Sent: Thu, Feb 6, 2014 2:35 pm Subject: [NCDD-DISCUSSION] Fwd: [NCDD-DISCUSSION] Social Labs as a methodology for collaborative problem...
All, It seems to me that addressing "complex social problems" is not any different than addressing "community problems" since many of these are also complex. In a continuing effort to identify and contrast different models or conceptual frameworks for collecting information, planning and implementation, I have been informed about 1) community indicators, 2) collective impact, and now 3) social labs projects. These are supposed to be generalizable approaches. What are the other key models to compare and contrast in trying to select the most useful for our community improvement initiative here in South Carolina? Do the dialogue and deliberation efforts we have heard about in the D&D community such as Hampton, VA, Portsmouth NH, and Chattanooga TN qualify as conceptually different and generalizable models of community improvement? Roger Bernier
From: maggieherzig@GMAIL.COM To: NCDD-DISCUSSION@LISTS.THATAWAY.ORG Sent: 2/5/2014 2:40:10 P.M. Eastern Standard Time Subj: [NCDD-DISCUSSION] Social Labs as a methodology for collaborative problem solving
Hi NCDD folks.
Laura Chasin and I went to a discussion at MIT yesterday about Social Labs as a more collaborative, effective and creative approach to solving complex social problems than a typical planning process. It was led by Zaid Hassan, the author of a new book, The Social Labs Revolution: A New Approach to Solving Our Most Complex Problems. Zaid is a partner in Reos Partners. (Some of you may know the work of his colleague, Adam Kahane, who wrote "Power and Love" (which I recommend) and other books.) The importance of collaboration among those with "skin in the game" for tackling big problems will not be new to D&D folks but the whole body of thinking and the commitment to seeing this work as "lab" work to learn from was impressive. Zaid cited research underscoring the folly of expecting predictability in complex, emerging situations and told stories about the complexities of bringing people together when power differences can easily undermine serious collaboration and sustainable negotiated solutions.
This event was one of a series of free symposia (ours was 3 1/2 hours long and very rich) that Zaid is offering in connection with his book.
So often, opportunities to learn about and discuss cutting edge thinking in the world of Organizational Development and systems thinking are expensive. We were impressed with the relevance of the work to our D&D field and that such rich introductions to this work are being offered for free.
Over the next 10 months, Zaid will be hosting events in NY, DC, Seattle, San Francisco, Canada, Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, India and Dubai. The schedule is at
http://social-labs.org/
Zaid gave out the book yesterday and I haven't read it yet but I wanted to get the word out about his tour soon because the East Coast dates are coming up soon.
I assume that several of you have become familiar with Social Labs and maybe there have been discussions about them on the listserve that I missed. In any case, if you're familiar with this body of work, your thoughts about its relevance for the D&D field?
Maggie Herzig Sr. Associate Public Conversations Project (781) 862-4795 home/office (781) 254-8026 cell
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