Newsletter #3: Systems. Change. Educators. Unite. February 2026
A place for educators, systems practitioners, & change/social innovation leaders to connect, share resources, learn from each other, and contribute to the changes they want to see in our complex world
Before we go any further…
Two important and pressing opportunities!
(1) Join our live conversation to brainstorm about the future of SCEU in exactly 12 hours from now (February 5th at 11am Mountain Time - see time zone converter) to help us imagine into the possibilities of what this work can be. What would you like to see in future newsletters? What talks and activities would light up your day to participate in? How might this group support you and the work you are doing in the world?
Click here to join our Zoom call // click here to visit the event page
(2) We are so lucky and excited to have the opportunity to use SenseMaker® for our community! Built by Dave Snowden and his team at the Cynefin Co, SenseMaker® is used to help collect and combine numbers and data analytics with stories and human wisdom, and we have a unique link created to help us all learn about areas of interest and concern related to the SCEU community. Once the data is collected, we will host an upcoming session with Beth Smith and Anna Panagiotou from Cynefin to explore the results of the tool. The debrief date has been pushed back to give more time for data collection but our plan is to keep the SenseMaker® open for a month before the “sense making” conversation.
We would love for as many people as possible to fill this out - not just SCEU members but anyone who works at the intersection of systems, change, education or any combination thereof! When you click on the link you will be asked to share a dilemma, challenge, or opportunity related to your systems, change, or education work or something you are seeing in the world that relates to SCEU. You can feel free to fill it out multiple times with different reflections. Why don’t you add your input to the SenseMaker® now, and then do it again in a few weeks as you think of more information you would like to add. Please make sure you fill it out at least once before March 6th and then join the debrief conversation!
Hello lovely humans
We are certainly living in complex times. SCEU was founded on a belief that systems and complexity fluency is essential in these times. THESE times, right now. Our hope is that SCEU can be a contribution in a systems and complexity up-skilling mass movement. We are all needed to help us shape new future cultures that reflect many Indigenous ways of knowing and being. It’s time to remember and reflect: remembering that humans can indeed live in connection to nature, a reminder that we are part of (not in control of) the natural systems around us, and a reflection on how linear action in complexity can lead to pushing systems in the opposite direction of the health of the whole (i.e. think about the focus on test scores and the results that has had on education systems).
Our hope is that, by supporting educators and leaders to embed systems and complexity learning into their offerings, their teams, and their own leadership, we can help bring systems and complexity understanding into the mainstream. Our belief is that the skill-sets and mindsets of systems and complexity understanding can also help people look wider at possible pathways to contribute to change and can bring more nuance into conversations (especially the ones that are currently focused on blame and shame of the “other” and don’t yet include a look at the systems that shaped our current realities).
May this work we do together serve the highest and greatest good of all concerned.
Featured Member: Linda Booth Sweeney
There are some people who, when you meet them, you can feel that their energy is aligned with an inner drive and mission to contribute positively to the world. Linda is certainly one of those people. Her work for decades has been dedicated to bringing systems understanding into classrooms, board rooms, foundation leadership communities, and beyond. We’re so delighted to have her brains, her heart, and her breadth of ideas in this growing community.
Many of us have probably already been learning from Linda. She is an author of the Systems Thinking Playbook, and many children’s books that bring systems thinking into story time. In the last decade, when foundation leaders and social entrepreneurs started talking about how “thinking about systems and systems change were important concepts for the social sector” (and then turned around and asked each other “What does that even mean?”), Linda designed and led a 15-foundation learning collaborative focused on systems change. She runs programs for corporate teams and preschoolers alike through her organization, Toogle Labs.
Linda’s work has shaped global thinking about systems understanding - and certainly has shaped mine. I am so delighted about her enthusiasm and contributions to SCEU. You can hang out with Linda and the equally incredible Rob Ricigliano next Tuesday, February 10th at 10am Mountain / 12pm Eastern for an “office hours” session meaning: bring your questions and the challenges you are facing, and have these global experts spout out resources, ideas, and examples that might help shift your thinking and unlock new possibilities in your own work. (Plus, Linda has offered to answer any questions people might have about specific tools and frameworks - see the featured resource below!)
Linda will also be hosting a session on Wednesday, March 4th at 2pm Mountain / 4pm Eastern called “Systems Change Education in the K-12 Landscape.” If that is your area of interest, or you just want more Linda time (I know I always do!) then join us!
