The Extension Service of the land grant colleges in the United States has as its primary purpose helping farmers through the transfer of technology. Because of the speed of change in agriculture and budget limitations, however, the extension service is not always able to fulfil this mandate effectively. On the island of Kona, Hawaii, several researchers attempted to improve the relationship between the university and tree farmers through the use of SSA. The initial process took less than a year and relied heavily on the facilitation provided by Mills-Packo et al. Within that time, several iterations of information gathering, modeling, and planning were carried out:

• Participants (both farmers and extension personnel) were interviewed.

• “Mind maps” were developed to illustrate participant’s view of extension.

• A second set of interviews, centered on the mind maps, was conducted to learn about changes desired by participants.

• More detailed models were drawn of four of the most commonly mentioned changes.

• These models were refined, both by discussion among a subgroup of participants and by a third set of interviews, and were elaborated into 31 “proposals for change.”

• Participants debated these proposals to determine what action to take, and developed an “implementation plan.”

The most important result of this process was increased communication among farmers and between farmers and the university. The process also generated ongoing political involvement of farmers, which, in turn, led to the provision of funding for an additional extension agent.

Despite this progress, the authors noted two limitations to the use of SSA. First, SSA did not include sufficient guidelines to ensure collaboration of all relevant stakeholders. Limited involvement by university personnel in the refinement of the models meant that these models did not necessarily represent their views. The second limitation noted was that SSA was useful only in information gathering and planning. Additional processes may be needed to implement change, especially where controversy exists or where many stakeholders are involved.