Center for Systems Awareness

Join us for our Global Call #4 on Tuesday, December 17! Please join this amazing opportunity led by the Youth Council. In this youth-led session, we invite participants to learn about the 6th cycle of the Youth Council and the various projects our members have been working on! From developing personal practices, engaging with the Compassionate Systems tools, and forming better connections with their community, everyone has a meaningful story to share about their experiences over the past half-year! Global Community Call #4 Tuesday, December 17 | 9:00 - 10:30 am EST | 6:00 - 7:30 am PST Global Calls are open to all alumni of our introductory Foundations I workshops. To Join Check your email for event information from The Center for Systems Awareness or reach out to mkito@systemsawareness.org to register. Not an alumni, but interested joining our community? Check out our upcoming workshops: https://buff.ly/3Vvqdcb

The wellbeing and future of young people is at the center of our work. Growing more compassionate systems in our #classrooms and #schools, workplaces and communities, our #cities and societies is necessary to ensure the #wellbeing and flourishing of future generations. To watch the full video with Mette Miriam Rakel Böll, visit: https://buff.ly/3OQvHe1

New podcast conversation with Mette Miriam Rakel Böll on global citizenship, systems awareness and the need to develop new ways of studying systems change.

I have found that "polarity thinking" and "creative tension" are useful ideas and key dynamics to be aware of when working with complex systems - as this graphic illustrates. "The gap between vision and current reality is also a source of energy. If there were no gap, there would be no need for any action to move towards the vision. We call this gap creative tension" - Peter Senge Graphic source: https://lnkd.in/eQvyhQXq Wendy Smith also talks about this in the book "Both/And Thinking: Embracing Creative Tensions to Solve Your Toughest Problems". You can watch the quick take of the book here: https://lnkd.in/ebUYsqqr

"What 'living systems change' implies is that we are actually actively living the systems change we want to contribute to. That's how growth happens." -- Mette Miriam Boell Experience what it feels like to live systems change through one of our Foundations I workshops: https://lnkd.in/etm8WwhC

I love that “love is an evidence-based strategy” is getting traction. This approach is my passion and purpose. Thank you for reposting Amy Brady. As I end any speech or Fireside Chat (with Heather) … “Lead with love.” It has multiple meanings. For me it means our children (and all humans) will say that they belong, are seen, known, listened to, and supported. Love, the hard work that gets the best outcomes and is the most rewarding for those who practice love. It is NOT the soft stuff!❤️

“To encounter oneself is to encounter the other: and this is love. If I know that my soul trembles, I know that yours does, too; and, if I can respect this, both of us can live.” - James Baldwin I included this quote by James Baldwin in an article I co-authored with @PolicyLink's Vice President of Research, Abbie Langston, in the Stanford Social Innovation Review, "A Revolution of the Soul." And I keep going back to these words from James Baldwin. This is what it means to love particularly: to hold the full complexity of personhood of each one of us and to grapple with the nuances and tensions this complexity creates. By necessity, then, love does not mean shying away from confrontation and struggle; rather, it is the proper means for them. https://lnkd.in/g5H9gVHX #JamesBaldwin #Love #SSIR #StanfordSocialInnovationReview #RevolutionOfTheSoul

"The world is made of circles and we think in straight lines." — Peter Senge How do we shift our orientation to change, planning, learning and development beyond linear thinking? Our team at the Center for Systems Awareness takes inspiration from the shapes and forms of natural systems, understanding change as living growth rather than linear models of scale.

<What are the Four Failures of Well-being? Watch Dr. Mette Boell’s Sharing.> “I'm speaking as a biologist, and I'm sorry to say this. But we (humans) follow all the patterns of species that go extinct. We are killing our own habitats, and our kids can't thrive.” In “The Failures of Well-being & the Power of Generative Social Field” event, Dr. Mette Miriam Rakel Böll (Co-founder of MIT Systems Awareness Lab & Center for Systems Awareness) shared this alarming message. She proceeded to share with the audience the Four Failures of Well-being, a research conducted by the Center for Healthy Minds. Here are some highlights: 1. On Distractability: “We're constantly not paying attention to what's going on in the here and now… That is why our (Compassionate Systems) work is infused with mindfulness practices... so that we can pay attention to what's coming in through our senses, and not be dragged around by our plans and hijacked by the emotions of everything.” 2. On Loneliness: “Think about how much focus we have on obesity as something that will reduce your longevity of life. Loneliness is a much higher risk factor for death… The number one defining factor of human success is the quality of relationships. We, the humans, are an incredibly social species. So for us to not be in relationship, to not be in community, is very toxic.” 3. On Negative Self-talk & Depression: “We have way too high expectations of what we're going to accomplish in one day. And then when we're not doing it, we start beating ourselves up… If we spoke to our kids like that, our kids would really suffer from it. If we spoke to our friends like that, they probably wouldn't be our friends for very long.” 4. On Lack of a Sense of Purpose: “The deeper underlying emotional landscape that we're seeking to cultivate is to be content and satisfied with our own lives. Having a sense of meaning and purpose does that for people… That is the greatest gift that we can give to ourselves and to our kids. And yet, in most education systems that I work in, it is completely overlooked.” Does any of this resonate? To learn more, view the “The Failures of Well-being & The Power of Generative Social Fields” event recording: https://lnkd.in/g8TkA4bM #CompassionateSystems #wellbeing #systemsthinking #generativesocialfields

This season of giving, will you help us support young people like Isamu on their learning journey to become systems change leaders? This last year, the Center for Systems Awareness provided over $57,000 worth of scholarships to participants. A gift of any amount contributes towards this scholarship fund to enable diverse communities to join our workshops and Master Practitioner program. Join us in giving the gift of compassionate systems change this holiday season. #GivingTuesday https://buff.ly/4fegaQ9