Design for Systemic Impact: Forum for the Future fieldnotes

Rodrigo Bautista, Neil Walker, and Annabel Johnstone

Forum for the Future’s Design and Innovation Collective presents an interactive session offering designers and innovators a practical engagement with Forum’s three-level approach to systemic work:

• Craft
• Provocation
• Creative Change Direction

The session explores real-world examples of multi-stakeholder projects, emerging insights, and learning and provides an opportunity to experience hands-on application of the approach and methods.

Forum’s systemic design and innovation approach is a collaborative space. Participants are invited to bring a project—whether ongoing or past—to serve as a reference point for exploring how design can drive systemic impact through practical application. By reflecting on real-world examples, we can effectively illustrate how design can be applied more systemically. The session features a collective case clinic and facilitated break-out to discuss actionable insights and the role of imagination and design in systemic work.

Our goal is to share the Forum’s approach and offer an opportunity for reflection on co-creation to support change in our work. The session concludes with a call to action. For those who are interested, there’s an opportunity to join Forum’s growing network of design and innovation professionals dedicated to systemic impact.

Note: This 90-minute session includes a 10-minute pause at 30 and 60 minutes and a break-out segment.

Profiles

Rodrigo Bautista’s experience in design research, futures innovation, and sustainability consulting extends to collaborative projects driving system innovation and impactful sustainability with organisations such as the Rockefeller Foundation, Unilever, the City of Palo Alto, Sony, and Innovate UK. Recently, Rodrigo worked on the Mobility Scale Lab project with Palo Alto and Dell, exploring the potential of open data for sustainable urban mobility. He also contributed to Sony’s Futurescapes, envisioning sustainable lifestyles by 2025. After beginning his career in telecommunications and advertising with Telmex and Leo Burnett, Rodrigo shifted focus following an overland journey from Mexico City to Ushuaia, studying sustainability with local communities. This experience led him to co-found Engage by Design in the UK, a studio dedicated to using design as a tool for change.

Neil Walker joined Forum in  2021 after four years in East Africa, where he worked with SMEs, communities, and producers on business model innovation, market access, and livelihood development. His work focused on achieving genuine impact through tailored interventions that built incomes, equity, and resilience. During his time there, Neil led a team of young professionals, transforming them into a dynamic and adaptive group that continues to drive change in their country and communities. He completed a Master’s in migration studies in Copenhagen, with a focus on the factors driving human movement. Neil’s work, grounded in grassroots humanitarianism, has evolved through consultancy and politics and has provided him with a deep understanding of complex, disruptive issues. With  Forum, Neil engages in projects related to sustainable value chains and livelihoods, drawing on his diverse experiences to support system change within complex supply chains.

Annabel Johnstone’s studies in environmental science sparked her interest in transformational energy systems, integrating insights from both natural and social sciences. Her dissertation focused on the risks and opportunities of a decentralised energy system in the UK, where she first engaged with scenario analysis and futures mapping. Annabel’s career has centred on development, energy access, climate change action, and entrepreneurship, with significant experience in East African start-ups and international climate change adaptation consulting. She has developed a deep understanding of the complexities of energy systems and the challenges of expecting uniform responses across diverse contexts. Annabel advocates for the smart decentralisation of centralised energy systems to enhance the efficiency of renewable energy, promote regional resilience, and adapt infrastructure to socio-environmental contexts. Additionally, she seeks to reframe the concept of value beyond financial metrics, highlighting the importance of incorporating environmental health into assessments to empower transformative change.