Women's March Minnesota January 21, 2017

New years’ greetings MN Next System Project Community,

We are moving toward creating next systems. We are organizing! We are marching!

Join us at the Women's March Minnesota on Saturday, January 21, from 10 am to 2pm. Convene at St. Paul Community College and march to the State Capitol. Learn more here. Register on the WMM website to discover more.

Vicki and Nance are traveling to the march by public transportation. We are leaving from Linden Hills at about 9:30 am. We will gather at the Dunn Brothers at 43rd and Sheridan, starting at 9:00, or just meet at the bus stop on the corner by about 9:32. 

Let's all meet at the march and rally, text Nance (612-437-6338) or Vicki (952-239-6198) to meet up in the SPCC Lot E and walk together. Bring your own banners and signs.

After the march, around 2 we will come together to warm up at the Applebee's 615 Washington Ave SE in the Commons Hotel adjacent to the Greenline East Bank light rail stop (see map). Let the Applebee's staff know you are with the Women’s March Minnesota group when you arrive. 

Looking forward to moving toward the next system with you in 2017!

In solidarity,

Vicki and Nance

Coming Together to Create the Next System

Greetings Next Systems Advocates,

Now is our time to come together to vision and enact new ways of being and building the Next Systems in America. What is the vision you have for the world? What does your heart want to create? What possibility do you hold in hope for the future of our country and our children and our planetary home?

During the month of November, the MN Next System Project Community is out in the field, that is our lives. We are trying out brave new ideas in small ways that will make a difference in moving us toward the next system of healthier communities. This note is a reminder to all who are in our community of practice to reach out to your partners and team up. Make connections, create a prototypes, come together for what's next. Reach out. We need each other to advance courageous next system ideas more than ever now.

The National Next System Project recommitted itself to action with this message yesterday... Dark times call for brighter new visions of the world we want to see. 

"We hereby pledge to re-dedicate ourselves to the vital work of system change in this country. We look forward to working with the many others who understand that the systemic crisis we now face goes far deeper – and is upon us much sooner – than many had previously understood. Dark times call for brighter new visions of the world we want to see – and will build together." —The Next System Project

What's Next for US?
Our MIT U.Lab coaching circle continues to meet at Lani's on Monday nights from 6:30-8:30. Read Otto Scharmer's Huffington Post article on the blind spot that created Trump's election here.

On December 15, we will meet at the School of Nursing in the Rahr Conference room at 9-11 am for the final live U.Lab session with our cohort. We're going to grab lunch around 11:30 and then we've been invited to spend the afternoon of December 15 in the Planting Seeds of Innovation workshop. Learn more here. If you are interested in attending our lunch and / or the Planting Seeds of Innovation workshop contact Vicki at vicki@vickioday.com to reserve your place.

In Solidarity and Courage,
Vicki

October 27th, 2016, 6:30-8pm 

Join us for a Densford Center Next System Dialogue to synthesize and prototype.

The MN Next System Project Community has been doing research to discover health innovation needs. For the past five months, we've been asking people on the UMN campus and in our TC community to define health and a healthy community. 

On October 27th, we will reconvene to synthesize the data collected in our ABC process, at the Minnesota State Fair, and during the 25/10 harvest at the September 19th Teach-in. These healthy community needs assessment findings and the current conditions of our community's health inform us as we co-evolve our next step toward healthy community innovation. 

Based on our listening and learnings, we’ll create “next system” ideas for “Another World is Possible” pilots.

Learn more and register here

Reflections on the September 19, 2016 Next System Project Teach-in

On Monday, September 19, 2016, nearly 50 people attended a Next System Project teach-in, Moving Toward the Next System of Healthy Communities. The event took place on the East Bank of the University of Minnesota campus in the Coffman Memorial Union, Whole Music Club. It was the second community and campus teach-in held on the UMN Twin Cities campus this year.

The Katharine J. Densford International Center for Nursing Leadership sponsored the event, advancing the MN Next System Project Community program. The program is an ongoing partnership between the University of Minnesota and the community for crowd sourced research, action learning, and capacity building for leaders of next system innovations. 

The MN Next System Project Community’s call to action is to Connect. Contribute. Create the Next System.

Teach-in participants were an intergenerational group of concerned citizens from diverse backgrounds including; academics, students, activists, futurists, systems thinkers, government agencies, NGOs, and entrepreneurs connecting to contribute ideas for boldly discovering and creating healthy communities of the future. 

A cross-sector panel of whole systems designers were present to inspire and evoke Wisdom from the entire group. Thought provokers included; Thomas Fisher - UMN Metropolitan Design Center Director, Frank Maletz - MD and Communities of the Future Leadership (COTF), Timothy Nolan - Sustainable Industrial Development, MN PCA, Daniel Pesut  - Densford Center Director, UMN School of Nursing, Teddie Potter - Clinical Associate Professor, UMN School of Nursing, and David Zuckerman - Manager for Healthcare Engagement of the Democracy Collaborative. The event was coordinated and co-facilitated by Vicki O'Day, MN Next System Project Community Coordinator.

