Delays are invisible.

You make a change. Nothing happens. You assume it failed. But the change was working - you just couldn't see it yet.

Training takes months to show results. Policy takes quarters. Culture takes years.

Before judging a change, ask: how long should this take to show effects?

Then actually wait that long.

#SystemsThinking #Patience #ChangeManagement #Delays

Every system has a constraint. It's the step that limits how fast work can flow through.

Don't optimise anything else until you've addressed it. Everything else is just moving the queue around.

Ask: Where does work pile up? That's where to focus.

#SystemsThinking #Bottlenecks #Constraints #ServiceDesign

I've put together a free 7-day email course on systems thinking.

It's for people who design policies, products, and services - and keep running into problems that resist conventional solutions.

Each day covers a different lens: what makes something a system, feedback loops, behaviour over time, how measures shape behaviour, boundary disagreements, leverage points, and mapping.

Sign up for free: https://www.humanedesign.co/courses/systems-thinking?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=see-the-system_2026q1_launch&utm_content=personal_post_foundations_cw03_launch

#SystemsThinking #ServiceDesign #FreeCourse #PublicSector #DesignThinking

I’m reading “The Great Mental Models” by Shane Parrish. It’s 4 books packed with tools for better thinking:

1. General thinking concepts
2. Physics, chemistry, and biology
3. Systems and mathematics
4. Economics and human behaviour

I’m two books into the series, and I can highly recommend them.

You can buy the series from the Farnam Street website: https://fs.blog/tgmm/

The next time you evaluate a UX project, don’t just ask about ROI. Ask about behaviour change. What specific actions do you want users to take? How can UX help facilitate those actions? By focusing on behaviour change, you’ll get a clearer picture of a UX project’s true value.

ROI isn’t the best way to talk about the value of UX, but behaviour change is.

When it comes to UX, ROI’s limitations become apparent. It’s a financial measure, while UX is about human experience. Behaviour change is a more meaningful indicator.

Why? Because UX isn’t just about aesthetics or usability. It’s about driving specific actions. A beautiful, easy-to-use website might impress users, but if it doesn’t get them to buy, sign up, or share, it’s not achieving its goal.

When is an interaction designer, not an interaction designer?

When they only design in Figma! 🙈🙉

Rescued by a bot, by Christoph Niemann for the New Yorker, imagines the unintended consequences of turning to artificial intelligence to solve problems of the artistic imagination. #AI