MHA Institute started the Systemic Storytelling Project in 2005.  This project attempts to discover the effectiveness of conducting a two or three-day course on systems thinking using MHA’s unique approach to systemic storytelling practices.  Systemic storytelling is an attempt to piece together the multilayered complexity of the connections, discontinuities, contradictions, and openings and closures of the stories that we live as participants in communication.  As systemic storytellers, we develop a systemic perspective of a situation with others.  We are collectively guided by a desire both to make sense of the situation, and to discover a way to deal with the situation, in order to help others and ourselves move forward.

The activity of telling stories creates a context for us to develop systemic eloquence, so that we can invite change for the good of the system we are examining.  It provides a structure through which we can explore the conditions that allow for particular stories to develop.  We can examine the purposes and effects of such stories on our abilities to identify and construct certain kinds of identities, relationships, and cultures.  Systemic storytelling provides a framework for thinking about our abilities to gain access to, make use of, and exercise choice, in order for us to act coherently.

MHA has developed three forms of systemic storytelling:  systems thinking, reflexive practice, and strategic practice.  These three forms work together to create an integrated decision support system that uses three storytelling devices, each having specific areas of strength:

• Systems thinking:  Systems thinking is the best systemic storytelling device for diagramming the operational system dynamics.  It focuses on planning for action, planning for possible side effects, and monitoring actions and learning from actions over time.
• Reflexive practice:  Reflexive practice is the best systemic storytelling device for diagramming the relational system dynamics.  It focuses on understanding the stories told and patterns lived within and between relationships, identifying the loop patterns that are occurring, making a reflexive choice, and taking action on that reflexive choice.
• Strategic practice:  Strategic practice is the best systemic storytelling device for diagramming the cultural system dynamics.  It focuses on understanding the ideological and cultural patterns from which people and groups may be operating, making a strategic choice, and taking action on that strategic choice.

This is the first documentation of the results being gathered and includes comments from participants who have taken some or all of the courses in the Leadership Through Learning Program that features the use of the decision support system.