I'd just like to register my interest in what you are doing with
simulations. I've been working on a part-time consulting basis with the
Department of Agriculture in Western Australia, developing skills of
managers in the area of strategy and teamwork, and skills of Landcare
facilitators. Recently, I reviewed future directions for training in
Landcare and recommended an action research process that supports the
rural community at enterprise, local and regional levels in working out
what is sustainable.
I was reading a chapter today in Wilson and Morren "Systems approaches for
improvement in agriculture and resource management" and find pretty much
the same idea described as "systemic action research". So far, my systems
modelling has been limited to the use of sociodramatic enactment, where
community members take up the roles of various players in the system and
develop alternate scenarios, and a much stripped down version of the same
charting the shifting relationships between players by using cards on a
board.
In the thread on "how to teach systems thinking" there's been mention of
Simcity, and I actually poked my head into a games shop soon after that
post to have a dig around, but am reluctant to spend time on something
that may not deliver much.
-- Ross Colliver The Training and Development Group 300 Hay Street (619) 388 2260 Subiaco Fax (619) 388 2268 Western Australia tdg@peg.pegasus.oz.au