Tobias Luthe and Martin Schütz
Systemic Design is, simplified, the creative application of systems thinking. Learning to become a systems thinker is the basis to design and intervene in systems. Methods and didactics to teach and learn and practice systems thinking need to continuously evolve with societal and individual needs. Systemic Cycles is a didactic, a practice, and a form of tourism that can claim to be regenerative. It is physical activation by cycling through a bioregion, guided by curiosity for supply chains, relationality, use of place and activities of people, and overall question-based nudging of circularities through personal visual dialogue. At the core of Systemic Cycles is the experience of different types of flows – flows as of supply chains and circularities and flow experiences, both physical and mental. This RSD activity allows for experiencing the core ideas of Systemic Cycle in a super short, condensed format.
Keywords: cycling, systems, flows, flow, bioregions, exploring, meeting place, dialogue, regenerative, experience, regenerative
Activity
Opening (10 min) The authors introduce Systemic Cycles in different iterations and variations of scales and frame the task in this activity session.
Activity (15 min): Participants are invited to build ad-hoc teams of 3-5 people, receive an A3 paper and some pens, get up and move around, pick an intro theme that jumps into the eye – a focal point – nearby the activity space, and then start asking questions, such as “Where does this come from? What goes in, what comes out? Where does this lead to? What is next? (…)” to build an ad-hoc systems understanding of something (artefact, service, process, landscape, building, food,….), while taking some rough sketches of systems relations on the paper.
Sharing: (5min): Participants stick their ad-hoc systems maps onto the wall and give a 30-seconds impression sharing to the audience. What have you experienced when quick-diving into the systems focal point you found? Did you feel a kind of flow?
