ENS5510 - Innovation to influence system change

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Overview

Leadership toward sustainable development requires you to address complex problems that are often systemic and politically charged. This unit will empower you to make sense of large complex systems, use structured processes to influence change, and develop innovative ideas to create sustainable outcomes for real-world situations. You will learn key … For more content click the Read More button below. Having built this strategic understanding, you will then gain tactics and tools to innovate and influence change. You’ll practice with industry-relevant methods and develop personal skills required to succeed across sectors and scales. These include collaborative processes, system mapping, creative visioning, rapid prototyping of ideas, advocacy and winning support for your initiatives.

You will learn key theories of system and political change and apply these to examine components of real systems we live in, such as transport, energy, water and more – their structures, rules, norms, values, politics and technology. This will enable you to clearly define problems, reveal and avoid biases and uncover root causes of systemic issues. Your strategic understanding of systems will let you recognise the factors that help or hinder sustainable development and identify opportunities for guided change.

Having built this strategic understanding, you will then gain tactics and tools to innovate and influence change. You’ll practice with industry-relevant methods and develop personal skills required to succeed across sectors and scales. These include collaborative processes, system mapping, creative visioning, rapid prototyping of ideas, advocacy and winning support for your initiatives.

Offerings

S1-01-CLAYTON-BLOCK-ON

Rules

Enrolment Rule

Contacts

Chief Examiner(s)

Associate Professor Annette Bos

Unit Coordinator(s)

Mr David Robertson

Associate Professor Annette Bos

Learning outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, you should be able to:

Investigate, interpret and assess selected societal change theories, methods and debates;

Apply systems thinking theory and tools to make sense of complex real-world situations;

Evaluate interactions between organisations, communities and their social and political contexts and identify factors which encourage or support sustainable outcomes;

Critically analyse, select and use processes to innovate and influence toward system change at different scales (e.g. community, organisational, institutional, political;

Design, develop and persuasively communicate a change intervention for a real-world sustainability challenge.

Teaching approach

Online learning

Case-based teaching

Peer assisted learning

Problem-based learning

Role play

Assessment

1 - Assignment 1: System diagram

2 - Elevator Pitch

3 - Change intervention (Proposal)

4 - Ongoing learning

Scheduled and non-scheduled teaching activities

Workshops

Workload requirements

Workload

Workshops equivalent to 3 hours per week and
Independent study equivalent to 9 hours per week

This unit is taught in intensive mode and will require attendance at up to four full days of face-to-face teaching, including two weekend days at Clayton, and three allocated weekday workshops within the semester period. Attendance at these sessions is compulsory. Independent online work will take place within semester in addition to the face to face teaching.

Learning resources

Recommended resources

Technology resources

Availability in areas of study

Leadership for sustainable development
International development practice