In October 2025, the Relating Systems Thinking and Design Symposium was hosted by the Systemic Design Association and OCAD University, bringing together a global community of practitioners, researchers, and thought leaders to explore how systemic design can navigate the interconnectedness of our world. As part of the symposium, Tim Tompson joined Leanne Sobel, Emma Blomkamp and Elsa Henderson to run two workshops exploring how systemic design work is practised in organisations, inviting practitioners to reflect on what they do and what effective practice looks like. 

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More than 40 practitioners from design, strategy, government, engineering, community services, and academia took part in the conversation. Reflecting on their own experiences to offer a practice-based perspective of how systemic design is truly understood and appears for practitioners working inside complex organisations and social systems. 

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The synthesis presented from those conversations was refined with input by self-selecting participants from the RSD workshops. We extend a warm thanks to them for contributing their time and practice wisdom so generously.

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These insights are now available as a two-part series on medium: 

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Part I: What is systemic design?

The first article unpacks practitioner perspectives on what systemic design is, how it shows up, and what makes it effective. Read more.

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Part II: How do you start and sustain systemic design work with organisations?

The second article explores what it takes to start systemic design work with an organisation, and what it takes to sustain it over time. Read more.

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From these conversations a clear message emerged that the methods matter, but they don't carry the practice of systemic design on their own. Everything depends heavily on the context, the relationships in place, and the ongoing effort to keep the work connected to what people actually care about.

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We were delighted to learn from so many practitioners across the two sessions. They spoke openly about what works and what doesn't, and we've come away with plenty to bring back into our own practices. 

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Follow the Medium publication and the contributors for updates. The group hopes to run another session to see how the field keeps evolving. If you'd like to see the detailed synthesis behind the series, start a conversation with us.