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!

Plexus Healthcare Call - How Can We Make Positive Change In Our Communities?

Healthcare PlexusCall - Download MP3 

Wednesday, August 17, 2016, 1-2 pm ET

Topic: How Can We Make Positive Change In Our Communities?

Guests: Vicki O’Day and David Zuckerman

 Register

Or paste the link below into your browser:

http://myaccount.maestroconference.com/conference/register/Z6LQSNXMTOPZD1ZA

It has been a long, hot summer marked by disheartening political campaigns, protest marches and senseless killings. It feels like our systems are breaking down. And some are thinking positively about what systems will come next. http://thenextsystem.org 

Vicki O’Day will share The Next System work; David Zuckerman will talk about a new business model that encourages hospitals to promote community health while also supporting the economic health of the community.

Vicki O’Day, MA, is a connector, an educator, and a futurist. She is a social entrepreneur who values learning with people how to imagine, design, and create resilient futures for themselves, their families, and their communities. Vicki is a collaborative consultant for change with twenty years experience in financial services, community organizing, and leadership for creating “next system” innovations.

As Minnesota Next System Project Community coordinator, Vicki partners with the University of Minnesota’s School of Nursing to bring The Next System Project conversation to the campus and her community. She coordinates Next System Project Teach-ins, the Minnesota Next System Community of Practice, and Next System Dialogs hosted by the Katharine J. Densford International Center for Nursing and Leadership. This community of practice is creating healthy communities using systems thinking, complexity science, action research and agency

Vicki is an active volunteer in her community, including leadership roles in Communities of the Future, Northland Sustainable Solutions, and the Future First Women’s Congress. She is a lifetime learner, a mother and grandmother, a lover of nature and life. She is deeply committed to being an advocate for future generations. 

David Zuckerman, MS, BA, joined The Democracy Collaborative team in 2012 and serves as Manager for Healthcare Engagement for the organization’s Anchor Institution Initiative. Zuckerman is the author of Hospitals Building Healthier Communities: Embracing the Anchor Mission and a contributor to Can Hospitals Heal America's Communities: "All in for Mission” is the Emerging Model for Impact. His work focuses on inclusive and equitable economic development strategies that build wealth in low-income communities, with specific attention on how hospitals and health systems can deploy the business side of their institutions to support community health improvement and strengthen their local economies. 

Zuckerman has also assisted with multiple feasibility studies of anchor-led economic development projects. He is co-author of Building Community Wealth: An Action Plan for Northwest Jacksonville. He currently serves as Treasurer on the Board of Representatives for the Takoma Park-Silver Spring Co-op. He received both his Master of Public Policy and B.A. degree in Government and Politics from the University of Maryland, College Park.

News Release from ReThink Health

Is health transformation truly possible? Yes...if we are willing to be bold stewards of the system We at ReThink Health believe strongly that leaders need to be bold in their thinking and courageous in their actions if they aim to truly transform the health system. At issue is not a scarcity of dollars, but the lack of an innovative vision, aligned around a system-wide strategy. In our study published in this month’s Health Affairs, ReThink Health illustrates that select, combined investments in both population and clinical level initiatives, along with affordable long-term financing strategies, have the potential to dramatically reduce costs, improve health, increase productivity, and expand health equity over the next 25 years. In other words, health transformation is possible. Learn more at ReThink Health blog. News article from ReThink Health reposted August 9, 2016.

Hello and Welcome to the MN Next System Project Community!

Please mark your calendar for our Next System Project teach-in on September 19. Learn more buy clicking on the Teach-ins tab above.

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