Welcome to Modeling Global Change

The Modeling Global Change program engages organizations and activists to redefine partnerships, programs and operational practices within the context of sustainable social change.

Shot from wall exercise


In order to move toward sustainable social development, we must explicitly link top-down, directed strategies to local, emergent, ground-up strategies. Modeling Global Change constructs a shared vision of advancement with diverse stakeholders and influencers through a process that creates change beyond point solutions, connects root causes and is replicable across regions, issues and societal influences.

Each MGC program is customized around the mission, people and issues that are specific to the participating organization but follows a general framework that is presented herein.

We look forward to sharing our experience and applying the process to help you leverage your resources and mission toward systemic change.

About MGC

  • Lina Srivastava and Sean Howard, MGC's creators, have been tracking a number of powerful trends, technologies and emerging practices that are reshaping both the social structures within which we operate as well as the world as we know it.

    The MGC program incorporates these trends to allow change agents to benefit from innovations in design thinking, visualization, marketing, user experience, organizational design, new media and storytelling.

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Featured Case Studies

  • "Having worked personally though challenges that social change faces as it grows from idea to a scalable and implementable project, I feel the MGC program is not only highly interactive and engaging, but a welcome addition to the toolkit of social innovation. By examining shifts in perception, influence and collaborative processes, it can create real and lasting impact"
    - Manuel Toscano
    Principal, Zago LLC

    "A first iteration of the Modeling Global Change Workshop was prototyped at Parsons The New School for Design toward the end of 2008 with a group of strategic design researchers and nonprofit professionals. Sean and Lina took us through a series of clear and discrete exercises. All the participants were surprised by the cumulative results and new approaches to the complex situations we were exploring quickly arose. Most powerful was the emphasis on strategic partnering, rather than going it alone. All the participants had feedback on how to modify the MGC process, but it also provided us tools we have subsequently started using."
    - Cameron Tonkinwise, Chair, Design Thinking and Sustainability, Parsons The New School for Design