Mastering Systems Thinking for Change
Foundations Program
Mastering the Essentials of Systems Thinking for Change
Register your interestSee the bigger picture.
Understand what drives change.
Learn how systems really work.Â
If you're a consultant, facilitator, or change leader navigating complex change in organisations or communities, you're no stranger to persistent problems, siloed thinking, and initiatives that fall short of transformation.
Why? Because most change efforts only treat the symptoms—not the systems producing them.
Mastering Systems Thinking Foundations is your starting point to change that. This live, 6-module online training equips you with the core principles and tools of systems thinking—so you can see the deeper patterns, feedback loops, and structures shaping the challenges you’re trying to change.
Whether you're working on strategy, culture, leadership, DEI, sustainability, or systems innovation—this program gives you the clarity, confidence, and conceptual tools to shift from piecemeal fixes to systemic impact.
đź’ˇ Who This Is For
This program is built for:
- Organisational change leaders and internal consultants
- Executive coaches and OD professionals
- Systems innovators and design thinkers
- Facilitators and program strategists
- Equity, sustainability, and social impact change agents
No prior background in systems thinking is required—just a desire to lead smarter, deeper, and more sustainable change.
đź“Ś Program Format
- Live Online Sessions (6 modules Ă— 90 minutes each)
- Interactive, visual, and practical
- Includes worksheets, system mapping templates, and reading references
- Option to join a learning community of peers (optional post-program cohort)
- Pre-requisite for the Mastering Systems Thinking for Change Practitioner Program
👩‍🏫 What You’ll Learn
This program is designed specifically for working change professionals. In just 6 sessions (1.5 hours each), you’ll build a solid foundation in systems thinking and apply it at a beginner’s practitioner level—readying you for deeper application in your client work or change leadership.
MODULE 1: Seeing Systems
- Types of systems: simple, complicated, complex, adaptive, mechanical, living
- Systems thinking styles and traditions
- Understanding emergence, non-linear causality, and circular feedback
- How to define the system in focus
- How to distinguish systemic causes from surface-level symptoms
MODULE 2: Understanding Self-Organizing Living Systems
- What makes Complex Adaptive Systems different
- Feedback loops: reinforcing, balancing, and self-organizing patterns
- Why small changes can produce surprising ripple effects
MODULE 3: Why Change Efforts Fail (And How Systems Thinking Helps)
- Why complex systems resist control
- Core feedback loops, strange attractors, and the forces that pull systems back to "normal"
- Key concepts: Systemic variety, homeostasis, and local rules
MODULE 4: Practical Systems Mapping Techniques
- How to visualize systems using tools like:
- Flow charts
- Causal-loop diagrams
- Influence diagrams
- Rich pictures
- Learn the strengths and limits of different mapping approaches
MODULE 5: How to Read a Systems Map
- How to identify core vs. peripheral feedback loops and systemic influences
- Spotting the patterns that really matter
- Mapping insights to decision-making and strategy
MODULE 6: Developing a Hypothesis for Systemic Change
- Explore ways to intervene in core feedback loops
- Strategies to nudge, shift, bypass, or rewire systemic patterns
- Generate high-leverage hypotheses for change in your context
Your Learning Facilitators
Marvin Oka
Marvin is a highly sought-after international consultant and recognised authority specialising in the field of Neuro-Behavioural Modelling applied to strategic and systemic thinking, whole-system change, leadership team development, and organisational culture. Over the last 30+ yeas, Marvin has worked in Europe, North America, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and throughout Australia-New Zealand. He is the developer of numerous human performance methodologies in the areas of strategic conversation, culture shaping, consumer psychology modelling, Generative Learning, Generative Inner-Work Coaching, and the field of Neuro-Behavioural Modelling itself. Past clients include BHP-Billiton, NAB, Commonwealth Bank, BNZ, ATO, Telstra, Changi Airport, Singapore Government, Temasek, Saudi Water Conversion Corporation, ICI-Orica, SAP, Estee Lauder, and numerous others.
Dr Gary Saliba
Gary is strategic consultant to private and government organisations, industry sectors, and numerous industry associations. He specialises in assisting leadership teams to enhance their capability to deal with complexity and uncertainty through the use of foresighting and scenario work, strategy development, systems thinking, values assessment, and leadership development. Over the past 26 years Gary has worked with clients throughout Australia and South East Asia. He has published a book on outcomes-focused strategic planning and his team were awarded a Federal Government innovation award for developing simulation models for Human Resource Planning. His work has also been featured as part of the ABC television Open Learning program. Gary is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
🎯 Why Start Here?
Because if you can’t see the system, you can’t change it.
Mastering Systems Thinking Foundations helps you:
- Stop wasting energy on low-impact fixes
- Understand the dynamics keeping problems stuck
- Design change that works with the system, not against it
- Prepare for deeper, practitioner-level systemic consulting
Mastering Systems Thinking Foundations
Launching soon!
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👉 Early notifications and launch updates
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👉 Early program-related webinar announcements
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