180 Institute offers custom-designed
workshops for your organizational
or project needs.

We offer human service organizations support and encouragement in applying a complexity perspective to specific organizational challenges or projects. We empower organizations to embrace complexity and innovation, bringing a new perspective to what often seem like stuck situations. We do this by introducing complexity principles and exploring how these apply to the specific challenges and projects of an organization.

Workshops offer an extraordinary opportunity for human service professionals, organization leaders and board members to immerse themselves in a learning environment that is grounded in place and contextually relevant to the community. Workshops offer interactive and participatory learning modules that encourage participants to move outwards to embrace diversity in relationships that strengthen helping approaches.

Value: To operationalize the nature of human service organizations as complex systems

Who Should Attend: CEO’s, non-profit board members, professional staff, researchers, federal, provincial and municipal policymakers

Foundational concepts of complexity science are woven into the decision-making fabric of the human service organization to further the emergence of community-based solutions. These foundational concepts include understanding the nature of complex systems, discovering the characteristics of wicked questions, the role of feedback loops, the natural cycle of adaptation and how relationships shape unique connectivity.

By engaging with our custom designed workshops your human service organization team will

Gain new tools for thinking and acting in complex and dynamic situations
Envision the work of your organization as a living system
Moving away from the silos created by confidentiality in practice
Moving away from the silos created by universal approaches where the ‘laws’ or ‘rules’ are decided outside of the organic context of community and the land
Recognizing the entanglement of all aspects of life that cannot be pulled apart but rather are nested, dynamic systems
Recognize the cycle of adaptation and learn how to ‘dance on the edge of chaos’
Develop resilience while understanding how resilience works in an organization
Consider the helping relationship in a new light

And so much more – contact us to develop your own custom designed workshop

Post-secondary Students

Post-secondary students are introduced to complexity science through special credit courses, field placements, research projects and theses.

Research Publications

The following selected publications focus on a complexity science approach.

Nelson, C. & Stroink, M. (2020). Understanding the dynamics of co-creation of knowledge: A paradigm shift to a complexity science approach to evaluation of community-campus engagement. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning. 26 (1), 197-217.

Stroink, M.L. (2020). The dynamics of psycho-social-ecological resilience in the urban environment: A complex adaptive systems theory perspective. Frontiers in Sustainable Cities, 2(31). DOI: 10.3389/frsc.2020.00031

Dukert, D., Nelson, C.H., Hori, Y., Cornwall, A. (2020, March 31). Muskrat Dam Winter Road Climate Change Adaptation Report: Historic Relations, Challenges and Adaptation Strategies. Muskrat Dam Band Council, Independent First Nations Alliance (IFNA). (Technical Report).

Nelson, C.H., Stroink, M., Levkoe, C.Z., Kakagemic, R., McKay, E., Stolz, W., and Streutker, A., 2019. Understanding social economy through a complexity lens in Northwestern Ontario: Four case studies. Canadian Food Studies / La Revue canadienne des études sur l'alimentation. 6 (3), 33–59.

Nelson, C.H. & Stroink, M.L., (2019). Exploring the unique aspects of the northern social economy of food through a complexity lens. Northern Review. 49.

Andree, P., Chapman, D., Hawkins,L., Kneen, C., Muehlberger, C. ,Nelson,C., Pigott, K. Qaderi-Attayi, W., Scott, S. & Stroink. M. (2014). Building Effective Relationships for Community-Engaged Scholarship in Canadian Food Studies. Canadian Food Studies. 1(1), 27-53. http://canadianfoodstudies.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/cfs

Nelson, C.H. & Stroink, M.L. (2014). Accessibility and viability: A complex adaptive systems theory approach to a wicked problem for the local food movement. Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems and Community Development. http://dx.doi.org/10.5304/jafscd.2014.044.016

Randle, J., Stroink, M.L. & Nelson, C.H. (2014). Addiction and the Adaptive Cycle: A New Focus . Addictions, Research and Theory. http://informahealthcare.com/art ISSN: 1606-6359 (print), 1476-7392 (electronic)

Harrison, B., Nelson, C.H., & Stroink, M.L. (2013). Being in community: A food security themed approach to public scholarship. Journal of Public Scholarship and Higher Education. 3 (91-110).

Stroink, M.L. & Nelson, C.H. (2013). Complexity and food hubs: Five case studies from Northern Ontario. Local Environment: International Journal of Justice and Sustainability. 18(5), 620-635. http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/pdPhN2FtTy9KDNiZJu3G/full#.UkjFGWRAR15

Stroink, M.L. & Nelson, C.H. (2012). Understanding local food behaviour and food security in rural First Nation communities: Implications for food policy. The Journal of Rural and Community Development, 7(3), 65-82. Accessed at www.jrcd.ca http://www.jrcd.ca/viewarticle.php?id=670&layout=abstract

Book

Proposed Title: A complexity lens for human services: A pivot towards transformation in approaches to helping.

We are developing a book that focuses on pathways to transformation for the Human Services. These pathways include:

‘Natural’ relationships
Respect for initial conditions
Adaptive
Wicked Questions
Patterning
Distributed Control
Self-organization and emergence

Past Approaches

Past workshop examples include:

The Mobile Integration Team workshop sessions (1/2 day for four weeks and ½ day for 6 weeks), Human Resources Strategy Working Group of the North Superior Workforce Planning Board, the Belonging Collaborative emerging from and transcending the Developmental Services sector, and various regional food innovation projects.

Past non-credit courses include:

Social Innovation and Leadership in Complexity

Non-degree credit course offered through Lakehead University open to community leaders

Past credit courses include:

Complexity Seminar

Degree credit course offered through Lakehead University open to graduate and senior undergraduate students in various disciplines

Social Innovation Lab