Systemic Cycles
Slow-moving towards resilient, regenerative futures
Systemic Cycles is a practice, a mindset, and a methodology
SC is a coherent framework that brings together multiple methods, praxeologies, and embodied practices to learn, understand, and engage with complex social–ecological systems.
Systemic Cycles integrates:
- systems thinking
- systemic design
- sustainability and resilience science
- embodied and experiential learning
- place-based inquiry and bioregioning
It is simultaneously:
- a didactic methodology for systems thinking and systemic design
- an embodied learning practice
- a touristic activity transformed from sight-seeing to inside-seeing and insight-seeing
- a weaving methodology connecting people, projects, places, and economic activity
Systemic Cycles is not only about understanding systems — it is about practicing systemic engagement.
From sight-seeing to inside-seeing to insight-seeing
Systemic Cycles deliberately works with three layers of seeing, including the inner self:
Sight-seeing
What is immediately visible:
- landscapes, land use, infrastructures
- activities, settlements, mobility patterns
Inside-seeing
What lies within systems — and within ourselves:
- inner logics, constraints, and feedbacks
- circular flows and dependencies
- governance structures and power relations
- personal positioning, assumptions, and values
“Inside” refers both to entering systems and to self-reflection within those systems.
Insight-seeing
What emerges through reflection and synthesis:
- systemic understanding
- cross-scale relationships
- leverage points and possible interventions
Insight is emergent, not instructional — it arises from experience, sensing, dialogue, and reflection.
What's in for you in this program?
Experience Systemic Cycles: Join a SC tour, offered from half-day short intros to 1-2-3 days tours > see the current tours
Guiding SC tours? Are you an experienced cyclist (or multi-modal movements including hiking, canoe/kayak, horse-back riding, sailing, and alike) and interested to guide SC tours and become a certified guide? Visit the SC guide training page.
Would you like to learn about SC as a scientific methodology and possibly engage in a SC partnership?
- Together we can build a holistic learning course on systems thinking and systemic design that is place-specific.
- Would you be interested in applying SC in your region as a form of regenerative tourism?
- Do you feel an interest to spur your community development or even engage in bioregional formation and weaving?
Scroll down to read details and request a personal talk by email to contact@monviso-institute.org.
The Systemic Cycles process
A methodology of cycles
(slow, multimodal movement with inner and outer perspectives)
Five clear phases:
Phase 1 — Seed discovery
Curious exploration without pressure
Purpose
Identify meaningful seeds: people, projects, and places with relevance for circular, place-based capacities.
Approach
- slow, multimodal movement along biogeographic structures
- minimal planning (ideally one anchor per day)
- openness to pauses, detours, and conversations
Methods
- system sensing (qualitative + light quantitative)
- exploratory mapping
- observation, sketching, journaling
Outcome
- first systemic orientation
- trust-based encounters
- identification of promising seeds
Phase 2 — Structural mapping & social activation
From seeds to community
Purpose
Turn seeds into shared system understanding and activate an initial community process.
Approach
- listen to the seed (person, project, place)
- expand via snowball sampling of relationships
- broaden perspective through:
- vision
- scope
- method
- scale
- narration
- engage actors in joint sense-making and first trust-building activities
Methods
- qualitative social network analysis (snowball-based)
- circularity mapping across the six flow types
- visual dialogue (shared maps, sketches, tables)
- stakeholder conversations across economic sectors 1–4:
- Sector 1: agriculture, agroforestry, primary production
- Sector 2: producing and manufacturing sectors
- Sector 3: services, education, research, culture, tourism
- Sector 4: digital and information sectors
Outcome
- shared system map
- emerging community of interest
- first collective orientation and trust
Phase 3 — Expanding & deepening the cluster
From mapping to weaving action
Purpose
Strengthen and expand the emerging cluster into a living weaving network.
