Adam Zeiner

‘Systems’ and ‘systemic’ have always been tricky words, as they mean different things to different people. Some people immediately think of technical systems (like airport control), some social systems (like a family unit), some natural systems (like a forest), and some dynamic systems (like a multiple cause diagram for obesity). In my last job,... See more

2. Spotting partnership opportunities

For those that aren’t familiar, a boundary object is an artefact (thing, concept, discourse, process, etc.) that can hold a diversity of incomplete perspectives and enable communication and collaboration amongst those stakeholders despite that incompleteness.

We also need to stop treating them as monolithic models of the entire system. We’re in the digital age now and maps are cheap. There’s no reason we can’t have multiple versions or break our research up into multiple maps, each with a well defined scope and focus.

Embedding design thinking, methods, and tools from the outset of ecosystem development will help companies produce integrated ecosystem offerings that delight customers, stave off threats, and create new sources of value.

I worry sometimes that there’s a danger of embracing the theatre of systems thinking — using it to position services and to navigate what’s desirable, feasible and viable within the existing system — without actually reshaping the system itself.

An ecosystem map provides business stakeholders with a holistic overview of the different stakeholders and their internal relationships that together make up the ecosystem in which they aim to operate.