The Resource Guide is created by Grace Liu and Gabriella Velazquez
Updated on Janurary 8, 2022
The courses selected can be audited for free and you can find the audit instructions for Coursera and Edx courses.
Conscious Capitalism | edX (Babson College)
Research shows that companies that embody the principles of Conscious Capitalism substantially outperform the market over the long term, while simultaneously creating economic and social value for all stakeholders. By learning the theoretical underpinnings and practical implications of this approach to business, you will rethink why your organization exists and acknowledge your company's role in the interdependent global marketplace and ecosystem.
Critical Development Perspectives (University of Queensland)
This course is part of the Leadership in Global Development MicroMasters program. In order to get the most out of this course, we recommend that you have experience working in the development sector or a strong interest in this area. We also recommend that you complete the other three courses that make up the Leadership in Global Development MicroMasters program: Leaders in Global Development, The Science and Practice of Sustainable Development, and Adaptive Leadership in Development.
What is systems thinking? by Peter Senge, Author of The Fifth Discipline
Peter Senge: "Systems Thinking for a Better World"
Peter Senge's keynote speech "Systems Thinking for a Better World" at the 30th Anniversary Seminar of the Systems Analysis Laboratory "Being Better in the World of Systems" at Aalto University, 20 November 2014.
System Dynamics: Systems Thinking and Modeling for a Complex World
This one-day workshop explores systems interactions in the real world, providing an introduction to the field of system dynamics. It also serves as a preview of the more in-depth coverage available in courses offered at MIT Sloan such as 15.871 Introduction to System Dynamics, 15.872 System Dynamics II, and 15.873 System Dynamics for Business and Policy.
This video provides an overview of why systems thinking is important and what it means to apply it. It describes why our traditional way of thinking may thwart achieving our intended results or unintentionally create worse issues than the ones we’re trying to address.
Visual Tools to Improve Systemic Analysis
This video focuses on one of the key attributes of systems thinking---Expanding the Field of Vision. Building the long term “line of sight” is needed so we can understand how issues can change over time, and the likely impacts if we continue the status quo. Viewers will learn graphical tools such as trend graphs and how to use them to engage groups in understanding and analyzing the problem more effectively
Systems Thinking is Not Optional: Lessons From a Pandemic (Tedx)
Systems thinking is the philosophy that all things are connected and is often the missing piece in our attempts to solve today's problems. Steve Woodsmall illustrates the key concepts of systems thinking by applying them to the COVID-19 pandemic, thus helping you “see the invisible” and think differently about addressing complex issues.
A Philosophical Look at System Dynamics
Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, Spring of 1977. In this lecture, Donella Meadows takes on a more philosophical concept. How can we bring ourselves to be aware of the assumptions we make as systems thinkers? She asserts that models are a set of assumptions. Donella Meadows defines some of these system dynamics assumptions (such as causal relationships and feedback loops) in this video.
The System Thinker (browse by topics)
This video focuses on the value of stock and flow mapping, a core systems thinking approach. It describes the basics of stocks and flows, and provides numerous examples of using them for diverse public health topics. Viewers will see how they could develop a simple stock and flow map.
Click the link to find a Worldcat book record; enter a zipcode to check which library nearby has the book you can borrow. When the record is not available, a link to Amazon is provided.
Botsman, Rachel, and Roo Rogers. What's Mine Is Yours: The Rise of Collaborative Consumption. New York, NY: Harper Business, 2010. Print.
Mazzucato, Mariana. The Value of Everything: Making and Taking in the Global Economy. 2020. Print.
Meadows, Donella H, and Diana Wright. Thinking in Systems: A Primer. 2015. Print.
Piketty, Thomas, and Arthur Goldhammer. Capital in the Twenty-First Century. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2017. Print.
Senge, Peter M. The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization. New York: Currency, 2006. Print.
Stroh, David P. Systems Thinking for Social Change. 2015. Print.
Read More Books on This Topic
Dr. Donella H. Meadows, a Pew Scholar in Conservation and Environment and a MacArthur Fellow, was one of the most influential environmental thinkers of the twentieth century. After receiving a Ph.D in biophysics from Harvard, she joined a team at MIT applying the relatively new tools of system dynamics to global problems. She became principal author of The Limits to Growth (1972), which sold more than 9 million copies in 26 languages. She went on to author or co-author eight other books.
Peter Senge has been at the forefront of organizational learning since publishing his classic text The Fifth Discipline in 1990, which provided theories and methods to foster aspiration, develop reflective conversation, and understand complexity in service of shaping learning-oriented organization cultures. In 1997, Harvard Business Review named the learning organization as one of “the seminal business ideas of the prior 75 years.”is a Senior Lecturer in Leadership and Sustainability at the MIT Sloan School of Management. The Journal of Business Strategy (September/October 1999) named Senge one of the 24 people who has had the greatest influence on business strategy over the last 100 years.