2003 Archive - Please Note: This is last year's information.

PreConference

Pre-Conference seminars (separate registration).

Whole-systems skills for community leaders (1 day)

Presenters: Michael Kinsley, Rocky Mountain Institute

Today's community problems are far more complex, numerous and rapid fire than just a generation ago. Yesterday's simplistic answers are not today's solutions. Recognized as one of the world's most innovative and successful research and consulting organizations, Rocky Mountain Institute is developing today's solutions by bringing whole-systems thinking to businesses and communities worldwide.

RMI's supports creative community leaders with practical tools and creative thinking, developed by applying RMI's extensive experience in local decision-making. RMI's whole-systems problem solving considers all factors simultaneously:

• Reveals interconnections between problems, often permitting one
  solution to be leveraged to create many more
• Reveals lasting, frugal solutions with multiple benefits
• Requires collaboration among people with disparate skills and points of view
• Transcends ideology

• Find hidden local opportunities in new ways of thinking about the
  community and its economy.
• Apply whole-systems thinking and integrated design to community decisions
• Anticipate side effects and avoid unintended negative consequences
• Recognize barriers to creative decisions
• Collaborate for creative outcomes