Implications Wheel

In May 2005, the Leadership Symposium planning team convened to develop the center of the Implications Wheel®.

The center is the starting point of an Implications Wheel® strategic exploration. The center is a concise statement of the change being explored; it is specific and carries a number of assumptions and details (PDF, 47 KB, PDF Instructions). The center of the Leadership Symposium Implications Wheel® was "What are the implications of schools staying status quo for the next 5–10 years in an increasingly digital world?"

In early June, a team of 12 educators, parents, members of the corporate community, and state and local Ed Tech administrators met to develop the first order of implications. A first-order implication occurs as a direct result of the center.

These 31 first order implications were distributed, one per table, at the Leadership Symposium. Sponsor Intel® provided a laptop for each table, loaded with Implications Wheel® software. Attendees then received direction from Joel Barker and began developing five second-order implications, which occur as a direct result of their first-order implication; both positive and negative implications must be explored. The exercise moved quickly, with each implication completing the sentence "One possibility is...." As Mr. Barker reminded the group, even a one in a million chance is possible.

Once the second-order was complete, table groups developed five third-order implications for each second-order implication. When all the arcs were complete (center through third-order), the software drew from the networked computers and generated the full Implications Wheel®, which was projected onto a large screen. When assembled, the complete wheel was comprised of nearly 900 implications!

Learn more about Joel Barker's Implications Wheel at http://www.implicationswheel.com/.

Leadership Symposium I-Wheel Documents

Implications Wheel Center Details
(PDF, 47 KB, PDF Instructions)
Find out the details and assumptions about the I-Wheel Center Statement that was developed for the 2005 Leadership Symposium.

How to Read an Implications Wheel®
(PDF, 34 KB, PDF Instructions)
Find out why some implications are blue or red, and what the circles and stars mean.

The Leadership Symposium Implications Wheel®
See the full Implications Wheel® developed during ISTE's 2005 Leadership Symposium, using the interactive Implications Wheel® Viewer. View http://www.implicationswheel.com/iste.htm (opens in a new browser window; requires Macromedia Shockwave Player; instructions and download on page, or read Shockwave instructions.)

Individual Arcs of the I-Wheel
(PDF, 824 KB, PDF Instructions)
View or print PDFs of individual arcs of the Implications Wheel®.

We printed the wheel for our offices in Eugene, Oregon, and it is 9 feet tall and 20 feet wide!