Issues We Explore
CIESD has worked with clients on diverse projects (see our case studies) that explored domestic violence; human behavioral response to disease outbreak; probations programs for sex offenders; political stability in Central Asia; student performance in public schools; and the interaction of college finances, perceived quality, and enrollment. In addition we have developed innovative interdisciplinary curricula (e.g. History and Biology of Smallpox; Sustainable Development; Population Dynamics; and Revolutionary Structures and Dynamics) and training materials and programs in the fundamental building blocks of system dynamics.
These diverse problems have several common elements that allow CIESD's approach to pay high dividends:
The underlying issues are interdisciplinary
Each system changes dynamically over time
Those changes are driven by complex sets of feedbacks
Diverse stakeholders must be supported in effective collaboration
Clients profit from building their own capacity for addressing similar future problems
CIESD brings to such diverse problems a collaborative approach and set of tools (summarized as our “Ladder of Engagement”) that allows us to draw out and organize the knowledge and insights of our clients in their own areas of expertise. We help them mobilize that knowledge and insight to identify points in their systems where they could apply high leverage to optimize those dynamics.