Coevolving Innovations

When the Systems Changes Learning Circle started in 2019, we weren’t crisp with ways to describe “systems changes”. By 2024, we had philosophized and theorized “Systems Changes Learning”, and began methodizing on “Pacing Changes”.

With this maturity of appreciation, this presentation orients towards an audience mostly of designers, listing 9 (non-exclusive, non-exhaustive) approaches to systems changes. To aid understanding, short movies were included as metaphorical imagery. An animated slide preview preview (85 seconds) gives an overview of the presentation.

Here’s the abstract from the associated research article.

Designers engaging in initiatives aspiring towards "systems changes” may be challenged to define what that entails. What distinguishes a “change” from “systems changes”? Under stable conditions where minor fluctuations from an equilibrium are expected, systems typically absorb irregularities without altering their fundamental nature or identity. In turbulent fields where disorder prevails, systems may be transformed as adaptations and developments unfold.

(Re-)designing can be grounded in paradigms drawn from Social Theory, and/or General Systems Theory. Depending on context, certain systems approaches may prove more suitable than others. Efforts to identify a universal "one best way" towards solving (or dissolving) problems (or problematic messes) are likely to lead to disappointment. In the evolution of the systems movement since the 1950s, design thinking and transdisciplinary stances have gained prominence. Contemporary mindsets increasingly embrace pluralistic perspectives, drawing from postmodern thought and non-Western philosophies.

Through a multiparadigm inquiry, well-established mainstream systems perspectives from the 20th century are reviewed. Since 2019, the Systems Changes Learning Circle in Toronto has been rethinking systems thinking, shifting the focus from stability to navigating constant change.

The sLab at OCADU has a history dating back to 2008 (even predating the initiation of the M.Des. program on Strategic Foresight and Innovation). Since the summer, four OCADU systemic designers have been meeting to discuss Reinvigoration of the sLab for 2025.

The 136th meeting of Systems Thinking Ontario coincided with the RSD14 Relating Systems Thinking and Design Symposium, and our evenings lined up with Australians meeting in the mornings for the Pacific Edition. Greg Van Alstyne and Peter Scott were featured in the conversation on history and prospects for sLab.

The history is a preamble for an in-person workshop on Friday, October 17, 3:30-5:30pm at the RSD14 hub at OCADU, 100 McCaul Street. A description of the “Where Do Systemic Designers Go To [BLANK]?” workshop is posted in the preprints for the proceedings.

Here’s the original description for the recorded ST-ON session above.

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This session offers a reflection on the history of the Strategic Innovation Lab’s (sLab) at OCADU. We’ll discuss the potential for its renewal in the context of a vibrant systems thinking and design community, both locally and nationally.

sLab, at OCADU, was host to an active community of students, alumni, faculty, and stakeholders from 2002 to 2020. In this time, it produced notable projects such as Digital Governance, Economic Futures of Ontario 2032, Design Jams, amongst others. These projects and workshops used many strategic foresight methods, which have since become more well-known.… Read more (in a new tab)

In fall 2025, Stephen Davies was appointed as the instructor for the “Understanding Systems” SFIN-6011 course in the Strategic Foresight and Innovation program, as part of the Master of Design degree at OCADU. I”ve been a visiting lecturer in the course since 2017, and was appointed as a co-instructor in Winter 2020. The course has a long history, first taught in 2009, and evolved by Peter H. Jones as the field of systemic design matured. In the past few years, Lorraine Randell carried on the course, while expressing that she wished she had the time to revise it. Since Peter now has a full-time appointment at Tec Monterrey in Mexico City, I asked Stephen if he would like some help in restructuring the course for the coming January. Stephen said yes, so we met a few times in November and December to map out options.

I attended both the full-time and part-time sections of the class in progress, and observed where our anticipations as instructors were correct and incorrect. In addition, the standard OCADU procedure includes course evaluations, that gave us more directions for future adjustments.

With multiple conferences running in parallel, authoring a report on the experience took us past many deadlines. A systems colleague from many years back, Nikitas Assimakopoulos, sent a call for presentations for the Hellenic Society for Systemic Studies (HSSS) conference at the University of the Peloponnese, where I could participate online. … Read more (in a new tab)

A presentation for the 29th World Multi-Conference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics challenged me to reduce the research on Systems Changes over the past 6 years for article length. I proposed multiple articles, but they preferred to extend the maximum submission to 12 pages, plus 5 pages of cited references.

