We are in complex times. If we want to contribute to shaping the systems of the future, we need to know how systems change. And we need the communities and inspiration that help us contributing to shifting those systems, together.

Join us!

We know there is interest in this work… but what even is it?

In October 2025, with a simple email and a LinkedIn post, 100 people signed up for a call titled “The Future of Systems Change Education” hosted by Daniela Papi-Thornton of Systems-led Leadership and Anna Birney of the School of Systems Change.

One thing that was clear from the group was that there were many view points, on what “systems change education” is, why it is needed, and what roles there are to play within it.

Rather than trying to take a linear approach to come to consensus on a definition, we realized something: the different views and different roles are NEEDED.

Here are some of the pathways to “systems change education” that community members put forth:

  • Some are prioritizing the role of having their educational offerings MODEL systems change:

    • Centering Indigenous knowledge, focusing on inner work as well as outer action, encouraging radical self-reflection and humility, and other pathways of changing their own educational offerings to align with a future vision of the world they want to contribute to creating

  • Some are prioritizing education FOR systems change:

    • With goals of helping those in their programs have the mindsets, skills-sets, tools, case studies, and strategies for understanding and contributing to systems change

  • Some are prioritizing education IN systems change:

    • Integrating opportunities for them, or the learners they work with, to explore, research, map, or design contributions to the immediate current contexts shifting around them in these times

  • Some are prioritizing broader ways of CONTRIBUTING to changing the education systems around them:

    • Being agents of change in their own institutions for rethinking and redesigning how, why, and for whom those internal systems function

  • And some are prioritizing BEING the change:

    • Doing the inner work, practicing presence, building a stronger connection to nature and the sacred, building and being interconnected to communities of practice that are also bringing in more grounded and grounding ways of being in the world, and so much more…

It’s time for all of it. It’s time we educator for systems change. It’s time we take actions to support systems change. It’s time to embrace being in and being a part of systems change. And to do that, it’s time to collectively understand how systems change.

One thing we know for certain about systems change…

…it is never something that happens simply by one person acting alone - it takes many varied contributions. Another thing we know: systems change is happening, even if we take a nap. So if you want to contribute to shaping the systems you care about - the education system, the economic systems, or far beyond - then you need to know how to contribute. And you need the community and inspiration to find our own unique you-shaped hole in the world where you can contribute your gifts into the collective change that is possible, together.

You night find that community here if:

You work in “systems”

If your skills, experience, or passion are related to systems understanding, systems thinking, or systems change, we’d love to have you here.

You work in “change”

If you work in “change” - i.e. innovation, social change, entrepreneurship, internal systems change work, or anything change/innovation related, join us!

And/or you are an “educator”

If you educate, from classrooms and boardrooms, to coaching and facilitation, there is room for you. Learn directly from educators bringing systems thinking into their work, organizations, and communities.

Who is going to make this happen and when?

Hopefully, a lot of us. And we hope you are one of us.

This initiative is a spin-out of a “Social Impact Educators” group started by Daniela Papi-Thornton in 2013. Since then, there have been seven global educator gatherings, with one coming up in November 2025 at Grinnell College in Iowa. To learn more about that gathering, or to see the learning report and “gallery walk” from the 2019 Yale gathering, visit www.systemschangeeducation.com

Daniela continues to work with a global team of advisors to envision and design this work, including Elinor Bray-Collins & Sara Hassan at Humber Polytechnic, Cassie Bingham at Utah Valley University, Susan Sanning at Grinnell College, a range of educators involved in the global Map the System program she initiated at Oxford University, plus the 400+ educators/coaches/consultants involved in the current Social Impact Educator group. While all of this is volunteer designed and run at the moment, the hope is that, with support from this community, we could build a robust platform and hire a team members to make this network robust, useful, and lasting.

For now, the offering is being run by Daniela’s organizations, Systems-led Leadership, but if we get enough educators joining to know this is worth moving forward with, we’re going to register a non-profit organization, build a global board, and dig into the ways we’d love to expand this work through research, trainings, a podcast, at least one in-person gathering each year, and more.

This community will officially launch at the upcoming educator gathering November 13-15, 2025 and the opportunity to be a FOR LIFE founding member, with FOR LIFE founding member discounts ends November 30th, 2025. That said, we hope you sign-up sooner, as the more interest and support we have, the quicker we can get this community off the ground.

Let’s do this!

And may this work be for the highest and greatest good of all concerned. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Are you ready to help make this happen?

COUNT ME IN! Click here for the registration page!
Contact us if you want to chat!