Abstract for: Scriptapedia: Introduction to “Scripted” Group Model Building Workshops

Group model building (Andersen and Richardson 1997; Vennix 1996) has been an important area of system dynamics practice. Andersen and Richardson (1997) were the first to recognize that practitioners often relied on well defined patterns of small group behavior called “scripts” and called for better documentation of scripts. This has led to descriptions of group model building (GMB) workshops (Luna-Reyes et al. 2006), the recognition of sequences of scripts (Ackermann et al. 2010), and most recently, the creation of Scriptapedia (Hovmand et al. 2012) as a tool for documenting scripts and designing effective collaborations. This workshop introduces participants to Scriptapedia, “scripted” GMB practice, design principles and best practices for GMB, the most frequently used scripts as well as a set of “ScriptsMaps” for conducted GMB practice in a variety of contexts and with a variety of stakeholders including government, nonprofits and community based organizations, K-12, and villages and communities.