The collaboration with the Systems Changes Learning Circle since 2019 has always been on systems practice. However the emphasis on changes (even overshadowing systems) led not only to reading philosophy, but proposing a new World Hypothesis through philosophizing. Redefining a philosophy of science leads to theorizing, that provides foundations for continuing work on methodizing.

The resulting 30-minute talk was dense — but possibily more understandable than reading the 12-page article.

This recording is available on Youtube , as well as on the Internet Archive . The International Institute of Informatics and Cybernetics has a history spanning multiple decades, so the comments from participants were well-informed on the body of work in systems thinking.

The audio was ripped from the online meeting.

Review of the manuscript followed a double-blind review process. The first reviewer was encouraging, picking up on my leaning more towards the tradition of General Systems Theory than Cybernetics.

The article titled "Rethinking Systems Thinking for Systems Changes Learning: Philosophizing, Theorizing, and Methodizing" offers an important and timely reframing of systems thinking by introducing a rhythm-based, cross-cultural, and ethically grounded paradigm that enriches both theory and practice, despite some underexplored connections to the cybernetic tradition.

The SysPrac25 Conference for Systems Thinking Professionals was hosted by SCiO (Systems and Cybernetics in Organisations) at The Open University in Milton Keynes, UK on September 3-4, 2025. The proposal for a presentation on “Pacing Changes with Living Systems: Rhythmic threads in textures, rhythmic textures of threads” by Zaid Khan and myself was accepted.

For this audience, we decided that Zaid would lead the presentation, and I would take questions at the end. With content foregrounding time over space, motion pictures are better than snapshots. An animated slide preview preview (60 seconds) gives the sense of the flow.

Here’s the abstract for the talk.

Do we think about systems mostly as (i) stable structures with occasional unfreezing-moving-refreezing, or as (ii) living rhythms as processual threads, weaving into unfolding textures of time?

Putting a meshwork of rhythms into the foreground draws attention to the propensity in situations at hand, with auspicious or unfavourable intervals for willful action. Rhythmic shifts may be anticipated, or shrouded in complexity.

Pacing changes can be approached in two ways. Tracing from a thread to the texture, external conditions causing illness or dysfunction can be diagnosed, leading to consideration of prognoses most conducive to recovery. Alternatively, parsing from a living texture into threads may uncover options to expedite opportunities for greater advantage, or to preempt adverse paths leading towards trouble.

Living systems may have a greater affinity for kairos (as felt time) over chronos (as clock time). With each thread predisposed towards a natural rhythm, organizations and or individuals may pace towards diachronous coordination (codeveloping through time) rather than synchronous coordination (rushing or dragging to simultaneously arrive at a point in time).

The International Society for Service Innovation Professionals (ISSIP) hosted an online “radio show” call-in roundtable to discuss “Where can service systems benefit more from Intelligence Augmentation (IA), over AI Automation?“. This was third in the Roundtable on Systems of Services series.

Panelists to spark the conversation included Michelle Zhou, David Ing, and Gary Metcalf. The event was moderated by Jim Spohrer. The ISSIP Ambassadors added more insights, recorded for streaming on YouTube.

Michelle started the discussion on negotiation skills and essential human services. I recalled the socio-technical systems of coal mines reorganizing into autonomous workgroups, and then accountabilities established through language-action commitments. Gary spoke to his experience in graduate education beginning in distance learning, that evolved into online learning over the Internet, and now the possibilities with asynchronicity and AI. These seeds bloomed into group discussions about critical thinking, working in teams, and the potential for AI to provide personality insights that might better guide collaborations. Opening up the conversation to others on the call built on these themes.

For those to prefer to read, there’s an AI summary and transcript produced by Zoom.

In having this conversation in real time, the roundtable cocreated knowledge that probably isn’t readily available through a generative AI. Above all, we had fun!

Here’s the original invitation to participation.

Intelligence Augmentation (IA) enhances and elevates human’s ability, intelligence, and performance with the help of information technology.… Read more (in a new tab)