A MONTHLY NEWSLETTER FROM NEXTWAVE INNOVATION
THE NEXT WAVE
Systems thinking is the new design thinking.
Monthly notes for leaders in complex multi-stakeholder organizations. One practice to try, one question to sit with, and what I’m seeing in the field, in under five minutes.
WHAT’S IN EACH ISSUE
Short, practical, and written to be used.
01
A practice
One navigational practice for leading where you have authority but not full control, with a concrete way to start.
02
A question
A question to sit with, left open so you can bring it into your own situation and your own team.
03
From the field
What I’m noticing across higher education, social ventures and public agencies.
04
A resource
A single article, podcast episode, or conversation worth your time.
WHO IT’S FOR
Leaders in complex, multi-stakeholder organizations
“We keep fixing parts, but nothing actually shifts.”
Sound familiar? Then The Next Wave is for you.
Where you lead
Higher education (Deans, Provosts, Presidents), social ventures (Executive and Program Directors), or Crown and government agencies (Directors and VPs).
Many stakeholders, many agendas
Your work depends on people and groups whose needs and incentives don’t line up neatly.
An ecosystem, inside or out
It may sit within your organization, like research support across a university, or reach well beyond it, like primary care across a province.
A sense there's another way
Fixing one part at a time isn’t shifting the whole, and you suspect there’s a different way to work.
WHY THE NEXT WAVE?
Design thinking gave a generation of leaders a practical, effective way to innovate around products and services. It was where my own work began. The challenges arriving on leaders’ desks now rarely live inside one product or team, though. They are the difficult, intractable kind that resist our best efforts, because they are ecosystemic. I think systems thinking is becoming what design thinking was: the capability leaders need in order to innovate on challenges this hard. This newsletter explores what that looks like in practice.
Karyn Zuidinga · Founder, NextWAVE Innovation · Co-author, The Ecosystem Project.
A LOOK INSIDE
What lands in your inbox each month
Each issue draws on the leader arc from The Ecosystem Project, moving from orienting through to sustaining, then circling back one layer deeper. Every issue stands on its own, so you can join at any point.
START WITH ONE ISSUE
One practice, one question, once a month
Written for leaders in higher education, health, public agencies, civic work and social ventures.