Seanna Davidson and Dana Shen
This session offers an in-depth account of the design, delivery, and evolution of The System School’s Systems Leadership Program. Drawing on insights from a two-year journey, this talk examines the programme’s conceptual foundations, educational methodology, and the adaptive learning processes that have informed its development. Designed in response to a recognised need for sustained and meaningful systemic practice, the programme seeks not only to support practitioners working across sectors and thematic areas in Australasia but also to strengthen their personal and relational resilience as they continue to serve the systems they care for.
The ten-month virtual programme is structured around a learning arc that begins with community building, proceeds through the introduction of systems frameworks, and moves into cycles of theory and practice. These cycles are anchored in six core dimensions of systemic practice: thinking, being, doing, knowing, perceiving, and relating. Rather than delivering predefined methods for systemic change, the programme consciously cultivates a learning environment characterised by care, growth, and companionship. It shifts focus from technical or innovation-centric solutions towards embodied wisdom, peer learning, and deep relational engagement.
Guided by principles drawn from complexity science and multiple systems thinking lineages, the programme integrates creativity, play, and emergent learning as essential components of its design. Emphasis is placed on collective sensemaking, contemplative practice, and the co-creation of tools and supports that evolve with the group. Participants are encouraged to explore diverse ways of knowing, to listen deeply—both individually and collectively—and to engage with the dynamic, unfolding nature of complex systems.
The session also introduces the programme’s theory of change, which reframes leadership not as an individual capacity to lead, but as a collective phenomenon that emerges from system-wide patterns. Systems leadership, in this framing, is understood as an outcome of the system itself—an emergent behaviour that can only be recognised in relation to the whole. The conversation will delve into key design elements that support relationality, hold space for multiple epistemologies, and position meditation as a foundational practice within systemic leadership development.
This case study contributes to the field of relational systems leadership by demonstrating how intentionally designed learning environments can foster the capacities required for systemic change in complex and uncertain conditions.
Retreat: Navigating new edges for the field
This talk also serves as a framing for the RSD14 Systems(ic) Leadership Retreat, facilitated by Seanna Davidson, Director of The Systems School—a calling-in for those who design and lead systemic leadership capability-building programs.
Held at the Wychwood Barns, once a transit barn, now a place of regeneration. The redevelopment, completed in 2008, reimagined the space as a living system—one that connects art, housing, and community in new ways.
The Barns are on the Dish With One Spoon Territory, a treaty between the Anishinaabe, Mississaugas and Haudenosaunee that bound them to share the territory and protect the land. Subsequent Indigenous Nations and peoples, Europeans, and all newcomers have been invited into this treaty in the spirit of peace, friendship, and respect.
PROFILE
Seanna Davidson
Director, The Systems School
Seanna is a systems practitioner and process designer dedicated to navigating complex change. Currently, much of her work is based in Australia; however, she is well-known to the Canadian social innovation community for her work with the Waterloo Institute for Complexity and Innovation (formerly WISIR), her dedication to water governance, and her commitment to building confidence in systems thinking and reflective practice. Now based on Kabi Kabi Country, with recognised Native Title, Seanna continues to cultivate connections between people and systems, drawing inspiration from the natural world, early morning stillness, and meaningful dialogue. For Seanna, the Toronto Islands are a meaningful place to co-create pathways for systems leadership. She started her life's journey on the shores of Lake Ontario, and her PhD focused on cross-boundary water governance in the Great Lakes watershed.
Adapted from the-systems-school.org
Dana Shen
Consulting and Meditation
Dana is Aboriginal/Chinese and a descendant of the Ngarrindjeri people in South Australia, with a passion for working with Aboriginal people and communities. She has over 20 years’ experience in the public and not-for-profit sectors, working across health, families, and child protection. Dana began as a Youth Community Development Officer in the Adelaide Hills and Murray Lands, supporting young people, many at risk, to create better community environments. She later held senior roles in the South Australian public sector, overseeing program management, service delivery, policy development, and strategic planning, and at The Australian Centre for Social Innovation (TACSI) as Principal, Social Services, Systems & Aboriginal Policy and Director of the Family by Family program.
Dana recently completed a two-year mindfulness meditation teacher training with Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach, and is committed to making mindfulness accessible to organisations and communities in South Australia, bringing a strong First Nations and Ngarrindjeri lens. She enjoys creating art and bushwalking, especially the Heysen and Lavender Federation Trails.
Adapted from danashen.com
