Peter Goldsbury of Strategic Expertise provided me with some really fascinating insight in his 2 day seminar dealing with Living Systems Thinking and project management.

The seminar focused on many ways of learning from natural and traditional principles. For those interested in The Natural Step (http://www.thenaturalstep.org/com/nyStart/), the first day dealt a lot with backcasting and identifying positive outcomes (or what we want to ultimately have happen, e.g. achievement, change, innovation, etc.), rather than just establishing outputs (more on the level of what we want to produce, e.g. a report, a new building, etc.) for a project.

We also discussed non-linear processes and planning projects in complex team environments.  The second day dove into a wealth of project management tools, exploring many of them in a non-traditional way.  The seminar was well worth it and I’d encourage anyone looking for a new approach to their business (or approach to life and problem solving) to check it out.  More information at:   http://www.projectmanagement.co.nz/systems%20thinking.htm