Masanao Takeyama, Kahoru Tsukui, Hiroshi Yamaguchi, Akihiro Sasaki, Satoshi Miyashita, Kuniko Matsuda, and Manami Fujisawa
Kahoru Tsukui, Masanao Takeyama, Yamaguchi Hiroshi, Satoshi Miyashita, Akihiro Sasaki, Kuniko Matsuda and Manami Fujisawa
Systemic design is increasingly applied to complex social and environmental challenges, yet its application to organisational and managerial problems remains relatively limited. One barrier is that practitioners without formal expertise in systems thinking may struggle to engage with abstract representations such as causal loop diagrams (CLDs). Another challenge lies in bridging the structural reasoning of systems thinking with the contextual and empathetic understanding emphasised in human-centred design (HCD).
This study proposes a systemic design approach that integrates systems archetypes with HCD methods through two tools: the Problem Situation Scoping Sheet and the Iceberg Journey Map. The Problem Situation Scoping Sheet uses systems archetypes as entry-level narrative scaffolds to help practitioners connect concrete workplace experiences with feedback-loop structures. The Iceberg Journey Map combines personas and journey mapping with the Iceberg Model to explore employees’ actions and emotions together with underlying organisational customs, institutional rules, values, and mental models. By moving between actor-centred narratives and system-level structures, the approach brings systemic and human-centred ways of understanding into dialogue as a methodological practice of epistemological pluralism.
The approach was explored through a pilot project involving eight sales representatives at a B2B IT solutions provider undergoing a transition from a traditional printing business towards a problem-oriented, solution-based business model. The analysis identified a mental model shaped by pressure to achieve short-term sales targets and supported the development of an operational intervention that embedded problem-oriented selling into everyday work practices. Participants reported changes in their perceptions of problem-oriented selling and subsequent changes in practice, including changes in the quality of dialogue with clients and the use of mutual advice within the sales team.
Although based on a small exploratory case and qualitative self-reports, the findings suggest that the proposed approach may provide an accessible entry point for non-experts to engage with systemic design. They further suggest that integrating the contextual and empathetic understanding emphasised in HCD into the systemic design process may help translate interventions into forms that are understandable to employees and practicable in their everyday work.
Keywords: empathy, systems archetypes, human-centred design, employee journey map, organisational change