Courses
Sociotechnical Systems Change
What is your 'AI strategy' and how will you change the system you’re in?
These are the twin questions confronting all mission driven leaders, strategists, and change-makers right now. In my live, online, interactive course, Sociotechnical Systems Change, I weave together frameworks — from science and technology studies, complex adaptive systems, future thinking etc. — to offer you strategies and practical approaches to address these questions, anticipate AI impacts, identify levers of change, and develop strategies that build alternative futures.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course, you will learn how to:
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Map and analyze your sociotechnical system, and identify key levers of change.
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Anticipate how AI shapes — and is shaped by — social systems like race, gender, and power.
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Develop sociotechnical strategies — for yourself, your organization, and diverse collectives you might participate in — that anticipate AI impacts, transform power dynamics, and align the stakeholders in the system toward alternative futures.
The experience includes:
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💻 Two, 4-hr, live, interactive sessions.
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📓 90-pg workbook full of tools and resources.
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✨ A 1:1 coaching session following the course.
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✍️ 1 year subscription to the paid edition of Untangled.
You’ll come out of this course with a new vision and draft strategy for how to change the system you’re in, vetted by me and your fellow participants, and an 90-page workbook full of exercises so you can do it all again in the future.
Price: $950 or $750 (early bird rate)
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If you are a student or can't afford the full price, get in touch.
Other Options
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Book the training for your company or organization. Get in touch.
FAQs
Wondering what some of these terms -- 'sociotechnical, 'complex systems,' sense-making,' 'systems change' -- mean and why they matter? Pop over to my FAQ page.
What are people saying about the course?
"I am so grateful to have participated in this course. Charley expertly guided us through a framework for making sense of the sociotechnical systems in which we work and live and offered important steps toward honoring their complexity while working toward interventions that can create meaningful change. The materials accompanying this course will certainly continue to guide my work long after finishing the course. If you are vexed by the complexity of the system you are aiming to change, this course will leave you feeling more empowered and hopeful about engaging with shaping this system for the better." - Madison Snider, Research Manager, Siegel Family Endowment
"Charley's course helped me think about our work at Driver's Seat Cooperative in important new ways - expanding the field of view and identifying some additional elements to consider in our strategy. The mindset shifts around technology that he brings to the table are all things "you can't unsee." Highly recommend to both practitioners and theorists." - Hays Witt, Co-Founder & CEO, Driver's Seat Cooperative
"Charley is a terrific instructor. He broke down complex ideas and theories into tangible, actionable steps and left me with a sense of agency I didn't have going into the course." Kristen Muller, Chief Content Officer, LAist
Course Structure
The course is organized around four modules. Each includes a mindset shift and practical approaches to apply in your working context.
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Systems are sociotechnical and complex. There is no such thing as a ‘tech problem.’ All ‘tech problems’ are entangled in social systems, and the systems don’t behave like you think.
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Problems are made, not found. Everything starts with a problem statement, but where do those problems start? Too often, we look in the wrong places because frames, metaphor, epistemologies, and societal notions of 'expertise' hide power.
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There are no ‘tech solutions,’ only sociotechnical interventions with consequences for different communities, societal values, and how power is (or isn’t) redistributed. Our individual, organizational, and collective actions need to anticipate these implications or else we become trapped in feedback loops of our own making, bringing the past into the future.
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Changing sociotechnical systems requires thinking backward, not forwards. The future isn’t a neat ‘theory of change’ away.
The course is organized around these mindset shifts, draws on the concepts and frameworks I use in Untangled — e.g. complex adaptive systems, future studies, and science and technology studies, etc. — and offers tools and exercises to help you turn them into practical strategies for sociotechnical systems change. You’ll practice applying these strategies in the context of AI and your working world.
Who is this for?
This course is for mission-driven leaders, strategists, and change-makers who want to develop rigorous sociotechnical strategies that advance collective action. It’s for leaders who know systems change is key to the success of their mission. It’s for strategic doers collaborating with diverse stakeholders to advance their goals.
New sociotechnical futures might seem out of our reach. Systems might feel entrenched. Technology’s path might feel inevitable. But as Marshall McLuhan reminds us, “There is no inevitability as long as there is a willingness to contemplate what is happening.” So let’s turn these inevitable seeming futures into concrete mindset shifts and practical strategies, shall we?