How Wealth Inequality Compounds Racism
This blog post is authored by Academy Faculty Member, David Peter Stroh, and can be read in full here.
Our combined outrage at the brutal treatment of Black people by police and the differential impact of COVID on people of color who comprise essential workers has pushed structural racism to the foreground of American consciousness. Racism is a legitimate cause of […]
5 Key Design Principles for a New Normal from the Work of Donella Meadows
At a time so deeply painful for many, what design principles might we draw from to shape a positive new normal?
We partnered with our friends at CoCreative for a webinar focusing on the work and teachings of Donella Meadows. The webinar explored some of the practical ideas that made Donella (Dana) Meadows so beloved by people interested in making a world that works for […]
We Stand with the Black Community
We stand with the Black Lives Matter movement and denounce police brutality and white supremacy that has led to the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, Ahmaud Arbery and countless others.
Racial justice is a shared responsibility. Now is the time to put decades of systems practice to use in service of dismantling systemic racism. We are listening, learning […]
Standing in the Future
by Academy co-Founder and Faculty Member, Robert Hanig
Principle
Up-close, a significant challenge or aspiration can feel overwhelming and result in procrastination or not taking sufficient action. When you ‘stand’ or visualize yourself in the future however, a greater sense of possibility is generated that builds deeper certainty and commitment leading to sustainable action.
It is always in our best interest to be […]
The Emerging Economic Renaissance
By former Academy Board Member, Jay Bragdon.
A new political-economic paradigm is emerging in northern Europe and parts of the Asia-Pacific region that could signal a major turning point in human history. Like the time when humanity awakened to the fact that the world was round, rather than flat, this new paradigm radically challenges our perceptions of reality and the systems […]
Cultivating the Field of Systems Change
With amplifying existing systemic failures, it continues to feel important to come together as facilitators of systems change and sense into what is important for us to tend to now and going forward as a collective, emerging field.
Academy Programs Director, Marta Ceroni, has been collaborating with 30 capacity builders in the field of systems change to explore what it really […]
We cannot innovate when we exclude
Either they don’t know, don’t show, or don’t care about what’s going on in the hood.
Dough Boy
By Academy Fellow, Anthony Johnson.
This famous quote from Boyz N the Hood personifies America’s reality as it relates to the Coronavirus. The “Hood” is unfortunately feeling the brunt of the Coronavirus deadliness where in state after city after community the small number of people of […]
Composer and Sound Artist Uses Work of Donella Meadows
Composer, improviser, researcher and sound artist, Adam Pultz Melbye, used excerpts from Donella Meadow’s Leverage Points essay for one of his most recent musical creations. His podcast episode features his own unreleased work alongside spoken words by Silvia Andrade, and materials from the Academy’s Donella Meadows Project.
I am very grateful to the Donella Meadows Project for granting me permission to use […]
Leverage Points and the Iceberg Model in Economic Development
“Folks who do systems analysis have a great belief in “leverage points.” These are places within a complex system (a corporation, an economy, a living body, a city, an ecosystem) where a small shift in one thing can produce big changes in everything.” – Donella Meadows
Following the publication of Profit For Life (2006) and Companies That Mimic Life (2016), former Board […]
Parenting and Systems Leadership: A Common Path to Mastery
This article, written by former Academy Board Member and co-Founder, Hal Hamilton, was first published at The Sustainable Food Lab.
Since I became a live-next-door grandfather, it has occurred to me that the path to personal mastery, common to both parenting and system leadership, is revealing. I notice the following approaches by both parents and leaders:
Make demands.
Figure out shared […]