This slide deck is an initial draft outlining the mission and objectives of Systems Thinking Marin (as of Autumn 2017), possible projects for realizing that mission, and provides examples of the major systems thinking frameworks that inform the mission and objectives.

1. SYSTEMS THINKING MARIN
THE SYSTEM BECOMING CONSCIOUS OF ITSELF
[Draft introduction as of 8/9/17]

2. WHAT ARE YOU?
• A non-profit project, under the umbrella of MarinLink
• An initial 2-year scope
• Small and agile
• Office location: home-based and TBD

3. WHAT DO YOU DO?
• We survey and have dialogues with businesses, nonprofits,
local government, and the general public to find out what is
working and what isn’t about Marin, what they need, and their
ideas for improvement
• Then we share and broadcast those findings
• We promote the adoption of systems thinking, host trainings,
and develop related web-based tools (such as one or more
community maps)

4. WHAT ARE
YOUR
OBJECTIVES
?
1. To help the Marin system to
become (more) conscious of itself
(Theory U ref.)
2. To promote great ideas that
improve the quality of life for
everyone in Marin
3. To raise the level of consciousness
in our local system(s) (Theory U
ref.)

5. WHAT IS “THEORY U”?

6. A COMPREHENSIVE MODEL AND METHOD
FOR MAKING THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE
• Otto Sharmer’s work issues from the Peter Senge / MIT lineage
• A systems thinking philosophy and detailed leadership
framework that addresses and may potentially inform all areas
of human endeavor
• They offer trainings globally, in-person and online
• A global community of Theory U “hubs” supporting social
enterprise

7. MAJOR TENETS OF THEORY U
• “Across the board, we collectively create outcomes that nobody
wants. Yet the key decision makers do not feel capable of
redirecting this course of events in any significant way. They
feel just as trapped as the rest of us…”
• “The quality of results (and outcomes) in any kind of system is
a function of the quality of awareness (or consciousness) used
to perform these actions.”
• “The allocation of capital is one of the strongest determinants
of what our future society will look like.”

8. MAJOR TENETS OF THEORY U CONT.
• “A true systems philosophy closes the feedback loop between
the human being, their experience of reality, and their sense of
participation in that whole cycle of awareness and enactment.”
– Senge
• “Performing with humility, or a selfless self, seems to be a
precondition for the collective field to advance to a higher
level…not just in the business sector but also in the public
(and civic) one.”

9. WHY?
WHAT COULD POSSIBLY BE WRONG WITH MARIN?

10. FIRST, WE HAVE A NUMBER OF GREAT
THINGS GOING FOR US
• Residents benefit from access to the outdoors, with 55.6% of
land set aside for parks and open space (San Mateo County is
next at 38.6% ref)
• A 2012 American Human Development Index report showed
Marin County’s well-being be one of the highest in the nation,
at 7.75, as compared to the state score of 5.54 and U.S. at 5.10
ref.

11. BUT WE ALSO HAVE SOME CHALLENGES
• While individuals living in Ross score a 9.7 on the American Human Development Index, residents of
the Canal area of San Rafael score 3.18, below that of West Virginia, the lowest-ranked state in the
Index. ref
• A consumption-based greenhouse gas inventory published by a UC Berkeley group in 2015 shows
some neighborhoods in Marin County to have some of the highest carbon emission in the Bay Area.
ref
• According to the American Human Development Index report, median personal earnings for Latinos in
Marin is $23,800, African Americans $31,608, and Whites $51,000.
• According to the Marin County Food System Assessment Project 2012 report, low income neighbors
are twice as likely as higher income residents to be obese, leading to greater health challenges and
economic hardship. ref
• As of 2011, the Self-Sufficiency Standard reveals that a family in Marin County must earn at least
$86,629 per year to make ends meet. According to a 2012 report by the Marin County Department of
Health & Human Services, a family of four in Marin would require that the two adults each work three
full-time minimum wage jobs to meet this minimum. ref

12. HOW?
STRATEGIES FOR ACHIEVING OBJECTIVES

13. 1. HELP THE
SYSTEM TO
BECOME
CONSCIOUS OF
ITSELF
We prototype online resources to help the community to “see” itself.
https://webbrain.com/brainpage/brain/E7DC823B-4BFB-BE53-
A71B-FA24F495E84F [must be copied and pasted]
Community
Maps
Example: What are the top facts about the housing shortage that
housing advocates want everyone to know?
Community
Knowledge
Connecting individuals who are passionate about, and committed to,
doing things better
Community
Connections