So what are we learning? Since it’s inception, following the first teach-in, on April 27th, the MN Next System Project Community has been coming together to ask, what is health and what do healthy communities look like? 

Our findings point to symptoms proven by perpetuating trends of social/economic, environmental, and spiritual divides prevalent in the institutions that preside over the lives we live, here  in the Unites States. Minnesotan voices join co-chairs of the national Next System Project, Gar Alperovitz (historian and economist) and Gus Speth (environmentalist and economist) in advancing innovative thinking and practical approaches to introduce just systemic change within our spheres of influence.

Symptoms identified reach beyond health systems into economic, political, educational, and social constructs. These systems are ripe for transformative change. We are in an evolutionary process moving from exclusion to inclusion, from unilateral to multilateral, from the few to the many. There’s a cry among us to find balance, punctuated with peace, connectedness, and commitments to engage generative, resilient systems that sustain life and create greater well-being for people and planet in an emerging 21st Century. 

The community data collections give voice to unmet needs as drivers for deep systemic change. If we are to survive as a people and a planet we must continue to connect, contribute, and create Next Systems for healthy communities of the future.

On September 19th, crowd sourcing data collection tools framed our community based learning. Interactive dialogues were shaped by an online poll and Liberating Structures 25/10 Crowd Source. Review the top 10 BOLD ideas sourced for generating next systems of healthy communities here.

Evidence will be compiled with Densford Center Next System Dialogues held throughout the Summer. In June and July, Donald Gault, led the community through the ABC’s of Communication process to identify what is health? The MN Next System Project Community also conducted a community survey in the UofM Central Building, on August 31st, at the Minnesota State Fair. Watch the MN State Fair video.

What’s Next? The MN Next System Project Community formed to bring awareness to our need to start talking about and innovating next system alternatives. 

We encourage you to Connect. Contribute. Create the Next Systems

Develop leadership capacities, explore learning tools, contribute resources, open doors, create partnership opportunities that enhance our collective skills and abilities for creating next systems that serve healthy communities of the future.

There are a variety of ways for you to stay informed, get involved, and join us…

1. Today, sign up to FOLLOW US BY EMAIL on our blog and/or Like us on FaceBook
2. September 15 - December 15 - MIT U.Lab Leading from the Emerging Future. For those interested in a deeper dive into building capacities for leading systems change from the inside out. Thursday mornings in session place based hub (October 6, October 27, and December 15) and Monday evening coaching circles 6:30-8:30. Contact Vicki at vicki@vickioday.com with inquiries.
3. October 27, 6:30-8pm - Densford Center Next System Dialogue - Synthesize and Prototype - Learn More and Register here

submitted by Vicki O'Day

Next System Project Teach-In

September 19, 4:30 to 8 pm

Whole Music Club, Coffman Memorial Union 

300 Washington Ave SE, Minneapolis 55455 

   

If you could contribute your ideas to boldly create 
healthy communities of the future, what would you suggest? 

You’re invited to interact, dialogue, and learn with a panel of experts, using Liberating Structures, to contribute to and create the next system of healthy communities.

   

Find more information and register here.

Connect and Contribute to the MIT U.Lab: Transforming Business, Society, and Self series.

September 8 - December 15, 2016 - MN Next System Project - MIT U.Lab Course

“The quality of results produced by any system depends on the quality of awareness  from which the people in the system operate.” Otto Scharmer

The MN Next System Project Community is participating in the u.lab as a place based hub for action learning and emerging leadership. We connect with MIT to leverage the knowledge, frameworks, methods, and tools around an issue that matters to us and is ripe for change. 

The Katharine J. Densford International Center for Nursing Leadership at the University of Minnesota School of Nursing is our hub host.

Lean into the emerging future. Join us on this journey through the u.lab.

Connect. Contribute. Create the Next System.

Learn more and register for the U.Lab 1.x course, Leading from the Emerging Future here  

Prerequisite: Awareness-Based Systems Change a 90 minute introduction access here

Our journey begins on September 8, 2016. This is an eight week commitment. In week six we will create a “next system” prototype. 

Register with edX and contact Vicki @ vicki@vickioday.com for information about the joining the MN Next System Project Community u.lab hub and 1.x cohort.

August 31 - Find Us at the Minnesota State Fair!

The MN Next System Project for Healthy Community Innovation

We're headed to the Minnesota State Fair to discover more about the next system of health from our community.

Find The MN Next System Project Community exhibit on August 31 from 4:30 - 6:30 at the U of M Central building.

The MN Next System Project Community and the School of Nursing collaborate to ask fair goers to imagine the future by asking, What is health? What does healthy community mean to you? This exhibit pilots data gathering and needs assessment from a wider community sampling. Collections will result in a short video, representing the voice of community to understand “next system” health innovations needed to support and nourish healthy communities of the future. 


The video will be shown to the next system thinkers who gather during the September, 19th Next System Project Teach-in, sponsored by the Katharine J. Densford International Center for Nursing Leadership, at The Coffman Memorial Union, Whole Music Club from 4:30 - 8pm. Look for details and register here.

And now you have one more reason to come on out the the great Minnesota Get-Togeher!

To our health! See you at the fair!