Lessons From the Field: Exploring effective systemic design practices with organisations

Tim Tompson, Leanne Sobel, Emma Blomkamp, and Elsa Henderson

What is effective systemic design work with organisations? What are the necessary conditions to start and sustain it?

We’re starting an open inquiry to explore these questions.

Systemic designers are plural and pragmatic in their approaches, with the discourse developing practices to support effective systemic practice in the field. The practice of systemic design requires mastery and synthesis of a large number of techniques, none of which are particularly useful by themselves. These practices draw from, but are not limited to, discourses such as systems thinking, design thinking, and human-centred design. Over the recent decades, these discourses have individually come and gone in organisations, now considered management fads that have fallen out of favour in commercial organisations and government institutions. There have been common stories as to why this has happened; for example, systems thinking as being too analytical and not outcome-oriented, design thinking as an ideation tool but limited in its ability to influence organisational change, and human-centred design ignores the realities of business. The promise of systemic design seeks to bring out the best of these approaches to create effective change within organisations.

In two workshops across online in RSDX and in person at RSD14, we invite practitioners of systemic design and adjacent practices (e.g., systems facilitators and convenors, systems change practitioners, systemic service designers, systems innovation practitioners), to share what makes success in their engagements, and what makes them work. We aim to draw on deep practitioner experiences to share ‘lessons from the field’ when practising systemic design with organisations. Specifically, we address strategies for effectively navigating projects when organisations are addressing large-scale change; convening multi-stakeholder groups to shift practices, strategic alignment, or embedding new operating models that support more systemic work and sustained change. In the workshop, we pose some simple questions for participants to reflect on in small groups, drawing from their own experiences. By building connections between practitioners. We experiment with an emerging AI workshop capture tool—Dembrane—to let the conversations flow where they naturally flow, and give participants the chance to input on the synthesis that emerges. The RSDX (online) session takes place first, providing our foundational perspectives, and is followed by the on-campus workshop at OCAD University that builds on the same conversation.

While these sessions are open, a number of participants are invited from adjacent communities who have been working at the forefront of these practices.

KEYWORDS: Systemic design practice, methodology, case studies, practitioner perspectives

RSD TOPIC(S): Learning & Education, Methods & Methodology