Whole Systems Design Individualized Program
Winter 1999 Courses
Program Director
Harold Nelson, M.Arch., Ph.D.
Core Faculty
Betsy Geist, M.A.
Elaine Jessen, M.A.
Farouk Seif, Ph.D.
Sue Woehrlin, M.A.
Associate Faculty
Margaret Walker, M.A.
Adjunct Faculty
Robin Bingman, M.A.
Individualized Curriculum
WIN505G: WSD Individual Design Lab:
Divergence (3)
Limited to and required for all WSD students
The intention of Divergence is for the student to select degree
committee members and explore unfamiliar intellectual territory without
prejudging the utility or meaning of this new learning, guided by the
student’s personal interest and passions and in consultation with
faculty and field advisors. The student forms a working relationship
with a faculty advisor, prepares an Integrated Self-Assessment, plans
and implements a formal degree committee meeting, and carries out an
action plan designed in consultation with the degree committee. The
student will explore interests across disciplinary, professional, or
other boundaries of inquiry and gain diverse perspectives and new forms
of knowledge, as well as new abilities. These goals can be accomplished
through the design of independent studies and other learning activities.
WIN505H: WSD Individual Design Lab:
Convergence (3)
Limited to and required for all WSD students
The intention of Convergence is for the student to form the primary
core questions that define the domain and boundaries of inquiry in the
form of opportunities and issues which are the focus of the Graduate
Project. The questions are developed in consultation with the student’s
Degree Committee. The student will prepare an Integrated
Self-Assessment, plan and implement a formal degree committee meeting,
and carry out an action plan designed in consultation with the degree
committee. The first draft of the individualized Knowledge Area Contract
is developed, which, in addition to other independent learning
activities, is intended to frame and provide context for the Candidacy
work which follows.
WIN605G: WSD Individual Design Lab:
Design Development (9)
Limited to and required for all WSD students
The intention of the Design Development Lab of the Whole Systems
Design degree process is for the student to initiate Graduate Project
ideas, which ideas are the product of the cognitive leap experienced
during the "Aha" phase of design inquiry. The student will prepare an
Integrated Self-Assessment, plan and implement a formal degree committee
meeting, and carry out an action plan designed in consultation with the
Degree Committee. The student prepares appropriate and cohesive
documentation that describes the Graduate Project, its context, and the
evaluation method to be used. Working with a client/clients, the student
designs the Graduate Project that embodies and demonstrates his/her
understanding of Whole Systems Design and the student’s capabilities as
a Whole Systems Designer. The Graduate Project is based on creative
insight into the resolution of questions and is then used to demonstrate
and verify competencies and creative/critical thinking skills. Learning
activities, independent studies, demonstration of learning, and project
documentation in this phase provide the foundation on which a Candidacy
status will be granted.
WIN605H: WSD Individual Design Lab:
Innovation & Synthesis (9)
Limited to and required for all WSD students
Innovation includes the implementation of the Graduate Project
design. The Graduate Project is then tested in a real world setting,
evaluated, and further refined. While putting some important aspect of
the design at risk in the real world and finding the appropriate setting
for testing these ideas, the student actively reflects upon the success
of the implementation. Feedback is received from both the Client(s) and
Degree Committee. Synthesis is the opportunity for the student to
cohesively reflect upon the totality of the student’s degree program,
identify emergent qualities, and communicate learnings and overall
experience. The student’s final documentation includes a professional
action plan for taking the new learning into the world.
WIN 503D: Immersion into Whole Systems Design
Farouk Seif & Sue Woehrlin (9) L24
Tue. & Thurs. 4:00-9:45 pm
Limited to and required for all new WSD students entering Winter 1999
This course is designed to bring learners into the study and work of
whole systems designing. It’s purpose is to stimulate the development of
perspectives, skills and attitudes necessary to be a whole systems
designer. It provides a context for evolving inquiry and initiates the
design of students’ individualized graduate programs. Students are
invited to ground themselves in systemic ways of knowing and being; to
inquire into and practice a systems approach to applications of
interest; to explore design as innovative action informed by creativity;
to appreciate historical theoretical and cultural traditions informing
the current field of whole systems design; to frame individualized
inquiry questions; to enter into collaborative inquiry and design; and
to engage with the educational degree process of the M.A. WSD program.
WIN507E: Visual Literacy Studio - Capturing Mental Images for Creative Thinking
Farouk Seif (3) L12 Wed. 4:00-6:30 pm
Prerequisite: Non-WSD students need permission of instructor
This studio explores the nature and significance of visual thinking
and communication as an essential path to creativity and innovation. The
purpose of this studio is two-fold. It is to demystify the ability of
sketching, drawing, and painting as a "talent" therefore,
acquiring visual skills for effective communication. More significantly,
it is to honor the mystical quality of self-expression as a way of
visual stimulation for enhancing creative thinking. Participants will be
provided with opportunities for experiential and theoretical exploration
of theory of signs and symbolic meaning in the field of visual culture
and their application to design communication. Through stimulating
exercises and activities not only will participants gain confidence in
their ability to express themselves graphically, but they also will
experience the power of visual thinking in the process of working out
creative responses to design challenges. Special attention will be paid
to the following topics:
- Skills, talents, and the cultivation of visual habits
- The art of sighting: looking, seeing, and perceiving
- The release and development of creative potentials
- The significance of pictorial signs in nonverbal thoughts
- Origination and stimulation of mental images
- Geometric forms and spatial perception
- Fantasy, imagination, visualization, and changing "reality"
- The mind's eye and the recovery of the "intelligence-of-the-heart"
WIN508A: Mysticism as a Whole System
Sadruddin Boga (3) L15
Thurs. 4:00-6:30 pm on 1/21, 1/28, 2/11, 2/18 and
Sat. 9:00-4:00 pm on 2/20, 3/20, 3/27
This course is designed to enable the students to view mysticism as a
whole system by peeking through diverse lenses of mystical traditions,
including Hinduism, Taoism, Buddhism and Sufism, and relating them with
various paradigms. These teachings will help the students to enrich
their knowledge of systems theory and practice by acknowledging
mysticism as the highest level of interconnectivity of infinite parts of
all creation, leading to a single seamless reality, in which all duality
and multiplicity of knowledge and experience disappear.
