Relational Aliveness: Feeling our way into systems design

Naoko Ellis and Derek Gladwin

This workshop explores relational aliveness as a way of co-designing that emphasises being present in the web of relationships that shape life. What makes this an empowering practice, especially amid an unravelling world, is that learning to co-design with/in complex systems calls upon our ability to relate— with people, things, more-than-humans, ideas, etc.—can only be fully understood through their connections to one another. Rather than relying on individualistic or reductionist problem-solving, participants engage in collective sense-making that accounts for context and conditions. Through dialogue, supported by activities and reflective exercises, the workshop offers both theory and practice for cultivating systemic approaches across disciplines and sectors to enhance a sense of being alive in relation to the interconnections around us.

Drawing on some of the work in the Systems Beings Lab (SBL) at the University of British Columbia, participants examine how relational aliveness engages emotional, intellectual, and embodied dimensions of collaboration through an affective-relational-cognitive framework. The process emphasises designing with, not for, communities and partners, and considers how sensations of discomfort, uncertainty, and even failure can become generative spaces for co-learning and transformation together. Relational aliveness is not separate from complexity but deeply entangled with it. Co-designing in this way calls for shifts in mindset, but also in presence through embodied practices—feeling our way into systems—as participants enhance awareness of their embeddedness in living systems.

This session equips participants with practices and frameworks to show up with more presence and aliveness in the complex, evolving systems. By the end of the workshop, participants have a deeper understanding of how relationality influences systemic transformation and develop action plans to integrate RSD into their fields. Designed for educators, researchers, policymakers, and organisational leaders, many of whom are considered “change agents”, this workshop provides valuable insights into building adaptive systems for the future.

Open inquiry for this workshop: How can we learn not just about the relational nature of complexity but co-designing with and through it?

KEYWORDS: systems literacy, systems design, co-design, relationality, complexity, collaboration, co-creation, relational aliveness

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