If we treat human systems as living organisms rather than clockwork machines, it becomes possible to eliminate the dysfunctional tendencies within institutions. We cannot analyse, engineer and fix these complex systems as we would machines. Rather, like the humans that build them, systems need to be cared for, supported and protected. Without this care, systems turn into silos, with a lack of cooperation and accountability. It is an obvious yet simple shift with profound results.

We help others to see their environment, situations and other people with new eyes as they gain a different, more holistic understanding. Segmenting a living system into its parts and analysing each of them in isolation from the others ignores the quintessential interdependencies, relationships and dynamics of life. Segmentation leads to fragmentation that hampers so many institutions. While it is not easy, once we perceive human systems as living beings, it becomes obvious what is required. We respect, explore and contemplate life with all its own laws. And life responds in favourable ways.

People are only able to understand the full extent of the system’s complexity when they experience its constituent parts interacting with each other in real time. We do this by reproducing the whole system in the room, allowing it to unfold in front of everybody’s eyes. This helps multiple stakeholders together to gain a more profound understanding of the whole system. Creating well-contained yet unconstrained spaces in which people interact in real time, allows complexity to run its own course, unstifled. We allow meaning and optimal self-organisation to emerge as a natural result. Using design thinking puts the user and usability at the centre of action. Our processes facilitate continuous innovation based on experiential learning across several iterations of trial and error. This provides deeper insight from many sources, such as empathic understanding, evolutionary solutions of nature and ethnographic insights into the lived reality of people.