Zaid Khan | Systems Thinking Ontario
This session of Systems Thinking Ontario (ST-ON) is an opportunity to consider the story of ST-ON from the perspective of learnings on continuous systems convening. ST-ON organizers speak to the long history of the ST-ON monthly meetup, its format, unique features, and personal highlights and learnings. Long-time participants also share their reflections on the value that ST-ON has provided them.
The session format is a roundtable on new trajectories in response to two trends: (i) the insular approach to discussing systems thinking via “systems thinkers,” and (ii) the ease and reach of online meetups and the value of in-person discussions in shared contexts.
This session is scheduled to align with ST-ON’s regularly scheduled monthly meeting on the third Monday of the month, starting at 6:30 and usually ending at 8:15 UTC-4. The inaugural ST-ON meeting was on December 12, 2012, and featured Ranulph Glanville.
Profile
Zaid Khan is a Strategist based out of Toronto, Ontario. Zaid works as a creative strategist helping senior clients at large scale infrastructure organizations. He also works at the Institute of Islamic Studies, University of Toronto where he helps the academics maximize the impact of their research. He holds a Masters of Design from OCADU’s Strategic Foresight and Innovation program. He’s a researcher with Systems Changes Learning, a group that is updating the field of Systems Thinking. He also organizes and hosts the monthly meetups for Systems Thinking Ontario.
Systems Thinking Ontario uses the working definition of systems thinking as understanding the world by exploring parts and wholes, and doing this by simultaneously and iteratively using analysis (what parts does this whole contain) and synthesis (which wholes contain this part). For an opinion (not necessarily definitive) of the domain of interest, see An Interview on Service Systems, Natural Systems, and systems sciences.
Related local groups involved in Systems Thinking include:
- The Community for Flourishing Enterprise (C4FE), formerly the Strongly Sustainable Business Model Group, hosted by the Flourishing Enterprise Institute
- Systems Thinking Toronto which has held its own meet-ups across practitioner communities
- CANSEE – Canadian Society for Ecological Economics
- Systems Thinking Ontario enjoys close relations with past presidents of the International Society for the Systems Sciences and the Systemic
- Systemic Design Association (RSD Symposium). We might be unofficially seen as a Toronto-based chapter of these communities.
Systems Thinking Ontario was a spin-off from the Design With Dialogue community. Its spirit of collaboration and open sharing aspires to be the same, although the format and audience may be a little different.