Approach
- connect (and re-connect) actors through:
- shared meals
- cycling, walking, kayaking, other embodied activities
- workshops, craft, art, co-making
Methods
- community building
- facilitated co-creation
- embodied convenings
- iterative system sensing and mapping
- further Systemic Cycles activities (local tours, thematic journeys)
Outcome
- denser relationships
- emerging collaborations
- shared ownership
Phase 4 — Handover, repetition & entrepreneurial growth
From activation to self-propelling dynamics
Purpose
Enable the system to carry itself forward.
Approach
- build economic leverage to self-propel
- shift ownership to local actors
- identify, build, and prototype business cases
- support repetition of activities and formats
Outcome
- locally driven continuation
- entrepreneurial dynamics rooted in place
- Systemic Cycles becomes ongoing practice
Phase 5 — Monitoring, evaluation & evidence building
Learning from practice
Purpose
Make change visible, legible, and learnable.
Methods
- tracking:
- new relations and nodes (people, projects, places)
- activated circular flows
- number and diversity of joint activities
- Systemic Cycles tours and events
- evaluating:
- financial flows and value retention
- business opportunities and livelihoods created
Outcome
- empirical grounding
- transferable insights
- a growing evidence base for the Systemic Cycles methodology
Join a SC tour and experience the effects of insight-inside-seeing
Characters of Systemic Cycle tours
- Explore a (bioregional) spatial system (land, water, city) by bicycle (or by packraft, foot, horse,...) to get a (slow) sense of place, and connect (randomly and planned) with people and projects specific to place.
- Let curiosity and chance explore bio- and cultural diversity, wonder what grows and moves, and how humans have been living in relation with land and water.
- Cultivate a self-reflective process of learning to unlearn to relearn, of humbly sensing oneself as part of living systems, one’s purpose and belonging.
- Bump into local people and their projects or schedule a meeting with an organisation - start a conversation with a question and nurture given trust to cyclists and those who move slowly with an open mind.
- Understand supply chain systems between biocapacity, land use and processing clusters - uncover opportunities for “designing out” linear flows and envision “designing in” circularities.
- Map the discoveries as (dialogic) systems maps, potentially becoming graphically advanced pieces of systemic communication.
- Feed-back and re-enter the dialogue with partners and further regional actors, and weave people, projects, and places.
Why this requires trained Systemic Cycles Guides
The Systemic Cycles methodology integrates:
- multiple methods
- embodied practices
- social processes
- inner and outer development
Guiding this well requires dedicated, multi-level training — technically, didactically, systemically, and personally.
Engage with Systemic Cycles — in a Development & Innovation Partnership
Beyond experiencing Systemic Cycles through tours or becoming a guide, organizations can engage in deeper partnerships to apply the methodology in real-world contexts.
Grounded in a scientifically informed and practice-tested approach—refined across diverse regions and through the ETH Zurich DRRS Program with professionals, executives, and cultural perspectives from around the world—Systemic Cycles offers a way to work with complexity through embodied, relational, and place-based learning.
In such partnerships, we co-develop tailored formats that may include immersive executive trainings and incentives (from hours to multi-day journeys), the integration of systemic design and complexity didactics into leadership and guiding practices, and the co-creation of new value pathways—including emerging business opportunities—across sectors such as tourism, conservation, sport, community and regional development.
At its core, this work supports bioregional weaving: connecting actors, places, and initiatives into coherent, nested processes that enable concrete systemic interventions—towards greater resilience and regenerative capacity.
Would you like to learn about SC as a scientific methodology and possibly engage in a SC partnership?
- Together we can build a holistic learning course on systems thinking and systemic design that is place-specific.
- Would you be interested in applying SC in your region as a form of regenerative tourism?
- Do you feel an interest to spur your community development or even engage in bioregional formation and weaving?
Scroll down to read details and request a personal talk by email to contact@monviso-institute.org.
Visit the Systemic Cycles tours website: www.systemic-cycles.org