About this Report

From left to right workshop participants Wren Amos, Walter Wallace, Ivan Natividad, Sherry Wilson

This report summarizes the process and outcomes of a free 2-day community based system dynamics (CBSD) workshop and learning lab that was held April -16-17, 2026 at the Kapor Center in Oakland, CA. This work was made possible by generous support from the Marguerite Casey Foundation and the Kapor Foundation.

REPORT:

Community Based System Dynamics

Workshop and Learning Lab

April 16-17, 2026

Oakland, CA

“It was an amazing experience. I learned a lot and I have made new connections. I learned that we are all AI developers when we use AI and that most systems are not created with our societal environments in mind.”

— Paris Davis, CEO

Workshop Purpose and Goals

In order to apply machine learning and AI technologies in ways that amplify human agency, a deep understanding of the societal context that surrounds the problems we intend to solve is a necessity. Community based system dynamics (CBSD) is a learning method for ‘going below the surface ‘ to acquire the deep problem understanding necessary to make societal context knowledge legible and useful for both humans and machines.
In an age where everyone is becoming an ‘AI developer’ it's critical to build this deep understanding capacity, particularly in those who are proximate to and driving towards solving complex societal problems.
We brought together 15 Bay Area changemakers who serve Oakland to take the first step in creating a local cohort of systems thinkers and societal context knowledge producers.
Our main goals were to
- build novice level capability and capacity in the CBSD methodology
- produce an initial boundary object that might be useful and inspiring to others, and
- form a local CBSD community of practice for continuous learning and sustainable impact.

Outcomes and Insights

Workshop value was clear: The questions "Attending the workshop was well worth my time" and "I would recommend this learning experience to others" both received an average score of 4.8 out of 5.
It was clear to 87% of students how Community Based System Dynamics (CBSD) could be useful to their organizations.

The seeds for a local CBSD community of practice were successfully laid.
87% of students expressed interest in joining a local community of practice.

AI and System Dynamics are challenging topics

I’m always amazed by how much new students dive into and pick up new concepts and run with them within hours. In this workshop we threw even more at folks. Specifically the relationship between AI development, problem understanding and formulation, societal context knowledge and system dynamics. To top it off we also introduced them to quantitative modeling which is not typically done in a workshop like this.

While we’re satisfied that most attendees reached a novice level understanding of the key concepts we realize that Follow on continuous learning in real settings with real problems are needed.

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