Dancing with Systems: Moves for Turbulent Times

A webinar that explores some of the practical ideas that made Donella Meadows so beloved by people interested in making a world that works for all.

Whether you’re working to shift the culture of your organization, advocating for more equitable policies in your community, or re-orienting your life for a deeper purpose, you are most likely experiencing the challenges of changing the status quo. More than willpower and determination, this work calls for the full awareness of ourselves and of systems. In the words of author and systems analyst Donella Meadows: “We can’t control systems or figure them out. But we can dance with them!”

The webinar draws reflection and inspiration from Donella Meadows’ work as a way to engage with systems change compassionately, resisting the urge of control, and bringing our full humanity to the task.

Marta Ceroni stewards the Donella Meadows Project and is the co-director of the Academy for Systems Change. With a doctorate in forest ecology, over the years Marta has become interested in economies that prioritize communities and nature. Before this position, Marta worked as a Research Professor for 10 years at the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics at the University of Vermont. There she taught and did research on how nature contributes to people’s wellbeing through services such as water purification by wetlands, or climate regulation by forests. In her international consulting with the United Nations Development Programme Marta has quantified ecosystem services to build capacity for local management of protected areas. She is also a writer, a dancer, and a community cultivator. Her ancestral home is in the Po River Valley, Italy and she feels at home in the New Hampshire side of the Connecticut (Kwnitekw) River, USA.

The Academy for Systems Change owes its existence to the environmental leader, author, teacher, and dear friend Donella Meadows who founded the organization in 1996 under the name Sustainability Institute. We support organization- and community leaders in their capacity to shape more equitable and sustainable futures through peer learning and a focus on awareness-based systems change.