As a learning community, students will share their spiritual and
transpersonal experiences with one another, and engage in a dialogue to
unveil new meaning, and new connections with other knowledge areas
including philosophy, psychology, and new science including complexity
theory. The students will be exposed to diverse views and perspectives
by sharing some of the classes with students in the liberal arts
program. Lectures will be given on the four mystical traditions in an
interactive environment.
WIN 509B: Conflict Management - The Dynamics of Human Relationships
Robin Bingman (3) L24
Mon. 4:00-9:00 pm plus 9:00-5:00 pm on Sat. 3/6
This course is a dynamic partnership between Whole Systems Design
theory and practice, which will examine both the science and art of
dealing with difference through design. Its intention is to give
students the opportunity to deepen their understanding and integrate the
learnings of their academic experience in a way that is practical and
concrete. Students will concentrate on both their personal and
professional development, learning to navigate in a complex world of
relational and organizational dynamics and move from defensive postures
toward productive interplay, intended outcomes, durable action plans,
and wise agreements. The course is a blend of presentation, seminar,
demonstration, observation, and practicum with the intention of weaving
a balance between theory, philosophy, personal experience, and PRACTICE.
Course components will include these and others:
- Basic Mediation as an Ontology
- The Power of Storytelling
- The Art of Listening
- The Design of Context
- Conflict Styles, Behavior Styles, Communication Styles
- Diversity
- The Cultivation of Leverage Points
- The Dynamics of Power
- Negotiation and Persuasion
- Consensus Building
This interactive course welcomes students from other programs and has
high utility for anyone, no matter where they make their professional
home. Student presence and class participation are necessary and
required. The additional hours of class time beyond a typical 3-credit
course offering are scheduled for the practicum, in which students will
receive personal coaching as interactive participants in a facilitated
studio/lab. Students’ outside work requirements will be reduced to
balance the overall work load, which will not exceed a typical 3-credit
course offering. This course is the prerequisite to Advanced Conflict
Management - The Art, Science, and Design of Negotiation and
Persuasion.
WIN 602C: Systems Dynamic Modeling
Nick Fowler (3) L12
10:00-4:00 pm on 1/9, 1/10, 1/23, 1/24, 2/6 & 2/20
Prerequisite: Familiarity with personal computers and permission of instructor for
non-WSD students
Systems Dynamic Modeling provides an excellent method for learning
and understanding about the behavior of complex systems. Systems
software products like ithink & Stella serve as tools for framing
and simulating how we structure and analyze systems problems. It also
allows us to experiment with how changes in any system - whether social,
environmental, or organizational - result in intended and unintended
consequences for other parts of the system. We can then simulate various
options and their resultant effects. In this way, we can plan for, and
anticipate these effects.
This course emphasizes the methodology of systems dynamic modeling by
constructing systems simulation. We also examine some basic model
archetypes found in Peter Senge's Fifth Discipline, other systems
thinkers, and the ithink software. Working individually and
collaboratively in small groups, we will learn to use modeling as one
facet of systems analysis.
WIN608E: Seminar - Creating a Culture of Design
Harold G. Nelson (3) L15 Tue. 4:00-6:30 pm
Prerequisite: Creating a Design Culture seminar or related learning cell
This is the second seminar in a series of two looking at design
issues from a whole systems design perspective. The first seminar was
focused on the creation of a design culture. This seminar is focused on
facilitating the further development of professional design abilities
(i.e. a praxis of design possessing the qualities, attributes, and
skills of a whole systems designer within a culture of design) in
seminar participants.
Designers need to be able to contribute professionally as whole
systems designers to any design process. Moreover, designers need to
posses the ability to participate in a leadership role in the management
of the design process. This seminar will explore the qualities for
practice required of a whole systems designer. The seminar will also
explore the creation of models and frames of reference which will aid in
the management of whole systems design projects.
WIN616C: Seminar - Mary Parker Follett
Betsy Geist (3) L12 Thurs. 4:00-6:30
Prerequisite: Permission of the instructor for non-WSD students
Mary Parker Follett's (1868-1933) notions about democratic society,
organizations, management, conflict and creative experience are
radically refreshing even today. In the early years of this century, she
spoke of self-organization as a fundamental characteristic of life; of
power-with rather than power-over strategies; of cross-functional teams
and the importance of coordination and integration as compared to
control. This course will delve deeply into the epistemological premises
of her philosophy and how they connect with her ideas on power, freedom,
responsibility, democracy, conflict, design, and individual/group
relating. We will consider the social/historical/intellectual contexts
of her work and its pragmatic implications for us. Specific topics will
be chosen based on students' interests. Follett said,
Concepts can never be presented to me merely, they must be knitted
into the structure of my being, and this can be done only through my own
activity.
With that in mind, we will attempt to knit her perspectives into the
manner of our collective and individual engagement with her works.
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