The Ecosystem Project – Book (Coming Soon!)
What is The Ecosystem Project Book?
In 2023, when Rob Brodnick (Project founder, Positive Turbulence Podcast Cohost) invited me to collaborate on writing and designing a book about systems change and navigating complexity, I was in before he got to the end of the sentence. I had seen firsthand how difficult systems change can be and the consequences of not engaging at that level, using transactional tools to solve systems challenges.
Rob’s vision was threefold:
- Create a community around the work and engage some of the best systems thinkers and complexity theorists in North America to help develop both the theory and practice
- Develop a series of canvases, like the business model canvas, to work with internal teams to help both sense and illustrate their ecosystems
- Engage with partners who had an ecosystemic challenge where, through reciprocity, we would work with them for free if they permitted us to publish the result as a case study in the book.
We engaged well over 100 scholars, practitioners, and seasoned experts to help refine our ideas through our creative community concept. The first phases of work focused on discovery and research to build a robust framework and toolbox for depicting ecosystems and exploring ecosystem dynamics. Then we collaborated with several partners to develop ecosystem depictions so they can explore opportunities to improve what they do and innovate. We now have a well-honed theory, toolkit and case studies in a soon-to-be-released book.
The book The Ecosystem Project will be released in July 2025.