Featured SCEU January Session Recap: Systems and Complexity Education in High Schools
We so appreciated so many of you joining our call last week on Monday Jan. 26th call about Systems and Complexity Education in High Schools. We want to especially thank the Systems Transformation course teams from UWCSEA & UWC Atlantic as well as leaders from the Green School and the Collegiate School for joining the call and sharing their inspiring work.
Coming out of that call, we’ve gathered a rich list of resources related to this work - many of which were shared in the chat of this conversation. If you have other resources you’d like us to add to the document, please email us. And, if you’d like to be connected to others in this conversation, please fill out this form!
SCEU members who have set up their access to the SCEU platform can watch the recording here. Having trouble with the link or not yet on the platform? Send Carolyn a message here for support!
Featured Resource: Complex Systems Frameworks
Check out the updated version of the Complex Systems Frameworks Collection:
https://www.complexsystemsframeworks.ca/
What a cool resource! It’s an A-Z of matrix, tools, models, frameworks and beyond that might be useful in your systems and complexity learning journey. As noted, Linda Booth Sweeney has offered to answer questions anyone might have about specific frameworks at the office hours next Tuesday! Read up, bring your questions on Tuesday, and then start using new-to-you frameworks in your work and thinking!
Upcoming SCEU sessions
We’re so excited for our upcoming sessions - we hope to see you online!
Want to see all of the events in a calendar? Click here to access and add the SCEU Google Calendar to your settings
🗓️ Imagining into the future of SCEU - Thurs., Feb 5, 11am to 12pm MT
📍Map the System Educator Call - Q&A + Reviewing a Tool - Mon., Feb 9, 1:30pm to 2:30pm MT
🗓️ Office hours with Linda Booth Sweeney, Rob Ricigliano, & Daniela Papi-Thornton - Tues., Feb 10, 10am to 11am MT
🗓️ Proximity, Power, and Possibility: Designing with People to Shift Systems with Jocelyn Wyatt (co-founder of IDEO.org and the Human Centered Design methodology) - Thurs., Feb 19, 2pm to 3pm MT
🗓️ The Art of Scaling Deep: Reframing Scale through Depth, Care, & Cultural Change with Tatiana Fraser - Tues., Feb 24, 11am to 12pm MT
🗓️ Wellbeing in Systems Change Education with Paul Heidebrecht (wellbeing for students as well as educators and beyond)- Thurs., Feb 26, 2pm to 3pm MT
📚 Inaugural SCEU Book Club Discussion with the authors- Systems Inspired Leadership by Frank Uit de Weerd & Marita Fridjhon - Mon., March 2, 9am to 10:30am MT (90 minutes)
- Buy your book club book on the author’s webpage!
📍Map the System Educator Call - Kumu with Martin Storkholm Nielsen! - Mon., March 2, 11am to 12pm MT
🗓️ Systems Change Education in the K-12 Landscape with Linda Booth Sweeney - Wed., March 4, 2pm to 3pm MT
🗓️ Kumu 101 with Isaac Spillane & William Emery - Mon., March 9, 2pm to 3pm MT
🗓️ People Need People - a Warm Conversation Hosted by Servane Mouazan (through the Warm Data process, developed by Nora Bateson) - Mon., March 23, 11am to 12pm MT
Community questions
Carolyn Niehaus has joined the SCEU team to help us get organized to support the impact of this work. Thank you, Carolyn! (We’ll introduce you to her next month as a featured member so you can get to know her better, but in the meantime, say hi to her on an upcoming call!)
We have had some beautiful volunteer calls in the past weeks and are so delighted to have a cohort of people who have stepped up to help us get more organized and help us find paths forward that are beneficial to all.
Some of the questions that have come up include: How do we measure the contribution and goals of SCEU? Is an NGO the best format or are there other legal formats (BCorps etc) that would be a better fit to those goals? How do we track the needs of the community?
We will discuss all this and more in our conversation 12 hours from now, so join us! Or share comments/thoughts afterwards!
Community offerings
🌀 Wolf Willow Complexity Code Course - The incredible team from Wolf Willow in Canada have put together a new course called “Complexity Code: Influence at the edge of Chaos.” Their work is ALWAYS exceptional, and I am sure this will be too!
🌀 Waters Center Offerings - The Waters Center offers free systems thinking webinars. There is one TODAY at 12pm Eastern called “From Home to Work: Systems Thinking as a Lens for Culture and Trust” and then February 19th there will be one on Teacher Studio: Dancing with Systems in the K-12 classroom See their upcoming webinars here: https://waterscenterst.org/webinars
🌀 Do you have an offering or resource you’d like to share with the community? Please let us know using the form at this link!
Have a BEAUTIFUL day, and we hope to see you on an SCEU call soon!
