On the 12th and 13th of July 2025, I participated in the 69th Conference of the International Society of the Systems Sciences (ISSS, Systems, Systems Science).
The key ideas and areas of problems and opportunities I extracted from the dozens of presentations and discussions are listed below.
Adapt to the Environment - As geopolitical, economic technological and environmental factors are in constant flux, seeing the system in interaction with high level systems that exert an influence on social systems was one of the key recurring themes. How to plan, manage, adapt your organization under constant political, regulatory, and competitive influence?
Understanding what the system is - Understanding what the system is, does or supposed to do often seemed difficult to define with precision. And if it was, the definitions may change, which is increasingly challenged to plan and manage for.
Destruction of Purpose - Organizations face attempts to destroy purpose. For example, the active elimination of sustainability ambitions, strategies, budgets, action programs, collaborative structures - further intensified by imposing specific narratives and punishing countries, organizations and people holding different views or helping to solve for sustainability challenges - destroys degrees of freedom of organizations and adaptability of systems to the environment. This also limits and paralyses solution design as well as the effectiveness of policies and interventions.
Learning Systems - In view of the insights above, designing and installing learning systems is key to effectively stay viable.
Local Solution Design - As powerful political systems take control of jurisdictions, trade relationships and go for more autocratic and not for collaborative relationships, the importance rises of local design of solutions for local problems and needs. Improving local participative democracy, solving things within local spheres of influence becomes more important.
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