SBM ITB, through the Decision Making and Strategic Negotiation (KK DMSN) interest group in collaboration with Pradita Dirgantara High School, held a Systems Thinking Workshop to promote collaborative and adaptive leadership characters entitled Systems Thinking for Entrepreneurship Program for K-12 (STEP K-12). This workshop was held at the Auditorium Building of Pradita Dirgantara High School (SMA PD), Boyolali, Central Java, on Saturday, 12 August 2023.
The workshop was opened with remarks by the Chairman of the Decision Making and Strategic Negotiation Interest Group (KK DMSN), Dr Pri Hermawan. In his remark, Dr Pri Hermawan said, “This workshop aims to improve students’ collaborative leadership skills through systems thinking approach to dealing with increasingly complex and multi-sectoral problems as the expertise of KK DMSN.”
This workshop was also fully supported by the management of Pradita Dirgantara High School, Dwi A. Yuliantoro, PhD, the Director of Teacher Quality Development & Improvement and IB Principal. In his remarks, he expressed his support, “I welcome and fully support this workshop because it aligns with our international curriculum on Leadership, Management and business performance to prepare the students to face global challenges in the future.”
The event continued with an introduction to systems thinking by Prof. Utomo Sarjono Putro. He also emphasized the younger generation’s response to future challenges and the urgency of collaboration within the organization. One aspect that is emphasized is to form a collaborative and adaptive leadership character that can be developed through systems thinking skills.
The workshop’s facilitators not only gave course presentations but also hands on practices using SODA games. They were led by Dr Manahan Siallagan and Santi Novani, PhD, a SODA game adopted from the MIT Sloan Beer Game to train students’ skills in collaborating and formulating strategies.
By using an experiential learning approach, the workshop participants were asked to play firsthand and experience the challenges of playing this game. It is hoped that the participants will discover the essence of the game by themselves in dealing with problems and formulating strategies with other participants.
The game is played by forming six supply chain teams where each team is divided into four units: factory, distributor, wholesaler, and retailer. The teachers of Pradita Dirgantara High School are also involved in this game as facilitators so that the essence of this game can be continued into lessons in the class and daily life at school.
The game is divided into two rounds. In the first round, the students tried the game directly guided by the facilitator of each team. The students were obviously enthusiastic about playing this game and worked hard together to formulate a strategy so that their team was able to minimize the cost burden. A pretty exciting debate can also be seen from each role to maintain the lowest cost.
At the end of the workshop, students were asked to convey learning reflections that could be synthesized from the game. Next, a joint conclusion was made about the important lesson of this game and its reflection in real life. The participants said that through this workshop, it was easier for them to grasp the lesson of collaborative leadership from systems thinking rather than just watching the presentations because they could learn from their mistakes while playing and find the right strategy through discussions with their teammates.
This workshop activity also received a good response from Brigadier General Ari Presmena Tarigan, the Main Director and Development of Pradita Dirgantara High School, “I hope that this workshop can be held regularly so that students can have collaborative leadership and managerial skills to produce leaders who are not only intelligent but also able to work cross-sectoral cooperation in the future.”
In supporting this workshop, the KK DMSN group consisted of 10 people chaired by Prof. Utomo Sarjono Putro and Dr Pri Hermawan. Dr Manahan Siallagan, Santi Novani, PhD and Shimaditya Nuraeni were lead facilitators and provided reflections/lessons learned from this game. Also, this workshop was assisted by Meditya Wasesa, PhD, Khrisna Ariyanto, Valid Hasyimi, Puteri Annisa, and Tyas Larassati.
KK DMSN SBM ITB regularly holds community service activities to contribute to the implementation of the Tridharma. This workshop aims to help schools prepare their students with collaborative leadership skills before taking positions in school organizations and support the Indonesian government in creating a society with innovative and collaborative character.
