Advent(ure) in System Seeing Pick a (socio)technical system to focus on. Write a brief description of its primary purpose (or role or identity in the ecology of systems).

"There are no separate systems. The world is a continuum. Where to draw a boundary around a system depends on the purpose of the discussion.”
— Donella Meadows, Thinking in Systems

#AdventOfSystemSeeing Day 17: Systems and Boundaries

www.ruthmalan.com/Advent/2025/...

Advent(ure) in System Seeing Today, we will return to the idea of creating a page (or two) of a zine. Look back at your overview page (from Day 5) and pick a topic, but if you'd like a suggestion:

"Constraints sculpt a rugged and multidimensional landscape, the possibility and probability space of what can happen at all, what will most likely happen, and, when it cannot, can or must happen"
—Alicia Juarrero

#AdventOfSystemSeeing Day 16: Another Distillation

www.ruthmalan.com/Advent/2025/...

Advent(ure) in System Seeing "Value is therefore an emergent property of the network, so understanding the functioning of the network as a whole is essential to understanding exactly how and why value is created."

"Value is therefore an emergent property of the network, so understanding the functioning of the network as a whole is essential to understanding exactly how and why value is created."
— Verna Allee

#AdventOfSystemSeeing Day 15: Mapping Value Flows

www.ruthmalan.com/Advent/2025/...

Advent(ure) in System Seeing Today we'll explore how the situation came to be. Either focus your exploration on a textual narrative, or use a graphical history canvas:

“Complex systems have a history. Not only do they evolve through time, but their past is co-responsible for their present behaviour. Any analysis of a complex system that ignores the dimension of time is incomplete”
— Paul Cilliers

#AdventOfSystemSeeing Day 14

www.ruthmalan.com/Advent/2025/...

Advent(ure) in System Seeing Template: Ideal Present Canvas by Jabe Bloom

“Knowing what to keep is just as important as knowing what to change.”
— Esther Derby

#AdventOfSystemSeeing Day 13: What if you do nothing (different)?

www.ruthmalan.com/Advent/2025/...

Advent(ure) in System Seeing "The richer this context, the more chance that fruitful avenues can be found to move forward."

"The richer this context, the more chance that fruitful avenues can be found to move forward."
— Kees Dorst, Frame Innovation: Create New Thinking by Design

#AdventOfSystemSeeing Day 12: Sketch the Situation

www.ruthmalan.com/Advent/2025/...

Advent(ure) in System Seeing "It is hard to overestimate the significance of putting thought in the world."

"It is hard to overestimate the significance of putting thought in the world."
— Barbara Tversky, Mind in Motion:

#AdventOfSystemSeeing Day 11: Describe Your Focal Situation

www.ruthmalan.com/Advent/2025/...

Advent(ure) in System Seeing Image source: Camille Defrenne and Suzanne Simard, "The Secret Language of Trees"

"Everything within a system is changed by being part of that system, every element, every relationship is changed."
— Patrick Hoverstadt, The Grammar of Systems

#AdventOfSystemSeeing Day 9: Relationships and Interactions

www.ruthmalan.com/Advent/2025/...

Advent(ure) in System Seeing

"We fail more often not because we fail to solve the problem we face but because we fail to face the right problem.”
— Russell Ackoff

#AdventOfSystemSeeing Day 8: Context Changes Everything

www.ruthmalan.com/Advent/2025/...

Advent(ure) in System Seeing If you're feeling stuck and casting about for ideas, you might like to look at one of these examples (software engineering related):

“lifted from the context in which they are naturally embedded, some events not only would not occur; they could not occur. Others would change dramatically. [..] context dependence is widespread.”
— Alicia Juarrero

#AdventOfSystemSeeing Day 7: Try Causal Loops

www.ruthmalan.com/Advent/2025/...

Advent(ure) in System Seeing The whole lecture is great, but to keep to 15 minutes, start at minute 18:59. Take sketchnotes as you watch. (And stop after 15 to 20 minutes.)

"What we try to do, is build a model that makes our mental understanding of the system so much better[..]That is, what we are really trying to do, is increase our intuition, our understanding”
— Donella Meadows

#AdventOfSystemSeeing Day 6: Causal Loops with Meadows
www.ruthmalan.com/Advent/2025/...

Advent(ure) in System Seeing Some ideas for the page: a characterization of systems. A list of the key ideas in systems. Some images that illustrate your characterization. Some examples.

"A system is an interconnected set of elements that is coherently organized in a way that achieves something"
— Donella Meadows

#AdventOfSystemSeeing Day 5: Characterizing Systems

www.ruthmalan.com/Advent/2025/...

