For the sixth annual Lucas J. Daniel Lecture in Sustainable Systems, Sheryl Cababa, VP of Strategy at Substantial and author of Closing the Loop: Systems Thinking for Designers (Rosenfield, 2023), shares her insights.

Sheryl’s talk, “Designing For A More Equitable World with Systems Thinking,” will happen at the Kaplan Institute on Tuesday, April 11, at 6–8 p.m.

In-person attendees will also be the first to receive ID’s 2024 report on the state of design. This event will also be streamed.

A Q&A and discussion with ID faculty member Maura Shea will follow the talk.

Abstract

Whether design thinking can have actual impact in today’s complex world is a real question, and some design practitioners have become disillusioned with approaches that emphasize products and profit over people. In this talk, Sheryl discusses how there is still a spark of value in some of the tenets of design thinking, but to make it really shine, and to design for a more just and equitable world, systems thinking needs to be at the center of the designer’s practice. Sheryl will share stories, approaches and methods that help designers kickstart or expand on their systems thinking practice and will consider the challenges and assumptions that designers have about systems thinking.