System Mapping

TRAINING

A highly practical training course that deep dives into listening to the system and creating system maps.

This course is day 1 of a short series on systemic design. It can be done as a stand-alone course or in combination with the Systemic Design training on day 2.

Systemic design combines concepts of systems thinking and design thinking. It helps you zoom out and look at the whole problem. Systemic design brings a set of solutions or, better, “interventions” that can reinforce each other to drive a change in a current problematic situation.

For more information, visit the website about the Systemic Design Toolkit or have a look at the book on systemic design that Kristel Van Ael and Peter Jones have published: Design Journeys Through Complex Systems.

Creating a system map is pivotal in systemic design as it provides a visual representation of the intricate relationships, interdependencies, and feedback loops within a complex system. This holistic perspective is crucial for understanding the dynamics at play, identifying potential leverage points for intervention, and revealing unintended consequences. By mapping out the entire system, you can uncover hidden patterns, gain insights into systemic behaviours, and collaboratively navigate towards more effective and sustainable interventions.

What to expect

After an introduction to systemic design and the 7 stages of the Namahn systemic design methodology, this course zooms in on stage 2 and stage 3 of the methodology, “Listening to the system“ and “Understanding the system”.

First, you will learn how to conduct interviews in a systemic context to help you identify contributing factors to the system. We will introduce you to the technique of contextual interviews and help you to apply the four layers of the Causal Layered Analysis (CLA) before and during interviews.

Then, you will create system maps yourself using the output from the interviews you conducted earlier. After a short introduction to the different types of system maps, we will practice Causal Loop Diagrams (CLD). We will guide you through the different steps of preparing and creating a CLD, from listing the variables (i.e. the building blocks of your system map) and recognising/drawing out reinforcing and balancing feedback loops, to bringing the loops together in one diagram and identifying the leverage points and the core loops in your system map. We will also introduce system archetypes, recurring patterns of mostly dysfunctional behaviour of a system, that can often serve as a starting point for your system map. As a final step, we will show how you can document your system map using a digital tool.

Get ready for a hands-on session with practical group exercises (both on conducting interviews and creating causal loop diagrams), with discussions, and with many examples of system maps out of our own work.

For more information about the systemic design methodology, visit the website about the Systemic Design Toolkit or have a look at the book on systemic design that Kristel Van Ael and Peter Jones have published: Design Journeys Through Complex Systems.

Key takeaways

By the end of the training session, you will have learned the following:

• How to listen to the system by conducting interviews with actors in the system using a systemic lens
• The different formats of system maps
• How to prepare, build and refine Causal Loop Diagrams (CLD)
• How to use your system map in later steps of the systemic design process
• How to recognize current systemic problems through system archetypes

Who should attend

This training course is targeted at systemic and service designers, strategists and decision-makers.

This training course can be done either as a stand-alone course or in combination with the Systemic Design training (which takes place the day after). For those that want to follow both courses, we have made sure there is continuity in the exercises and little overlap in the content. Note that almost all participants in the spring 2024 systemic training, signed up for both days. If you sign up for both courses, you get a 20% discount.

Namahn is also regularly teaching Systemic design as an 8-week online course for the Service Design College: see course page Systemic design for tackling complexity (5th edition) for more details.

Format

One day, in-person training in the Namahn Design Studio.

Your teachers

Koen Peters

Designer

Kristel Van Ael

Designer

Register to our system mapping training course