Systems thinking, complexity, and systems science
A new term has been circulating in policy circles that reflects a changing way of viewing conflict, crisis, and complexity: polycrisis. Let’s look at what it might mean for people looking to plan, evaluate, and act in a world filled with turmoil. Polycrisis is not a term that inspires much hope. I’m not one for […]
What’s in a Polycrisis? Read More »
Saying something is complex was once an admission we didn’t have expertise, now it’s a cover for not committing to something. What does it mean when we undermine the meaningfulness of the term complexity? If you were involved in business operations or social innovation 15 years ago, you might remember when people rarely used “complex”
When Did Complexity Change Its Meaning? Read More »
Strategic Design is about applying design principles, methods, tools, and approaches to shaping an enterprise. How might we use this to connect our purpose with our actions? Strategic Design is a newer area of practice within the field of design. It’s basically taking what we know about Design and applying it to ourselves: our organizations,
Using Strategic Design for Change Read More »
Principled or values-driven approaches to strategy only have value when we can put them into practice. In this latest post in our series on Principles-Focused Evaluation, we look at the nuts and bolts of putting principles into practice. It is a lot easier to speak of principles and values than to live by them. I
Principles in Action Read More »
This second in a series on Principles-Focused Evaluation (PFE) draws our attention to the concepts of systems and complexity and how can PFE help us navigate both. Systems (thinking), complexity, and principles all go together. Principles-focused Evaluation (PFE) brings them together in meaningful ways, but to understand that, we first need to understand what we
Systems and Complexity: Implications for Evaluation Read More »
The climate crisis enveloping us right now is providing a teachable moment to explore the difference between development and growth. Understanding the distinctions between what it means to grow and what it takes to develop might be critical to the survival of our planet — or at least ourselves. It might also be a way
Development vs Growth Read More »
Canada was recently taught a valuable lesson about networks and systems fundamentals when it lost nearly 1/3 of its telecom capacity in a single day. What this outage teaches us about networks and systems is worth paying attention to. What would happen if you couldn’t access your phone? What if you couldn’t withdraw money from
System and Network Design Read More »
Energy — our ability to generate and convert inspiration and enthusiasm into action — is at the heart of designing for change. Just like Design itself, we need to design for it to make it happen. There’s a great analogy about juggling that suggests success is as much about how many balls you have in
Disruption and the Energy of Change Read More »
Systems Thinking is a field that brings many different perspectives on science, philosophy, sociology and design, and while this diversity adds richness, it also sews confusion. You might have heard about something called Systems Thinking (and read about it among the many posts on Censemaking) but don’t really know what it is in practice. Let’s
Practical Systems Thinking: Working Definitions Read More »
Systems thinking is something we can all learn to do. We discuss the fundamentals for starting your practice as a systems thinker.
Systems Thinking Practice: Starting Out Read More »
