Academy for Systems Change

05/11/2026

[...] there’s nothing physical or expensive or even slow in the process of paradigm change. In a single individual it can happen in a millisecond. All it takes is a click in the mind, a falling of scales from the eyes, a new way of seeing. Whole societies are another matter—they resist challenges to their paradigms harder than they resist anything else. Donella Meadows | Systems Dynamics Meets the Press, 1989

You can read the whole essay in the Donella Meadows Archives on our website.

05/01/2026

"Challenging a paradigm is not part-time work. It is not sufficient to make your point once and then blame the world for not getting it. The world has a vested interest in not getting it; the point has to be made patiently and repeatedly, day after day after day.” Donella Meadows | Systems Dynamics Meets the Press, 1989

You can find the full text in the Donella Meadows Archives, on our website!

04/27/2026

"A paradigm is a set of deep concepts about the nature of reality that shapes language, thought, perceptions – and system structures. It is not only an assumption about how things are; it is a commitment. In social interactions, slogans, and common sayings, the reigning paradigm of the society is repeated and reinforced over and over, many times a day. There is an emotional investment in a paradigm, because it defines one’s world and oneself.” Donella Meadows | Systems Dynamics Meets the Press, 1989

Find the whole article in the Donella Meadows Archives on our website!

04/23/2026

"Many of us have concluded that the global economy is too huge and growing too rapidly to be either sustainable or governable. It is destroying life-support systems that we don’t even understand. We are consuming the resources and options of our children. [...]
The prescription that follows from this diagnosis is obvious: Slow down. Control our numbers and our greed. There is enough, if we all share. Find the joy in living with enough."
Donella Meadows, Feeling Our Feelings Might Not Be a Trivial Exercise, 1997.

04/20/2026

"I don’t know about you, but when I really let myself experience the state of the world, my first reaction is bottomless, unutterable sorrow. That moves quickly into outrage. The sorrow I can deal with; the outrage I used to suppress — after all, it might offend someone. Now I use it to give me courage. When I get mad, I have to move. With half-suppressed anger, I tend to swing out and do something impetuous and ignorant. But a fully felt, grounded, familiar anger can move me through a lifetime commitment to make things better.” Donella Meadows, Feeling Our Feelings Might Not Be a Trivial Exercise, 1997

04/15/2026

"Even artists of denial must suspect, down deep, that our economy and society and goals and myths are wrong — wrong for the earth, wrong for our health, wrong for our souls. There are more and more deserts of toxicity and swamps of human despair. Even the privileged, wrapped in their cocoons of big cars, walled estates, stocks and bonds, must sense the wrongness around them limiting their horizons and darkening their hearts.” Donella Meadows, Feeling Our Feelings Might Not Be a Trivial Exercise, 1997.

04/14/2026

📖 Join us on May 13 at 11am US Eastern Time for an online book club conversation on Thinking in Systems! We are excited to join the May 2026 book club of the vibrant educators network Systems.Change.Educators.Unite. Whether you already read THINKING IN SYSTEMS by Donella Meadows or your are just about to start it, join us for a 90min (FREE) conversation by registering at the link below - and don't forget to check out SCEU's other amazing offerings! https://www.systemschangeeducatorsunite.com/sign-up-for-our-calls/systems-inspired-leadership-sceu-book-club-discussion-ng64a

02/10/2026

Our friends at CoCreative have some sweet offerings coming up! Emotions in Motion: Mapping The Landscape Of How We Feel is this Friday, February 13.

We don’t come together because we have all the answers. We come because we are living the questions. This series offers shared practices for sense-making, reflection, and connection. This series offers space to tend to our inner landscapes while staying in relationship with the world and with one ...

12/12/2025

✨ A Sense of the Possible - https://us2.campaign-archive.com/?u=06d5d4b6dd9a832edaffa8950&id=5b52ae2a84
We are excited to be back in touch, reflect, and invite you to be part of our efforts going forward, including exploring our new website!
These continue to be challenging times for many of us, here in the US and beyond. And yet, this is exactly the time for deepening community with each other and with nature; the time to nourish our talents and responsibilities and heal our relationship with ourselves, each other, and the larger systems we live in.

11/21/2025

“What we can do individually is define what ‘enough’ means for us and then live it.” Donella Meadows, quoted from her 1990 essay, “Four Not-So Easy Things you can do to Save the Planet.”