Advancing Together – An Invitation for Systemic Collaboration
Date: 11th-15th July 2025
Location: Birmingham Leadership Institute, UK

Link:

2025 Birmingham UK

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-53793-6_4

Mercy Borbor-Cordova , Sadie Ryan, Rachel Lowe, Rosa von Borries & Anna Stewart Ibarra
Part of the book series: Sustainable Development Goals Series ((SDGS))

Abstract
Emerging and persistent infectious diseases are global threats that have evidenced the interconnectedness and
interdependence of the environment, animal, and human systems. To identify solutions to these complex real-world
challenges, a systemic approach is needed to understand the interactions among natural and human systems.
Collaborative partnerships among researchers from diverse disciplines with policy practitioners and societal actors are
also key. Research and public health practice frameworks based on systems thinking approaches have been developed
to address the complexity of infectious diseases and other global health threats from local to global scales. For example,
the Planetary Health framework focuses on human health and the interactions with the natural systems upon which it
depends, stating that the health of human civilization depends on a healthy planet. The One Health approach aims to
achieve optimal health and well-being outcomes by recognizing the interconnections between people, animals, plants,
and their shared environment. Indigenous Peoples recognize that humans are inextricably interconnected with all life
on the planet. Accordingly, the climate crisis and disease threats constitute a “relationship problem.” These holistic
knowledge paradigms support a better understanding of infectious disease risks and the development of contextspecific
interventions to reduce disease transmission through transdisciplinary research and strong multinational
partnerships. The theoretical concepts of these perspectives are described in this chapter and illustrated by the authors’

Jan 21, 2025 · Book Review · 4 min readLearning Systems Thinking – Review

Learning Systems Thinking – Review — Second Phase Solutions

15 January 2025

link:

Exploring the Legacy of Mike Jackson: Systems Thinking in Action for Communities – Centre for Business Innovations and Sustainable Solutions (CBISS)

https://blogs.napier.ac.uk/cbiss/2025/01/15/systemsthinking

And relevant LinkedIn post where Mike responded (very positively)

Ben Sweeting, Sally Sutherland

First published: 10 September 2023

https://doi.org/10.1002/sres.2974

Abstract

How to understand the relation between design and research is a longstanding question in design theory and practice. It is also a question in design pedagogy, especially in taught postgraduate programmes where students are expected to engage with and conduct research in formal ways, often for the first time. In this article, we discuss a curriculum that we have developed for introducing research literacy to taught postgraduate students in architecture and design disciplines. The curriculum draws both explicitly and implicitly on an analogy between designing and researching developed through the lens of cybernetics, a transdisciplinary field that relates to both design and science. When cybernetics has been invoked in the context of design, it has usually been as a form of explanatory theory, contributing to the theoretical foundations of design research and its relations with other disciplines. Our approach instead positions cybernetics as a mode of transdisciplinary engagement within students’ own learning where an unfamiliar topic (research) is approached through analogy to a familiar one (design). We begin by contextualizing the curriculum and introducing the rationale for this approach in the context of design research. We then summarize key moments in the curriculum and our observations of its impact in students’ work. We conclude by speculating on the extent to which enacted analogies such as the example presented here may be taken up in other practical situations, and the potential value of doing so in reformulating cybernetics in ways that are practiced (rather than abstract) and methodological (not just explanatory).

link

Design’s secret partner in research: Cybernetic practices for design research pedagogy – Sweeting – 2023 – Systems Research and Behavioral Science – Wiley Online Library

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/sres.2974

full time

Head of National Systems Change | Macmillan Cancer Support | LinkedIn

Dec 2024

pattern making

I’m part of the team delivering the excellent Level 7 Systems Thinking Apprenticeship for people working in England (apprenticeship levy funded) with Cherith Simmons. With the government review accelerating decisions, we’re starting new cohorts now—some spaces available. Let me know if you or your team are interested!

