REPLY Justice System Workshop Ideas (SD6652)

[SDMAIL Richard Stevenson]

On 24 Sep 2007, at 13: 44, SDMAIL TGAEggers wrote:

Posted by  Richard Stevenson <rstevenson at valculus.com>

> Does anyone have some ideas on presenting a day long period of
> instruction/activities etc., on "Strategic Thinking/Systems Thinking."  Participants are
> correctional practitioners at the Senior,  not Executive level, from jails,
> prisons, and community corrections.

We did some work a while ago with a UK private security company that was 
bidding to build and run a new jail.

The initial engagement was a one day "systems thinking" workshop that 
addressed a specific strategic issue.  That issue was "Why is the UK currently 
experiencing an unprecedented increase in "remand prisoners" (i.e prisoners 
awaiting trial) - and is this being caused by a real rise in detected crimes...
or by the structure of the justice system itself?"

The conceptual structure of the problem is not that dissimilar to the Beer Game, 
as it happens.  But the context was utterly different and the culture of the 
group was not particularly amenable to "abstract strategic thinking".  But 
because the issue was directly relevant and interesting to the group, within 
the day we developed an insightful stock/flow map that influenced the company's 
bidding approach.

> Our past deliveries on this topic have
> included the Beer Game, Causal Loop  Diagramming, Village and River Mapping, etc.,
> and for the most part, the  students just don't get it. Any thinking around
> this would be most  appreciated.

The Beer Game and the other approaches you list appear to have little direct 
relevance to (I would guess hard bitten and cynical?) correctional practitioners!  
Our experience is that, on the whole, managers just don't get it when it's taught 
in the abstract.

They "get it" when they address something close to their experience - with an 
experienced SD facilitator.

Richard Stevenson
Valculus Ltd
Posted by  Richard Stevenson <rstevenson at valculus.com>
posting date  Mon, 24 Sep 2007 16:40:13 +0100