Deepen Your Systems Practice — Systems Thinking Academy for sumApp Users

Working on a social system mapping project? The technical aspects of using sumApp are just the beginning. The real art lies in understanding the living systems you’re mapping—and developing the relational skills to work with them effectively.

The 2025 RE-AMP Systems Thinking Academy offers a unique opportunity to deepen the systems thinking that makes social system mapping truly transformational.

Why This Matters for Your sumApp Project

Social system mapping isn’t just about visualizing networks—it’s about understanding complex adaptive systems and working with them skillfully. The frameworks you’ll explore in the Academy directly support more effective mapping projects by helping you:

• See patterns more clearly in the data you’re gathering
• Ask better questions during your mapping process
• Facilitate more meaningful conversations with your network participants
• Navigate complexity when your map reveals unexpected dynamics

A Learning Lab with RE-AMP Network

The Academy is designed primarily for RE-AMP Network members—a long-standing, multi-sector climate network in the Upper Midwest. As a sumApp user and systems practitioner, you’re invited to join alongside them.

If you’re joining as a network practitioner, your role isn’t to teach, but to accompany—supporting their learning while practicing your own. How do you help others think systemically without losing the thread yourself? How do you facilitate systems conversations when frameworks get messy?

You’ll also gain rare insights into how a mature network actually functions—observations that can inform your own mapping and facilitation work.

The Academy runs November 18th-20th at Loyola University Retreat and Ecology Campus in Woodstock, IL. Space is intentionally limited to maintain the intimate learning environment.

Register for the Academy →

Foundation Series: Systems Thinking for Mappers

Whether or not you can join the Academy, I’m sharing the foundational reading series I created for participants. Over 8 weeks, these articles explore the core concepts that underlie effective systems work:

• How our mental habits shape what we see (and miss)
• Working with paradigms and complex adaptive systems
• Adaptive Action and Pattern Logic as core practices
• The deep dynamics that shape every system

Think of it as essential background for anyone doing systems mapping work.

Follow the series: Systems Thinking Academy Field Guide

Ready to move beyond just mapping networks to truly understanding and working with living systems? The Academy and article series offer the conceptual foundation that makes social system mapping a practice of transformation, not just visualization.