De La Salle University - Manila

Research Fellows Attend SDRC Strategic Planning Meeting

The first meeting of the SDRC Research Fellows, which was coincidentally a strategic planning meeting for the coming five years at the Center, was held on July 11, 2007 at the Br. Connon Conference Room.

The meeting was highlighted by a presentation on "Analyzing SDRC Using a Systems Dynamics Framework and the Sharing of Mental Models: A Strategic Planning Approach" by research fellow Dr. Ben Teehankee. He explained that the diagram to illustrate the Center's systems dynamics was propagated by Peter Senge, author of The Fifth Discipline and well-known propagator of the "learning organization." Senge was of the belief that organizations learn when their participants get to share, discuss and actively critique each other's mental models of the organization.

Also discussed during the meeting were activities scheduled to be conducted at the Center for this school year. Among the major events will be the holding of a forum on "Findings, Insights, and Policy Implications of Poverty Studies by Two Research Institutes" and a tribute to SDRC's longest running project-the Pundasyon Hanunuo Mangyan School project-and its project director, Dr. Carmelita I. Quebengco, scheduled for the second term; and a panel discussion on SDRC researches in progress, scheduled for the third term.