Day 3 #AdventOfSystemSeeing

I’ll tap off on Advent(ure) of System Seeing self-boosts as we get further into it, but for now it’s still early days, and there’s a chance folk would still like to hear that there’s a Systemsy advent(ure) :)

Today: Futures Wheel

Advent(ure) in System Seeing Web: https://www.ruthmalan.com

“But no leader of however small a group can forget, without disastrous consequences, that the activities of each group have to be fitted into a whole which is constantly changing"
— Mary Parker Follett

#AdventOfSystemSeeing Day 3: Explore Impact of Change
www.ruthmalan.com/Advent/2025/...

Advent(ure) in System Seeing Draw a Concept Map or Bubble Diagram to explore the world (context) around bicycles. Zoom out, so that "bicycle" is just one bubble in the center of the diagram; what’s around it?

"What does all this have to do with systems? Just this, that if l design a system with no regard for the universe that surrounds it, I will have scanty knowledge of what can impact [or be impacted by] it."
— John Gall

#AdventOfSystemSeeing Day 2: Zoom Out
www.ruthmalan.com/Advent/2025/...

For those who want a systems focused advent to wind up the year, it’s begun!

Daily posts will refresh here: www.ruthmalan.com/Advent.html

And will be posted to the page for the day (which will also hold notes and links to work people share here or on their own blog, etc.).

#AdventOfSystemSeeing

Advent(ure) in System Seeing If you've done the "draw a bicycle" exercise before: skip step 1, and go to step 2, so that you can get to step 3 (it's new) and 4.

'Drawing [isn’t] just for “artists” [..]. Think of it as a way of observing the world and learning' — Anne Quito

#AdventOfSystemSeeing Day 1: Draw a Bicycle (and sketch a key mechanism) www.ruthmalan.com/Advent/2025/...

Advent(ure) in System Seeing Our Advent(ure) in System Seeing begins on December 1. There will be 24 days of daily journaling prompts and quotes that inform our systems understanding.

This year’s #AdventOfSystemSeeing prompts will be here:

www.ruthmalan.com/Advent.html

I’ll keep daily posts here to a quote and a link, to create a place for those who would like to share some of their work or reflections on it, for mutual learning and encouragement.

If you are new to the #AdventOfSystemSeeing, do check out the About page:
www.ruthmalan.com/Advent/About...

It links to the prompt books from the past three years, so you can look at examples.

And it links to some examples of work done.

If you’re thinking of participating in the #AdventOfSystemSeeing this year, you have a good reason to treat yourself to a new notebook to journal in, and maybe even some nice pens or whatever.

Last year’s daily journal prompts got turned into this (pdf): www.ruthmalan.com/systems/2025...

Table of Contents page

A Month in System Seeing: Journal Starter Kit (2025 edition)

This pulls the #AdventOfSystemSeeing prompts together in one place, and adds several more to make it a month.

PDF: www.ruthmalan.com/systems/2025...

Day 24 #AdventOfSystemSeeing

Celebrate

Spend some time noticing what you appreciate in this situation you've been exploring, and who. The attention it takes to notice and appreciate what others contribute, is a gift. It weaves us together, and fosters belonging.

And it’s a wrap! 🎁

Day 23 #AdventOfSystemSeeing

Cover Design

Design a sticker (doodle) for the cover of your System Seeing Journal

The Big Idea here is to doodle around what is representative or what concept "glimmers" with what this journal is shaping up to be, for you. What makes this work meaningful?

Day 22 #AdventOfSystemSeeing

Reflection

Reflect on what you have learned about the situation you’ve been exploring over the past few weeks. Briefly describe.

Consider also what you have learned about systems, and seeing systems. Again, take notes, so that you can add as more comes into view.

Day 21 #AdventOfSystemSeeing

Consequence Scanning

Given your exploration on Day 20, what action/approach are you considering? How will the situation be different? That is, consider the likely consequences (intended and not; direct and indirect effects; positive and negative externalities).

Day 20 #AdventOfSystemSeeing

Constraints and Forces

Identify an area (in your situation) where you want to *do something* (nontrivial) and want to explore further what you'll encounter and what it will take.

Day 19 #AdventOfSystemSeeing

Finding Dragons and Elephants

Revisit your rich picture (Day 8) or systems map (Day 15). Look for “here be dragons" (challenges, resistance, etc.) and here be "elephants" (elephants are things we are avoiding having direct and real conversations about).