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The Waters Center for Systems Thinking is an internationally recognized leader in system thinking capacity building. We are dedicated to providing the tools and methods that help people understand, track, and leverage the connections that affect their personal and professional goals.

Systems Changes is a collaborative open research program, initiated from Toronto, Canada. A call for participation was launched in January 2019 at the monthly Systems Thinking Ontario meeting. The web site was will evolve as contributions and knowledge are added.

In this webinar Simon Robinson, co-author of Holonomics: Business Where People and Planet Matter, will discuss with Fritjof the importance to global brands of developing their own systems view of life, and what guidance and inspiration change agents working with brands can learn.

When creating new services for clients, we very often don't delve deep enough into the organisation that delivers the service. Service solutions are often limited to pragmatic improvements that lie directly in the customer experience, what many consider 'the art of the possible'. But by combining classic service design and user journey mapping techniques with notation from Systems Thinking, we can go deeper into understanding WTF's really going on inside our organisations.

We do not claim expertise in any specific business area. Rather we work to bring to the table our deep systems expertise (concepts and tools); our clients bring deep understanding of their environment; together we find a heightened level of perception and new ways to think about issues. The result is often amazing in terms of results and accomplishments.

"The classic example of that backward intuition was my own introduction to systems analysis, the world model. Asked by the Club of Rome to show how major global problems - poverty and hunger, environmental destruction, resource depletion, urban deterioration, unemployment - are related and how they might be solved, Forrester made a computer model and came out with a clear leverage point1: Growth. Not only population growth, but economic growth. Growth has costs as well as benefits, and we typically don't count the costs - among which are poverty and hunger, environmental destruction, etc. - the whole list of problems we are trying to solve with growth! What is needed is much slower growth, much different kinds of growth, and in some cases no growth or negative growth."

Understanding the difference between complex and complicated systems is becoming important for many aspects of management and policy. With complicated problems or issues one can define the problem and strategically develop actions, time-frames and milestones along a path to success. In contrast, cause and effect are difficult to predict in complex adaptive systems. This post aims to provide more detail around these concepts as an introduction. - See more at: http://learningforsustainability.net/sparksforchange/complicated-or-complex-knowing-the-difference-is-important-for-the-management-of-adaptive-systems/#sthash.Kb2vkjsl.dpuf

The choices we make can enhance the vitality of our habitat . . . or diminish it, in the same way as our choices can enhance or diminish the health of our bodies.  At the Livng Systems Institute we explore choices that can enhance the vitality of our habitat.  That begins with a deep mulch gardening system that creates a habitat for whole soil ecosystems in order to produce nutrient rich food.

There is an emerging knowledge movement that is slowly building all over the world, though it often goes unnoticed by the media and most formal education systems. A part of this movement can be described as a network of 'eco-versities'-people, organizations and communities who are reclaiming knowledge systems and a cultural imaginary to restore and re-envision learning processes that are meaningful and relevant to the challenges of our times.

"Modeling to Learn is a national quality improvement initiative in the Veterans Health Administration (VA). Funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and VA Health Services Research and Development (HSRD), scientific study of Modeling to Learn is underway to determine its effectiveness increasing delivery of evidence-based addiction and mental health care (NIDA R01DA046651 and R21DA042198 ; HSRD I01HX002521; PI: Zimmerman ). Modeling to Learn supports multidisciplinary teams of frontline psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, nurses and certified peer support specialists in VA. This demonstration website supports the research effort by providing a simulation demonstration to implementation science and quality improvement researchers, and to patient, provider and policy-maker stakeholders across VA, or other integrated addiction and mental health care systems."

In a world filled with ever-more-complex technological, sociological, ecological, political & economic systems... a tool to make interactive simulations may not be that much help. But it can certainly try.

Forum for the Future US brings all of Forum's system innovation, futures and sustainable business tools and expertise to solve sustainability challenges across North America. Working with major businesses including Target, Walmart and McDonald's, smaller companies like Method and Annie's, and NGOs such as The Rainforest Alliance, we have helped reshape the business models and convene the coalitions capable of creating lasting change. We believe that only by keeping a keen eye on what the future might hold can we make sound decisions for the longer term. We also believe that the key systems that we rely on, like food and energy, are broken and in need of complete transformation. Forum equips its Network members with the knowledge, training and practical tools to innovate. We provide them with a platform for collaboration where they can test solutions and make their successes bigger and better.

"The Habits of a Systems Thinker help learners understand how systems work and how actions taken can impact results seen over time. They encompass a spectrum of strategies that foster problem-solving and encourage questioning. The Thinking Tools Studio contains a course for each of the Habits. "

A global community of systems innovators

A few years ago, the need of tackling increasingly complex projects pushed Namahn and shiftN to collaborate on a Systemic Design toolkit. At the RSD5 symposium in Toronto (2016), the two partners presented the first version of the toolkit and assessed its fit for purpose during the conference workshop. Since then, the original authors have collaborated with Peter Jones (Systemic Design Association) and Alex Ryan (MaRS Discovery District) for continued development of the toolkit towards a mature version, ready for use.

We are committed to facilitating public understanding. We've developed several ways that you can learn systems thinking, mapping, and leadership from the very best research in the field.

The Transition Design Framework provides a logic for bringing together the transdisciplinary knowledge, skillsets and practices relevant to understanding, seeding and catalyzing systems level change. It is comprised of four key mutually reinforcing and co-evolving areas of practices, knowledge and skill sets relevant to understanding, seeding and catalyzing systems-level change:

Systems change on a huge scale is needed at this point in history. Many of our institutions, industries, organizations and professions were built in a very different context. A context where for example we believed that we could have constant economic growth, without fear of running out of natural resources. The concept of white supremacy was accepted. Women had clearly defined roles and were not seen as capable as men in the workplace.

The Institute's mission is to provide innovative strategies, working models and timely information to support environmentally sound and equitable community development. To this end, ILSR works with citizens, activists, policymakers and entrepreneurs to design systems, policies and enterprises that meet local or regional needs; to maximize human, material, natural and financial resources; and to ensure that the benefits of these systems and resources accrue to all local citizens.