Eric Wenzel’s new book explores recurring paradoxes of organizational life that shape transformation yet receive little attention in orthodox literature (in English and German).
A Course in Paradoxical Thinking
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Research Articles
Conversations on Design: Victor Udoewa and radical participatory design
Victor introduces an approach that reframes the role of the designer and deepens community involvement in every part of the process—from choosing methodology to making decisions and facilitating change.
The IFSR Quarterly: Ray Ison is passing the baton
Ray Ison on one complete rhythm of becoming, plus cybersystemic conferences for you calendar and other news.
The 55 Minutes Shift: The problem with solutions
The first in a series by James Stauch diving into a concept, idea, framework, or tool, drawing on the book The 55 Minutes, co-written with Daniela Papi-Thornton and Anna Johnson.
I need a miracle, every day
We may not see the impacts of our work right away, but we can trust that we are part of a larger whole—and that transformation is underway
Photos and Frames
Early photographs don’t actually tell us very much about people’s lives. They tell us more about cameras … it struck me that we make the same mistake with systems all the time.
Navigating the Landscapes of Design Research
Edited By Michael R. Gibson and Keith M. Owens. Of interest to scholars and designers working in design studies and design research, and design practitioners who are increasingly called upon to understand and act on data gleaned from evidence-based research.
The Proof of the Pudding: Introducing quantitative testing in transition design reasoning
Hannah Goss, Hendrik Schifferstein, Jotte de Koning, and Nynke Tromp propose and empirically test a conceptual framework for evaluating transition design to a portfolio of interventions aimed at reducing food waste.
Politecnico di Torino hosts this year’s Relating Systems Thinking and Design symposium
Silvia Barbero, is associate professor at Politecnico di Torino (Italy), founding Chair, the Systemic Design Association, and is this year’s RSD15 Chair.
Everyday Emergence: Practising pluralism in uncertain times with Haley Fitzpatrick
MARCH 27 | ONLINE | Forging Fridays workshop. Exploring the practice of creating a simple experimental prototype, we will spark imagination around strengthening trust in emergence through presence in relationships and trust in your own capacity within “unknown unknowns.”
Abbie van Meter asks Jenn Chan, “What can you imagine for a better world?”
Jennifer Chan, CEO, Department of Imaginary Affairs, discusses the relationship between communication, stories, and imagination for designing better social worlds.
Conversations on Four Cybernetic Approaches to Embracing Uncertainty
Claudia Westermann’s editorial opens the new issue of Constructivist Foundations 20(2).
Shifting Patterns
What pattern could you shift to contribute to quantum social change, and to help create a world where we greet the news each day not with “sh#*!” but with love?
Beyond Product-Market Fit: Why governance matters from day one
Sean Geobey’s on Substack. In this post he writes “Your governance structure positions you strategically. Who owns you determines whose interests you serve, which determines how you compete.”
Symposium Series: Unspoken Continuities, The Split
MARCH 25 | ONLINE [precedes Sir John Kay] Explore, from the origins to the present day, how we’ve arrived at the unpredictable and fast-moving theoretical, technical, and business advances that will inevitably impact the future of our society.
Sir John Kay: Is management a profession?
MARCH 25 | ONLINE [follows The Split]. Around 1970 managerial professionalism went into reverse, leading to the decline of many successful twentieth century corporations, a loss of legitimacy by large business, and contributed to an erosion of professional standards in business adjacent professions, especially banking, accountancy and law.
Technoetic Arts Issue 23.2: Reflections on scripts and life
Exploring the relationship between scripts and life through six articles examining instruction manuals, genetic codes, algorithmic systems and AI-generated imagery. Claudia Westermann’s editorial is open access.
From truth out of adversity to truth in good faith
Our scepticism about political truth claims and the implications of cultural diversity lend added weight to the need for restorying what we might call truth.
Transformation and Systems Change: A Primer
Mark Cabaj has authored an accessible primer that helps build a shared understanding of what transformation means—and what it demands—from those seeking to pursue it seriously.
States of Change: Signals from Apolitical Day 2025
This paper comes from inside the practice of public innovation, at a moment when many practitioners are trying to understand what has shifted beneath their feet. States of Change was initiated by the UK Foundation Nesta to help governments become better problem-solvers.