Notes:

For the apprenticeship, you need to be in a job in England (not even the UK, sadly) – more info here https://cherithsimmons.co.uk/apprenticeships/leadership-and-management/stp/
The programme is delivered over 24 months combining pre-recorded training material, highly interactive virtual workshops, progressive work-based assessments etc…

But all the inputs are also being made available through SCiO – Systems and Complexity in Organisation: https://www.systemspractice.org/courses

(I should clarify – ‘all the inputs’ means the core teaching inputs from SCiO people, which do add up to all the teaching inputs from the apprenticeship – and more. In the apprenticeship you get action learning – also available from SCiO https://www.systemspractice.org/active-learning-circles – and tripartite meetings with your employer, etc etc)

The core apprenticeship standard is here:
https://www.instituteforapprenticeships.org/apprenticeship-standards/st0787-v1-1

Both the training and the apprenticeship standard are designed around the professional standard – which you can get on peer review of a practice portfolio for a very modest fee!
https://www.systemspractice.org/professional-accreditation

The INET Systems Thinking Seminar SeriesThe Oxford Systems Thinking Hub has been set up to promote and develop the use of Systems Thinking approaches across Oxford.

The INET Systems Thinking Seminar Series

Developer Voices

25K subscribers

If you want to build really large software systems well, you have to stop thinking of them as just software systems. Beyond a certain size, everything your software touches becomes part of the wider system. You’re part of the system, your users are part of the system, and every other employee & department & priority eventually forms part of that system. And that can make it incredibly difficult to make changes, or even to understand which changes will actually matter. That might be overwhelming, but there’s hope. Understanding how systems work and how to improve them is something that can be learnt, and improved at. So in the pursuit of better systems understanding, I’m joined this week by Diana Montalion, coder, architect, and author of Learning Systems Thinking. She takes us through how she sees systems, and how we can get better at discovering and understanding our own systems, as we both chew through some difficult systems we’ve worked on in the hope of figuring out how to do it better next time…

link:

(276) Software Systems Aren’t Just Software (with Diana Montalion) – YouTube

This video is an excerpt from the 1992 American Society for Cybernetics Conference about the cybernetics of Herbert Brün and Humberto Maturana, organized by then president Rodney Donaldson.

link:

Humberto Maturana; The Biology of Love, Language and Languaging – YouTube

Dec 2024 | News & Notes

RSD13 in Oslo, online, and RSDX was a unique experience lasting over two weeks and presenting hundreds of presentations and over 1000 joining.

The onsite event at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design was a unique one-track event with no recording or streaming. Except the keynotes were recorded. Here we present the three keynotes.

RSD13 OSLO KEYNOTESDEC 2024 | NEWS & NOTESRSD13 in Oslo, online, and RSDX was a unique experience lasting over two weeks and presenting hundreds of presentations and over 1000 joining.The onsite event at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design was a unique one-track event with no recording or streaming. Except the keynotes were recorded. Here we present the three keynotes.

RSD13 Oslo Keynotes

Material drawn from the workbooks prepared for SCiO (Systems and Complexity in Organisation, the systems thinking practitioner professional body) for facilitation, workshop design, and large group facilitation sessions:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OdGHAOcehnAurCc00vcF_vnA4N8L4UUynDhbD5J1yPc/edit?tab=t.0

Posted in the systems thinking network group on LinkedIn by Gene Bellinger

After almost 50 years of creating models I sort of figured I had it pretty much sorted out… And? https://bra.in/7qaonE Then one day I was presenting one of my incomprehensible models when I stopped and asked myself “What does it mean?” I know what it said, though what did it mean was a very different question.

I can use any modeling software to develop a model of what I think I know or understand, though none of them are any help at all with what I don’t know I don’t know. Last fall I started investigating the extent to which AI might help me build better models and help me understand some of the ones I’ve already developed.

I found what evolved from this endeavor quite amazing. Not only is AI allowing me to develop better models it is also allowing me to understand insights and leverage points and models that used to take weeks and months now usually only take a couple hours.

On Wed Jan 22nd at 11:00 EST (New York) for 90 min. During this workshop, I’ll explain how I trained AI to help me develop better models in a fraction of the time. If you register for this workshop I’ll send the Zoom link 1 day before and 1 hr before the seminar.

* Register: https://lnkd.in/eM-iTvhv
* Example Model: https://kumu.io/-/991409

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