As a consultant focused on the org design of design orgs, I work across a variety of contexts—established businesses (banks, retail); software as a service (enterprise software); scale-ups (pre-IPO and growing); start-ups. And repeatedly over the past couple of years, I’ve found myself drawing some variation of the following generic digital product... See more

First off, we need to stop thinking about systems maps as deliverables. They’re research tools — stepping stones on our path to understanding complex problems.

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.

Systems thinking enables us to engage complex problems more effectively, steering us away from short-sighted solutions that may work in the short-term but ultimately backfire and make things worse in the long run.

Content Ecosystem Mapping Articles and Resources

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.

If the goal is to bend the curves, we need to know where to start. To this end, we identified three realms of leverage that can be taken as starting points – reconnecting people with nature, restructuring institutions, and rethinking how different types of knowledge should be brought to bear for the pursuit of sustainability.

‘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, ‘s... See more

The Systemic Design Framework is an evolution of Design Council’s design frameworks, starting with the globally renowned Double Diamond, and more recently the Framework for Innovation. It is our way of synthesising how we see people on our own programmes, and through research with other designers using design to address complex challenges. These ch... See more