Co-Founders, Syntony Quest

Kathia and Alexander Laszlo are co-founders of Syntony Quest, an organization that offers consulting, research and workshops in the areas of leadership and organizational transformation for sustainability. They are recipients of the Swiss Förderpreis Akademischer Klub award for their work in social innovation and sustainable development. They impart MBA and Ph.D. courses on strategy, leadership, and systems thinking at six universities in the US and internationally. Kathia completed her Ph.D. in Human Science with a focus on Social and Institutional Change from Saybrook as a Fulbright Scholar from Mexico. Alexander holds a Ph.D. in the interdisciplinary field of Science and Technology Policy from the University of Pennsylvania.

Individuals and organizations from all sectors of society are looking for tools and perspectives on how to become more sustainable. Many well-intentioned sustainability initiatives lack the systemic perspective to avoid undesirable side effects and intentionally create the synergy necessary for lasting positive change. This presentation will introduce systems thinking as a way of seeing the “big moving picture” that involves both analytical and creative thinking to understand and design actions as part of a global ecology of solutions. Systems thinking is a leadership competency for bridging the gap between the current realities in organizations and communities and the vision of sustainable world.