Why Arcs of Impact?

After nine years, RSD14 returns to its roots at OCAD University in Toronto

Since 2012, the RSD Symposium has grown into an academic conference that catalyzes the practical application of systemic design. RSD Symposiums have showcased stories and lessons from systemic design applications in government, healthcare, education, and beyond.

This year, RSD14 kicks off with Paper Talks—a series of online presentations and discussions running from Wednesday, October 8, to Friday, October 10. The following week, an in-person symposium will take place at OCAD University from Wednesday, October 15, to Sunday, October 18. The gathering will feature speakers, panels, and workshops at the university’s downtown campus on 100 McCaul St, Toronto, ON M5T 1G1.

Lastly, on Monday, October 19, a one-day retreat on the Toronto Islands will bring together professionals working in systemic leadership capability-building.

You can join RSD14 online, in person, or both—we’re offering tiered pricing options to keep participation as inclusive as possible.

Why Arcs of Impact?
Over the last few years, we have seen a rise in significant impacts and outcomes from systemic design—a field once considered abstract and mainly about mapping systems. RSD14 will celebrate recent successes and reflect on lessons from systemic design projects across the globe.

On relationality in complexity: how relations shape complex systems
Our societal systems are inherently complex—and over time, they become more so. They comprise countless components, each guided by different motivations and constantly interacting in ways that can yield unexpected effects. Yet, it is the relations between a system’s components that determine its wholeness and relevance. These relations are like living tissues that enable systems to learn, sustain, and evolve.

Given the importance of relations within a system, RSD14 will explore relationality in complexity. How can we approach relating as designing to gain deeper insight into the arcs of impact that relations create, so all components within a system can thrive?

This year’s contributions fall into two categories:
1) Approaches to design for relationality in complex systems.
2) Novel research outcomes.

Contributors will present methodologies, theoretical perspectives, and real-world applications in various domains.

Join the conversation
RSD14 will bring together people from diverse sectors to share insights and weave connections, with the aim of shaping more equitable systems. Each perspective adds depth to the insights we discover, and your voice will help expand our collective understanding of the systems we are part of.

We invite you to bring your perspective, your questions, and your curiosity. Together, we can spark conversations that live beyond the symposium and ripple into the work ahead.

Our goal is to make this event as accessible as possible, especially for the online portion. Tickets for the online sessions start at CA$20, and there is also a pay-what-you-can option.

Themes within the symposium’s scope:
• Networks of relations in social, cultural, and care systems.
• Pro-social design in economies, publics, and civilizations. Applying pro-social design in economies and specific publics to evolve civilizations.
• System leadership, relational and systemic management. (How leaders can manage the relations in systems for a greater systemic impact).
• Learning from complex partnerships. Case studies of complex partnerships or associations to reimagine stakeholder relations.
• Relational care, systemic health services, and population wellbeing.
• Design for enhancing relationality in social systems and their cultural evolution.
• Relations across interpersonal, transpersonal, inter-natural, and spiritual dimensions.
• Ways of knowing and being as epistemological alternatives to mainstream systemic design.

The symposium seeks to establish tracks of discourse for the following domains:
• Policy design and governance business models.
• Health and healthcare systems.
• Ecosystems, circular economies, and regeneration.
• Technology, digital systems, and their actor networks.
• Social systems; their formation and management.
• Human and organizational flourishing.
• Systemic design education and design methodology