What is Societal Thinking?

In order to structure Societal Thinking as a systemic approach, we learnt more about established methodologies such as Design Thinking and Systems Thinking. Design Thinking offers a pathway to solve deeply contextual problems with empathy, affordance and iterations. Systems Thinking emphasises interconnectedness, feedback loops and emergence to navigate complex systems.

Societal Thinking draws from emerging developments over the last few decades in how networks, ecosystems and technology can accelerate sustainable change at scale. It is grounded in fundamental ideas such as agency, abundance, diversity, networks and interactions to enhance the ability of people closest to problems to solve, as well as, that of the system to shift.

Societal Thinking is a systemic approach to reimagine and realise exponential change. To apply Societal Thinking, we need to appreciate its four core components – the Societal Model and the mindset shifts, Core Values and design principles essential to design with the same.