Acknowledgements

This effort to present a collection of complex systems frameworks is spearheaded by me, Diane Finegood, Professor and Fellow, Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue at Simon Fraser University.  I have been learning, thinking, speaking and teaching about complex systems since about 2005. 

Advisory Group

The people listed below have helped me in one way or another to build and curate this collection of complex systems frameworks:

Sam Bradd is the Principal of Drawing Change and the artist behind this set of illustrations. Sam and I have worked together on a few different projects, including drawing some of the earliest Sam Bradd originals in the collection.  The Iceberg, Stacey Matrix and the Collaboration Spectrum got this particular ball rolling and led to the idea of commissioning original illustrations for all of the frameworks.

Lee Johnston and I have been working together on systems thinking for many years, starting with Lee's PhD work including the development of the Intervention Level Framework and a review about cross sector partnerships and building trust.  Recently, we were able to apply some of our systems thinking to engaging Canadians in national dialogues about the Framework for Diabetes in Canada.

Harry Rutter is in some ways to blame for all of this.  He was there at the beginning of my journey towards systems thinking and has continued to push and encourgage me to advance a systems thinking agenda over the years.  Harry organized the conference leading up to the 2017 paper, was part of the CAHS/UK Expert Panel Report and continues to help advance ideas for this collection.

Around the time I started thinking about complexity, Natalie Savona reached out and made a connection to the work she was doing at the time.  We met, discovered our mutual interests and have continued to find ways to connect on systems thinking in a variety of projects.

I first met Chris Yakimov when he was giving a professional development session about social media.  Chris used hockey as a metaphor, and I wondered why I thought the session would be helpful. This led to a dialogue which has continued to dig deep into systems thinking ever since.  Chris and I have co-taught the Semester in Dialogue on multiple occasions and frequently meet over breakfast for wide ranging conversations about complexity, language, and so many other things.

Ahmed Lelamo was my student in a directed study course designed to develop a set of guiding principles for the Semester in Dialogue based on Michael Quinn Patton's GUIDEing Principles framework. Those principles supported the evolution of the program’s effectiveness in many important ways. More recently, Ahmend and I have reconnected on new projects, including this one.

Max French is another one of those people who stumbled across my musings and reached out for a conversation.  I am grateful to have met Max and learned about the Complexity Theory of Outcome Creation, for which Sam has created some original images. Max (along with another Max) helped create an amazing dialogue for my students in Fall 2023.

Noor Zehary was a student in my Fall 2023 Semester in Dialogue on the Future of Healthcare.  I put a very rough version of the collection up on the class website and Noor jumped in to use the resource to explore a wide range of topics.  Her enthusiam and experience in using the collection is helping to evolve the collection.

ChatGPT has also become a partner in this endeavor.  I have been trying to learn more about how to use generative AI and have been practicing my prompting by asking questions like, "What is a framework? and "How does it differ from a logic model or theory of change?".  These conversations have helped suggest some of the text in this site.