Rhea Kachroo, Annand Ollivierre, and Autumn Sanders
How do we design for change in systems that are built on—and sustained by—relationships? This workshop introduces participants to a hands-on toolkit developed through Edmonton’s Community-Based Mental Health Strategy project. At its core, the toolkit supports facilitators, designers, and changemakers in practising systemic relationality—actively engaging with, understanding, mapping, and shifting complex systems through relational practices.
Rather than offering a prescriptive model, we created the Future System Blueprinting approach that provides flexible tools and frameworks to help groups uncover hidden dynamics, challenge mental models, and co-create more responsive systems. This workshop introduces participants to how we combined key practices such as service blueprinting, decolonised engagement and research, speculative prototyping, and system mapping that combines Bill Sharpe’s Three Horizons Framework and FSG’s Six Conditions of Systemic Change framework.
The workshop explores how the relational nature of systems—between individuals, services, communities, and policies—can be made visible and actionable. Participants engage with a set of adaptable tools designed to foster deep listening, strengthen community-based supports, and visualise pathways for change. Through participatory activities and reflection, we also consider how facilitation itself becomes a systemic intervention when grounded in care, reciprocity, and relationship-building.
By the end of the session, participants:
- Gain a working knowledge of the Canadian Mental Health Association’s Systems Blueprint Toolkit
- Explore real-world applications of relational systems practices
- Experiment with facilitation techniques that foster co-creation and insight
This workshop is designed for those looking to deepen their systems change practice with tools that centre people, relationships, and community-defined futures.
KEYWORDS: systems thinking, relational design, participatory design, blueprinting, speculative prototyping, systemic change
RSD TOPICS: Health & Well-Being, Methods & Methodology, Mapping & Modelling
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The RSD14 workshop folder contains a downloadable brief with each workshop's context and background, agenda, facilitator profiles, and key references.