Parenthood & Families

How systems thinking can serve people in

Many parents have expressed how helpful systems thinking has been applied family systems. Whether you are raising children, working to maintain healthy, meaningful extended family relationships or managing elderly parent or grandparent care, systems thinking can help in so many ways!

Systems Thinking in Action

A Kindergarten - 8th grade school in Milwaukee, Wisconsin wanted parents and families to see in real time the value of their children learning and applying the Habits of a Systems Thinker to school and family life. The school established a "Habit of a Month" program where each student was expected to share that month's Habit of a Systems Thinker with their family and describe how they practiced it and put it into action. Examples of application were further shared during classroom time and sometimes illustrated in writing and hand-drawn visuals so all could learn from one another's understanding of that systems thinking concept. Several other schools across the US and internationally implemented similar ways to engage families in systems thinking learning. Some printed the one-page downloadable Habits of a Systems Thinker sheet in the student handbook. Others had students share their systems thinking learning during back-to-school night of student led conferences, showing examples of behavior-over-time graphs, connections circles, causal loops and stock and flow maps.

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Outcomes

Because the Waters Center has been involved with this work for several decades, former students, who are now parents actively engage their own children in systems thinking learning, even if it is not explicitly taught in their children's school. Parents are a child's very first teacher and the resources available in the Thinking Tools Studio apply to people of all ages.

Schools who have experienced leadership changes (e.g. a new principal), have established a "willing to learn and apply" criteria of new administrators. Parents active involvement in this expectation has helped some schools maintain systems thinking through a number of administrative cyclical changes.

"Family systems" is an easy area of initial application. Adults who first experience systems thinking learning in the workspace can quickly see the applications to family life. Oftentimes, Waters Center resources, like the Habits of a Systems Thinker are shared at home with adult partners and children.

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