Systems Thinking for Service Design
Summary
This session introduces participants to systems thinking and systemic design as a way of extending and strengthening service design practice. While service design already engages with systems through journeys, ecosystems, and the concept of front stage/backstage, it often operates within a bounded frame. Systemic design widens that frame, helping practitioners understand the broader system in which services sit and ensuring they are intervening in the right place. By applying a systems lens, participants will learn to move beyond optimizing service experiences toward identifying deeper leverage points for meaningful change. Through a focused mix of framing and hands-on activity, the session will explore how systemic design can extend service design from delivery to strategy, supporting more impactful and durable interventions.
Learning Objectives
· Understand the relationship between systems thinking, systemic design, and service design, and how they work together to address complex challenges.
· Apply a systems mapping approach (iceberg mapping) to situate a service challenge within its broader systemic context.
· Identify patterns, underlying structures, and mental models that shape service outcomes, and locate potential leverage points for intervention.
· Reframe service design challenges to ensure efforts are focused on the most strategic points of impact.
Required Pre-Reading
None.
Suggested Pre-Reading
Thinking in Systems: A Primer. Edited by Diana Wright, Sustainability Institute, Earthscan, 2008.
NOTE: This is only for participants looking to go further with systems thinking; it is not mandatory.
Format
This is a hands-on workshop, not a lecture. Come ready to participate, think visually, and collaborate with others.
We’ll have pizza and pop — come hungry :)
Agenda
5:30 – 6:00 pm | Arrival + settle in
6:00 – 7:30 pm | Workshop session
7:30 pm onwards | Stay back and connect
Location
Career Centre Lounge (Room 287), Rotman School of Management
105 St. George Street, Toronto
In collaboration with Rotman’s Business Design Initiative (BDI)
Led by Emma Aiken-Klar, with Service Design Drinks Toronto (Shivika Sood), this session explores systemic design in a hands-on, practical way.
Service Design Drinks Toronto is a community of practice - a space to learn, experiment, and connect through service design in an open, accessible way.