Enlivenment systemic design community publication
Several new articles—If you haven’t found it yet, follow and contribute on Medium. Alexander Pryšyvałka curates a systemic design community publication, including systems thinking, futures, sustainability, regeneration, transformation.
Increasing Participatory Engagement through Technology and Design
Mari Suoheimo, Jonna Hakkila, and Ravi Mahamuni are editors of this broad-ranging collection the highlights the role that technology can play in increasing community engagement in participatory design, now and in the future. Print copy info (open access will follow).
The World We Prefer
Preferment has been on my mind lately. It’s my alternative to retirement; a recognition that now is the time to do things differently, and to consciously create a world where we all can thrive.
The Freeze Frame Fallacy
Here is the tension in Carney’s Davos speech: calling out a rupture is recognition. But when the language stays anchored to the same dominant frame it quietly limits what we are willing to question next.
Leading Co-Design in Complex Systems
JUNE 2026 | ONLINE. A new course from Emma Blomkamp & Co., Leading Co-Design in Complex Systems is for purpose-driven professionals who want to co-create better outcomes with their colleagues, clients and communities.
RSD15: Shades of Systemic Design
OCT 12–16 2026 | Valentino Castle, Torino, Italy. Sys_Lab (Politecnico di Torino) hosts RSD15. Pluralism foregrounds multiple ways of knowing and practising within a maturing global field, where shared challenges intersect with diverse epistemologies, methods, and vocabularies.
Seanna Davidson: Systems Leadership AMA
JAN 21 2026 Americas | JAN 22 2026 Australasia | ONLINE. Say hi to Seanna! the systems leadership program is a place for … folks who are trying to be good humans, committed to contributing to the health of the whole while taking care of, and sustaining self.
Michal Osterweil Workshop: From slippages to portals
JAN 30 2026 | ONLINE. A laboratory for practising & implementing relationality—explore how to implement the five principles of relational politics (contingency, emergence, radical uncertainty, non-normativity, and heart-based epistemology).
(Non)Intervening in Complexity: The Navigational Wheel of Inquiry
RSD14 TALK. The Systemic Design Wheel of Inquiry is a didactic and practice-oriented framework developed to support systemic designers in navigating complex, evolving systems.
Wayfinding—towards justice and democracy
My particular focus in theses posts is on the public sphere, particularly on the functioning of our two major public institutions, the government and the law. How well is the governing and regulating done?
Cybersystemic Community news
IFSR Quarterly newsletter. Ray Ison, #sysprac25 by Benjamin P. Taylor, article by Sebastian Wolf Siebzehnruebl, events, and calls.
Power Without Wisdom
Expression of the relationships between people and their created technologies, known in various fables or narratives, is essentially some variation of the sorcerer’s apprentice.
On Unlearning Ableism
PODCAST. Jamie Shields and Celia Chartres-Aris explore disability through the lens of a communication perspective and unlearning our internalized ableism as a necessary step for all of us.
Service Design Tools Can Inform the Design of Agentic AI Services
Jodi Forlizzi: Service designers will play a critical role in envisioning new forms of Agentic AI services, designing their touchpoints, and ensuring that what we design and deliver is ethical and beneficial to the world.
Co-Creating Social Worlds Symposium
FEB 27–28 | New York City, NY, USA. Making change through dialogue, collaboration, and relational practices in times of division. Waitlist.
Thoughts on Hinton
If Geoffrey Hinton and others agree that the greatest danger in AI is its capacity to persuade, we need to develop more resistance to every claim it makes.
The Möbius Strip of Knowledge
Rethinking the boundaries of knowing / Le ruban de Möbius du savoir : repenser les frontières de la connaissance.
Radical Abundance—How to Win a Green Democratic Future
This book is a blueprint for escaping capitalism and creating a world of true abundance—By Kai Heron, Keir Milburn, and Bertie Russell
Abundance: What about public common partnerships?
Abundance promotes public-common strategies to democratise the economy and realise a just socio-ecological transition for everyone.
Working With the Grain
I’m grateful to have learned how to learn by feel. Over the past decade, I have realized that so many of the principles I learned under the florescent lights of my grandpa’s workbench apply to my work in design and systems.
