Cybernetics, “complexity” – as well as our appreciation for the variety of important systems that surround us: societal, sociological, ecological, socio-technical…

Despite being surrounded by systems, we typically observe them with a sort of detached perspective – a, so-called,  “god’s eye view” – preserving of some “critical distance”. Why?  Does the distance comfort us – offer safe refuge from the inconceivably intractable interconnectedness?  Or, is this apparent rationality reflex provoked by the impact on our intuition of some inkling that we lack the symbolic capacity to account for things so intertwined – compelling us to take a few steps back – to get some perspective - in the hopes that some recognizable scene resolves into view. Of course, there is an entirely different strategy - we can step inside the system - explore it from within, enter the experiment. For, as many thinkers, over the years, have reminded us: systems look different from the inside.

The Ecopolicy Simulation Game offers an opportunity to immerse ourselves in the systems of a virtual country - political, production, environmental, psychological, educational and social systems. Experience life there with your fellow citizens,  participate in crafting the policies to govern the nation, get into trouble, get out of trouble, deal with the consequences, live and learn, it’s your turn.

So, c’mon out to play!  We’ve convened a larger venue - 205 Richmond West, Room 510 - so that multiple teams can form and enter into the simulation in parallel. And; please take a few minutes to review the pre-reading in advance.

Peter Jones will introduce the Ecopolicy simulation. Peter is a founding faculty member of the Masters of Design in Strategic Foresight & Innovation (SFI) program at OCAD University. He was also instrumental in founding the Relating Systems Thinking and Design (RSD) conference - which was held in Toronto in October. The sixth annual conference, RSD6, will be held in Oslo, Norway, October 18-20, 2017 (http://systemic-design.net/)

In preparation, please review the following notes:

Venue: 

Agenda