Systems Changes Learning

Summary

An action-learning approach for attending to changes in living systems through rhythm, texture/contexture and propensity.

Implications for practice

It resists both static system descriptions and staged change assumptions.

Key distinctions

• living temporality versus frozen state
• propensity versus deterministic forecast
• knowing from within versus detached diagnosis

Historical development

• Systems Changes Learning Circle
• Bateson
• Ingold

Ideas it depends on

• ecological epistemology
• action learning

Further developments

• learning-circle practices

Connections to practice

• change inquiry
• group learning
• contextual diagnosis

Common confusions

• The vocabulary is not a relabelling of Lewinian stage change.

Further checks

• Add case evidence beyond author-maintained sources.

Recorded connections

Check the wording, direction, scope, sources, and status of a connection before relying on it.

• David Ing develops and publishes Systems Changes Learning

  Status: accepted · Relation: developed

  These first-party records establish Ing's authorship and formulation, not independent validation of the approach.

  Locator: 2023 author record, abstract and citation; published article pp. 11-73; 2022 Systems Changes presentation

  • When Unfreeze-Move-Refreeze Isn’t Working (checked)
  • Systems Changes Learning: Recasting and reifying rhythmic shifts (checked primary author record)

• Systems Changes Learning is documented in Systems Changes

  Status: accepted · Relation: first documented in

  Limited to the named sources. Documentary connection, conceptual influence, teaching use and effectiveness are distinct claims.

  Locator: Release 0.15 public sources

  • When Unfreeze-Move-Refreeze Isn’t Working (checked)

• Systems Changes Learning specialises a contextural form of Action learning

  Status: accepted · Relation: specialises

  This records the paper's contextural-action-learning formulation, not equivalence with all action-learning traditions.

  Locator: 2023 author record, abstract; published article pp. 11-73, contextural action learning and three learning levels

  • Systems Changes Learning: Recasting and reifying rhythmic shifts (checked primary author record)

• Systems Changes documents work associated with Systems Changes Learning

  Status: provisional · Relation: presents

  This is a provisional semantic or practice crosswalk. It does not establish historical influence, equivalence, efficacy or universal applicability. Item-level source review and curator acceptance are still required.

  Locator: Interpretive comparison of the two maintained public descriptions and their cited source records

  • When Unfreeze-Move-Refreeze Isn’t Working (checked)
  • Knowing Better via Systems Thinking (checked)

• Systems Changes Learning supports learning about governing frames through Double-loop learning

  Status: provisional · Relation: uses

  This is a provisional semantic or practice crosswalk. It does not establish historical influence, equivalence, efficacy or universal applicability. Item-level source review and curator acceptance are still required.

  Locator: Interpretive comparison of the two maintained public descriptions and their cited source records

  • When Unfreeze-Move-Refreeze Isn’t Working (checked)
  • SCiO SysBoK - Feedback v1 · No public link (pass4 legacy internal register audit)

• Systems Changes Learning adds an explicit learning orientation to Systems change

  Status: provisional · Relation: complements

  This is a provisional semantic or practice crosswalk. It does not establish historical influence, equivalence, efficacy or universal applicability. Item-level source review and curator acceptance are still required.

  Locator: Interpretive comparison of the two maintained public descriptions and their cited source records

  • When Unfreeze-Move-Refreeze Isn’t Working (checked)
  • A schema for better understanding systems leadership and systems change (checked)
  • What do systems leadership and systems change mean to you? (checked)
  • Systems convening and boundaries core slides (public file identity checked)

• Systems Changes Learning taught in Understanding Systems: Ing’s OCAD reading route

  Status: candidate · Relation: taught in

  Included as a proposed teaching topic in this published pro forma. This does not establish delivery, enrolment availability, or endorsement of every associated claim.

  Locator: Module_10

  • Understanding Systems: 2026 SFIN-6011 pro forma (source scoped research pass)

Claims and disputes

• Included as a proposed teaching topic in this published pro forma. This does not establish delivery, enrolment availability, or endorsement of every associated claim.

  Claim status: candidate. Review status: research pass needs editor.

  Source-scoped interpretation. Human editorial acceptance remains pending.

  Supporting sources

  • Understanding Systems: 2026 SFIN-6011 pro forma (source scoped research pass)

Sources and passage locators

• When Unfreeze-Move-Refreeze Isn’t Working (checked)
• Systems Changes Learning: Recasting and reifying rhythmic shifts (checked primary author record)
• Knowing Better via Systems Thinking (checked)
• SCiO SysBoK - Feedback v1 · No public link (pass4 legacy internal register audit)
• A schema for better understanding systems leadership and systems change (checked)
• What do systems leadership and systems change mean to you? (checked)
• Systems convening and boundaries core slides (public file identity checked)
• Understanding Systems: 2026 SFIN-6011 pro forma (source scoped research pass)

• Understanding Systems: 2026 SFIN-6011 pro forma: Module_10 · research pass needs editor

Cite this entry

Taylor, B. P. (2026). Systems Changes Learning. The Necessary Tangle, release 0.35. https://transduction.systems/entries/approach_family_systems_changes_learning/

Include the release and review status when you quote or reuse this account.