Welcome to the web site of the International Systems Institute (ISI). ISI is a community of scholars, practitioners, consultants, change professionals, and institutions exploring the question of how individuals, organizations, communities, and societies can collaboratively create their futures through a relatively new kind of inquiry and way of life called participatory social systems design.

ISI's mission is carried out through self-organizing research teams that discuss a variety of topics on how systems thinking can be applied to changing organizations, families, and societies. The collaborations are conducted year-round through a series of virtual and face-to-face conferences where  scholars and practitioners engage in dialogue about their own situations and share approaches and findings with others. 

The keystone event held by ISI is the annual Asilomar Conversation Conference. This conference is a 5-day intensive dialogue that brings together people who want to apply systems design approaches to the pressing, chronic, complex problems in our modern world. The conference site is wonderfully suited to transformative learning, allowing conference participants hold deep discussions in small groups around a roaring fire, take contemplatative walks along the ocean, or engage in rejuvanative connection with like minded people. Many of the connections made at Asilomar have resulted in lasting friendships formed from the experience of authentic dialogue.

ISI recently sponsored a new project called Global Open Space (GOS) to widen outreach, inspire virtual as well as face-to-face community and guard the values of global citizenship. See Global Open Space for details. GOS has been invited to partner in the Asilomar Conference '06, leading to an exiting new multi conference format, themed Moving the Unmovable -- How Systems Thinking Turns Barriers into Co-creation.