Don’t be mistaken. It was there before 1945. — “Systems thinking is a radically new way of seeing the world.” No, it isn’t. An official history There is an official history of systems thinking that dates the birth of this intellectual movement to the years immediately following World War II. The so-called Macy Conferences — held once or twice a year between…

A Systems Library, Vol. 27 — It is becoming increasingly clear what the challenge is in system change. It’s not the problem out there. It’s us. It is heartening to see that the truth of that insight is spreading far and wide into the field of systems thinking in practice. …

Foregrounding an important theme in first-person inquiry — With this piece I declare my intention to foreground a distinctive thread in my slowly expanding collection of Medium posts. Since a few years I have felt that I’m approaching a new phase in life. I’ll be turning 57 soon. Middle-aged, I find myself confronted with insistent questions about meaning…

A Systems Library, Vol. 26 — Those who are put off by yet another fancy-sounding neologism can be reassured. It’s really quite simple: “Information is an activity of making things known (…) Exformation is an activity of making things unknown.” Or, more precisely: “Exformation implies a transformation of the already known into the possibilities enshrined in…

An invitation to join me for the 2022 edition of our Systems Library — A few years ago I opened a virtual Systems Library, as part of the educational offering bundled under our shiftN Academy. The idea was to deepen systems literacy by reflecting on key publications in systems thinking and practice. Because I noticed that people interested in the field rarely got beyond…

An interview with shiftN colleague Santiago Ortiz — We are launching a new series of contributions to our shiftN Papers. Short, informal conversations with members of our team. Here goes Santiago Ortiz, data scientist. We have been collaborating with Santiago for over ten years. Of Colombian descent, he recently moved with his family from the Bay Area to…

A wish for the new year … — Joanna writes to me about “ … a timespace for sensitisation and rediscovery of beauty …” I’ve experienced the past two holiday weeks like that. You might say that I’ve felt them as therapeutic. And it has given me pause for thought. I’ve articulated the experience for myself as the…

A Systems Library, Vol. 25 — In previous Medium posts I have situated the craft of systems tinkering as a manifestation of a systemic way of being in the world. It is where we work creatively and respectfully with the friction that is inevitably bound up with our existence as sense-making entities in a world in…

A Systems Library, Vol. 24 — In previous Medium posts I have explored how, from a developmental perspective, our innate systemic sensibilities (or our way of systems being) provide a basis for growing our systems literacy. And how, recursively speaking, systems being provides meaning to our systems thinking and tinkering. This book foregrounds an artistic project…