14. 2. PROMOTE
GREAT IDEAS
IN MARIN
Video blog profiling systems thinking approaches by individuals and
organizations in Marin that are solving sustainability challenges
Ecological | Social | Financial
Video
Our website serves as a promotional platform for a variety of systems
thinking educational resources
Theory U | Fritjof Capra | Wind Tunneling
Website
Publicize frameworks and tools for greater sustainability in Marin, from the
U.N. to the U.S., to us.
Marin Prezi: Frameworks and Tools
Vision

15. 3. RAISE THE
LEVEL OF
CONSCIOUSNE
SS IN OUR
LOCAL
SYSTEMS
Asking and answering the question: Is Marin sustainable? How close are
we? Referencing currently available data.
Sustainability
Convening gatherings of spiritual and religious institutions in Marin to
dialogue and raise the profile of contemplative practice as a way to improve
community
Spirit
Promoting scientific literacy education campaigns by science-based groupsScience
Running and/or supporting Theory U and other systems thinking
workshops and trainings
Systems
Thinking

16. WHAT IS
YOUR
SCOPE?
• Marin County
• Local and locally-based businesses
• Local and locally-based non-profits
• Local government
• Local ecosystem
• Local people

17. HMMMM...
HOW DO YOU KNOW THIS IS A GOOD IDEA?

18. “Institutions rarely cross the
boundaries of this issue matrix
divide. Each box or field has
professional graduate programs,
training courses, research
programs, funding mechanisms,
international gathering of experts,
journals, and communities of
practice. What is missing is the
discourse in between.”
Pg. 96

19. “…no discipline looks at all the
variables and dependencies in a
truly holistic and integrative way
across all levels from micro to
mundo…This is a critical blind
spot in the social sciences
today…”
Pg. 339

20. “What’s missing in today’s
capitalism is a set of enabling or
mirroring infrastructures that
would help systems to sense and
see themselves from the whole.”
Pg. 245

21. “When we realize that our habitual
way of seeing and acting is not
getting us anywhere, we have to
bend the beam of our attention
back onto its source, back onto
the one who is performing the
activity. When this shift happens,
we begin to attend to the situation
from a different place…When we
change the way we attend, a
different world will come forth.”
Pg. 109

22. “Most cross-institutional change
processes fail because they miss
the starting point: co-sensing
across boundaries. We need
infrastructure or holding spaces
to facilitate this process across
system boundaries.”
Pg. 159

23. “The key to solving many issues
lies in focusing on the region.”
Pg. 190

24. “Thus the inner circle, in its fully
realized form, could function like
a greenhouse for social
innovations of the future. It would
incubate ideas, intentions, and
experimental microcosms that
allow future possibilities to
emerge…”
Pg. 327

25. WHO?
SO FAR, A LOCAL TEAM OF ONE. WHO WILL JOIN
ME…?

26. FELICIA I CHAVEZ
Felicia has been a resident of Marin County since 1995. She
completed her B.A in Psychology at Dominican (1999), and
a Green MBA (2007). Most recently she has earned a PhD in
the humanities. Her dissertation title is Sustainability and
Spirituality: Common Threads and Common Threats. Felicia
is a sustainability consultant, and is passionate about
scientific literacy, direct spiritual experience, and a
systems thinking approach to sustainability.

27. FELICIA I CHAVEZ CONT.
Felicia has worked with a variety of for-profit and non-profit
entities, and is no stranger to public service. Her experience
includes working for the California League of Conservation
Voters, serving as the staff representative to the board for two
years. From 2002-03 she was the Associate Director of the
Marin Cancer Project, working with Judi Shills to establish a
501(c)(3), and to recruit 2,000 volunteers who knocked on
65,000 doors in Marin. She has also worked as a consultant to
corporate clients, including Autodesk and Delta Dental, helping
them to implement more sustainable practices. Recently, in
addition to earning her PhD, Felicia has built websites,
including LifeLikeHoney.net, IntroductionToSustainability.com,
and a website for Susan Clark at Common Knowledge,
CKGroup.org. Currently she volunteers with the Marin Equity
Coalition, and the Friends Committee on National Legislation.

28. “To lead profound change is to shift the inner place from which
a system operates. This can only be done collaboratively…”
Theory U, Pg. 359