Unity through Community
The climate negotiations in Brazil were a missed opportunity for nations to express unity through clear and ambitious climate action. Moving forward, we need to build communities that care for all.
What Was ChatGPT?
Its meteoric rise shocked the world, gathering more users in less time than any product launch in history.
Seven Habits for Collaborative Leaders to Make it Through These Times
Here are some of the habits that have helped us and the leaders we work with stay steady and open through uncertainty.
The Path to Polycrisis
My journey into personality studies began 10 years ago when I had the unfortunate luck of having a sociopath as my manager.
The Rebels Who Keep Us Human
New on the feed! GertyGordie substack posts by Lorraine Randal. Let’s start with “Systems rely on convivial rebels to stay alive and responsive… but struggle to admit how much they need them.”
What if…? Robyn Penman’s substack is live
Robyn Penman is a scholar and long-time observer and critic of our social world asking “what if…?.” to open a path to a new world of being with others.
Is the Media Studies Cabal in the Room With Us Right Now?
A great deal of suffering arises when we act on our imaginations of the world, rather than working toward clarity. As such, it’s the role of those who care about a topic to articulate the contours of the space. AI is one such space, and debate, at the current moment, is pretty vigorous.
The Karma Effect
Understanding cause and effect is at the heart of responsible climate action. Karma isn’t fate but feedback, and a reminder that we matter more than we think.
What Machines Don’t Know
Much of the most intense debate in AI defaults to “you don’t even understand the technology.” But I suspect the most significant distinction is not whether we understand how a model works, but in how we interpret what the structure is doing.
A library guide to support transdisciplinarity
By ANU Library Guide Working Group. What tools can libraries develop to support transdisciplinary education and research? What are the challenges and requirements to make such tool development happen?
Mobilizing the Potential of Systemic Design Research
Systemic design research aspires to an understanding of whole system contexts, cycles of change, and to account for the effects on non-humans and actants in designed environments. There is no centre in systemic design research—it is not system-centred.
Freedom vs. Order: The Decentralized Design Dilemma
In real life, generous sharing usually works better than strict rules. Heavy permission systems slow down teamwork more than the occasional trust problem costs you. When you’re already working across different groups, you’re not trying to keep everything private anyway.
September Posts: Getting there from here
Catch up on Harold Nelson’s September posts on systemic pedagogy, think differently, and proactive designing (a fourth category of jobs).
Reader’s Block and Mental Stuckness
Francis Laleman’s poetic and evocative story about three novels and a book about trees.
Systemic Design Postdocs @ Tec de Monterrey
Two postdoctoral researcher positions open in The School of Architecture, Art and Design (EAAD) in Mexico City, with preference for locating in the city to collaborate in Dr Jones’ lab.
We are all ready for you to join and bookmark your #RSD14 -RSDX sessions
OCT 3 2025 OPENS *ONLINE* *OPEN ACCESS* RSD14-RSDX is a dynamic community-led festival of systemic design, inviting us to explore with colleagues how systems interconnect and how design can contribute to more just and sustainable futures.
Snowmelt is hosting the Pacific Edition of #RSD14
OCT 2025 | ONLINE. Over the past few years, Snowmelt has deepened involvement in RSD, recognising it as a vital platform for developing and refining systemic design approaches. For RSD14, they are hosting a series scheduled in time zones friendly to areas from the west side of the Pacific to east America.
Image: Snowmelt Co-Founder and Principal, Dr Tim Thompson.
TEDx: Humbling Systemic Design #RSD14
Zaid Khan’s TEDx talk is a good prelim to Humbling Systemic Design: Learning when not to intervene in complex social systems with Samah Kamalmaz at #RSD14 on OCT 9.
TEDx talk is 9:44 min on YouTube.
Systemic Centaurs—Part II
Infusing or integrating AI technology into the functioning of teleological systems, replacing or augmenting human strengths, depends on the activities supported by concomitant degrees of freedom in each conjunction space.
Don’t miss Harold Nelson’s #RSD14 framing conversation on OCT 3.
The Audience Makes the Story
This is a discussion between Camila Galaz, Emma Wiseman, and Eryk Salvaggio, collaborators behind an experimental workshop linking puppetry and generative AI.