Overview

See your system clearly, and change it

The very first thing you will learn in this course is that there is no such thing as a ‘technical problem’. Sure, your field demands that you work with, or even build, new technologies. But you also work closely with people, and technology is thoroughly entangled with societal and cultural norms, and power imbalances.

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Technology is integral to the system you are seeking to change, but technology is not neutral. Understanding the power dynamics that technology obscures is absolutely key to moving your work forward. If you approach everything as a ‘technical problem’ and ignore the social side, you risk perpetuating the status quo in the name of technological progress and growth.

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What You’ll Learn

In this fast-paced, interactive course, you will master the strategies, skills, and frameworks for true systems-change:

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• Are your tech-for-good interventions continually leading to ‘unintended consequences’? Learn how to see your system clearly, anticipate its behavior, and ensure technology works for (not against!) it.​

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• Do you see how technology is governed by more than just its underlying code — but are not sure what to do about it? I’ll guide you through concrete examples of how technology and data are societal constructs and help you anticipate their impact on your system.

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• Have you tried to effect change with partners & collaborators in your field, but you get the same results over and over? I’ll provide you with frameworks to expose the constraints and dynamics of your system, and craft interventions that truly change its behavior.

 

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What to expect

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Who is this for?

You’re someone who’s trying to make change happen on tech & society issues but your system is stuck in place — you’re running huge consequential pieces of work and you can’t figure out how to make the system work for you.

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This course is best suited for…

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• Funders focusing on issues of tech & society, and trying to align their programs and grantees towards collective action.

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• Non-profit & public interest leaders who want to craft strategies that align AI to their vision of the future, not the other way around.

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• Senior policy, product, and partnership managers who want to shift the status quo in their company.

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• Scholars, consultants, and ecosystem builders who think in systems but want frameworks and strategies to guide their practical interventions.

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But you don’t have to fit in exactly with the above to learn something from this course. If you are starting to see that technology is a proxy for power, and you want to do something about that, this is the course for you!

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​Here’s what you’ll get

This is a highly-interactive two-day course that will give you tactics which you can immediately implement into your work. This includes:

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• 💻 9 hours of live & interactive sessions where you’ll learn new strategies and frameworks that will get you out of your system funk, complete with hands-on practice in a lab-like environment and a subsequent Q&A session.

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• 📓 100-pg workbook full of exercises & tools to provide you with helpful context and new challenges during the course, and great to refer to afterwards as you start to put your strategies into practice

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• ✨ A 1:1 coaching session with me, where I can guide you through any obstacles that are specific to your situation

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• 💬 Exclusive access to monthly meetups with tech & society leaders to coach one another and share tips about frameworks learned in the course. With participants from organizations like New_Public, Center for Tech & Civic Life, Siegel Family Endowment, Stanford’s Digital Civil Society Lab, LAist, and many more.

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• ➕ Hands-on Capstone Project: You’ll develop a ‘Customized Systems Change Plan’ and get personalized feedback from me in the 1:1 coaching session.

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• 💌 Bonus: you also get a free subscription to Untangled for a year!

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Course Structure

This course has four modules:

 

1. See your system clearly: power obscures problems in your sociotechnical system — learn to locate the problems! You can’t solve for what you can’t see.

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2. Understand how your system is changing: and learn to leverage that change, rather than just letting it happen. Understand the capabilities and limitations of a technology, and anticipate how those shape your working relationships

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3. Change your system as an individual: systems are unpredictable and do not abide by linear cause-and-effect rules — learn to intervene in complex systems by shifting the norms & behaviors of teams, organizations, and multi-stakeholder collaborations.

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4. Change your system as a collective: you now have the tools you need for systems change, but are met with a world of differences within teams, cultural contexts, or organizations. Learn strategies to align a diverse group towards a common vision — and ultimately catalyze meaningful systems change.

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