Solving Tough Problems: Co-creating New Realities in Complex Systems

with Adam Kahane and LeAnne Grillo

Today's most pressing challenges are characterized by enormously high complexity. Relying on past experience to figure out what to do is no longer sufficient. We need to find new ways to problem solve that allow us to uncover powerful innovations with the potential to bring forth a better, more robust future. We have to shift how we think and act-from mechanistic to systemic, from closed to open, from downloading and debating to reflective and generative dialogue, from a heroic leadership model to one of shared or collective leadership. But most importantly, we have to be willing to change ourselves before we can change the system.

In this module, we will explore an advanced problem-solving approach called the "Change Lab." A practical application of the U-Process, the Change Lab gives us tools that enable us to

• cultivate an in-depth understanding of our current reality
• connect to our innate wisdom so that we can identify and bring a new reality into being
• design and test alternative solutions that can dramatically shift the system

In order to actually experience this methodology and practice with the tools, we will apply the Change Lab to an actual case study: climate change. Through pre-program briefings, reports by stakeholders, coursework, and interviews within the larger community our overriding objective is to create an experience that gives you both a firsthand experience of using the tools and an understanding of how you can apply the methodology to your own work.

Whether you are working within a single organization or across sectors — integrating business, government, and civil society — the Change Lab helps individuals, organizations, and multi-stakeholder groups address problems in a systemic, creative, and participative way.

Participants in this module will receive a copy of Adam Kahane's newest book, Power and Love: Creating New Social Realities, published by Berrett-Koehler.

“Our current institutions and systems are at a breaking point, and traditional change methodologies are insufficient to address these complex challenges. The Change Lab takes stakeholders on a journey that has the potential to unleash creativity, innovation, and real solutions. I would recommend this module to leaders dealing with complex problems within organizations or with large-systems problems within regions and beyond.”

—Georgina Veldhorst, Vice President, (now retired) North York General Hospital, ON
2006, 2007 participant

Adam Kahane is a partner in Reos Partners, an international organisation dedicated to supporting and building capacity for innovative collective action in complex social systems.

Adam is a leading organizer, designer and facilitator of processes through which business, government, and civil society leaders can work together to solve their toughest, most complex problems. He has worked in more than fifty countries, in every part of the world, with executives and politicians, generals and guerillas, civil servants and trade unionists, community activists and United Nations officials, clergy and artists.

Adam is the author of Solving Tough Problems: An Open Way of Talking, Listening, and Creating New Realities (San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler, 2004). Nelson Mandela said: “This breakthrough book addresses the central challenge of our time: finding a way to work together to solve the problems we have created.” Adam's second book, Power and Love: Creating New Social Realities, is forthcoming from Berrett-Koehler in January 2010.

LeAnne Grillo helps diverse groups of people act together to address issues they are frustrated with and passionate to change. Whether designing a learning journey, managing a project or a project meeting, or facilitating a workshop, LeAnne's focus is on creating the conditions for people to connect in meaningful ways. She has worked with Reos Partners LLC (and its predecessor company, Generon Consulting) for eight years, contributing to a range of projects using the Change Lab and U-Process methodologies, including a community healthcare initiative in Columbus, Ohio, a Fortune 50 corporate transformation process in Europe, and the global Sustainable Food Lab.

Before joining Reos Partners, LeAnne was vice president and conference director for Pegasus Communications, the premier resource provider in the fields of systems thinking and organizational learning, and spent over ten years designing conferences and gatherings that brought people together using a systems thinking lens to address issues that mattered to their organizations, communities, and the world. The Pegasus Conference is known for its finely-honed integration of content with design that creates the container in which deep learning can happen.

Fore more information on Adam, LeAnne, and their work, see Reos Partners.

ALIA Europe Modules

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with Toke Paludan Møller, Monica Nissén, and Phil Cass

Embodied Leadership
with Wendy Palmer

An Integral Practice for Evolutionary Leadership and Change
with Peter Merry and Dylan Newcomb

Practicing Fearlessness in Times of Fear
with Margaret Wheatley and Jerry Granelli

Solving Tough Problems: Co-creating New Realities in Complex Systems
with Adam Kahane, LeAnne Grillo, and Mustafa Suleyman