Haizea Perez
Systemic design offers powerful frameworks for addressing wicked problems in the public sector, yet its specialised vocabulary and dense representational artefacts frequently overwhelm the civil servants who engage with them. This paper argues that visual metaphors are not merely communication aids but can function as systemic models themselves; tools through which non-expert stakeholders can perceive complex systems, inhabit their logic, and mobilize collective action.
Drawing on Karl Weick’s theory of sensemaking and Star and Griesemer’s concept of the boundary object, it introduces the methodological approach of ‘shading the concept to unshade the problem’: the practice of rendering dense theoretical concepts in familiar visual forms so that practical challenges might become visible and actionable. This approach is developed through analysis of the systemic models developed in The Bærekraftstanken handbook, a systemic design resource created in collaboration with an intermunicipal alliance in rural Norway.
The paper proposes a distinction between metaphorical sensemaking, the initial cognitive work of mapping an unfamiliar concept onto a familiar form, and processual sensemaking, the dialogic, socially embedded work that follows, through which stakeholders collectively examine their own institutional context.
This approach is proposed as a way of enabling a progression from metaphorical sensemaking to processual sensemaking, the condition under which shared ownership of systemic knowledge can become possible.
Keywords: Systemic design, sensemaking, visual metaphors, public sector innovation, boundary objects, processual sensemaking, stakeholder ownership