This is an introductory course in systems thinking, a leadership model that recognizes that people, structures, and processes interact within organizational systems to foster (or restrict) organizational health. Wherever your ministry takes you: serving a congregation; working as a chaplain; supervising volunteers in a voter registration drive; even living in a cooperative or Occupy encampment, knowledge about systems thinking offers tools to respond appropriately to the needs of the system in which you find yourself.
Our study of congregations and other organizations will be rooted in a multi-cultural, anti-oppressive understanding of the intersectionality of systems and identities. Our work will also take us into less-charted territory to explore systems thinking in relation to social media and non-hierarchical (rhizomatic) organizational systems.