Cohorts 4 & 5 of Systems Change for Tech & Society Leaders is now live. Spots are limited, so enroll today.
Cohort 4: 9:00 am PT - 11:00 am PT on October 31, November 7, 14, and 21.
Cohort 5: 9:00 am PT - 11:00 am PT on November 19, December 3, 10, and 17.
Iâve taught this course at Harvard University to a group of 60 digital transformation leaders and with participants that span philanthropy (Siegel Family Endowment, Annie E. Casey Foundation), the private sector (Mercado Libre, Deloitte, Accenture) civil society (New_Public, Center for Tech & Civic Life), academia (Stanfordâs Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society), and I couldnât be more excited to teach it this fall. This email covers everything you need to know about the course.
Why this course?
When I was leading digital transformation at USAID, stewarding a coalition against mis-and disinformation with civil rights groups and tech companies, or running a 500+ member peer-learning network of tech and society leaders, I kept running into the same wall.
Everyone wanted to make real change with technology â but the frameworks we had didnât fit the realities we were facing.
They assumed the world was predictable, when in fact our systems were uncertain and adaptive.
They treated technology as a âsolutionâ or driver of change, when I saw how people, power, and tech continually shape one another.
They reduced trust, relationships, and power to abstractions, when those were the levers of transformation that mattered most.
Meanwhile, the outside noise only made things harder:
The pace of tech change was disorienting, and uncertainty was the new norm.
Tech hype masked the real dynamics leaders needed to see.
And suddenly, everyone was a âtech expertâ, making it hard to sort substance from noise.
Thatâs why I built Systems Change for Tech & Society Leaders: to give leaders the tools I wish Iâd had â practical ways to cut through hype, see systems clearly, and intervene where change can actually stick.
Youâll get 4 live, interactive sessions, a 250-page practical playbook to apply the frameworks directly to your work, and a peer community to support your growth long after the course ends. Itâs a complete toolkit to cut through the tech hype and drive strategies that spark real, lasting systems change.
What youâll get
đť 8 hours of live & interactive sessions where youâll learn new strategies and frameworks that will get you out of your system funk, complete with hands-on practice in a lab-like environment.
âď¸ 250-pg Playbook full of practical tools that you can put immediately to use in your working context.
⨠A 1:1 coaching session with me, where I can guide you through any obstacles that are specific to your situation
đĄExclusive access to monthly meetups with tech & society leaders to coach one another and share tips about frameworks learned in the course. With participants from organizations like New_Public, Center for Tech & Civic Life, Siegel Family Endowment, Stanfordâs Digital Civil Society Lab, LAist, and many more.
đ Hands-on Capstone Project - Youâll develop a âCustomized Systems Change Planâ and get personalized feedback from me in the 1:1 coaching session.
đ Bonus: you also get a free subscription to Untangled for a year!
Who Gets the Most Out of the Course
In my experience, the people who thrive in this course share a common challenge: theyâre trying to drive change on tech & society issues, but their system feels stuck. Theyâre leading consequential work â but they canât quite figure out how to make the system work for them.
You might be a:
Funder trying to align public interest tech programs and grantees around collective action.
Nonprofit or public-interest leader crafting strategies to ensure AI aligns with your vision of the future, not the other way around.
Senior policy, product, or partnership manager aiming to shift the status quo inside your company on trust & safety issues.
Technologist who sees how people, power, and tech continually shape one another but needs a playbook full of strategies and tools to guide their work.
Scholar, consultant, or ecosystem builder who already thinks in systems but needs frameworks to guide practical interventions.
What Past Participants Say
âThe conversations pushed me beyond my own perspectivesâ surfacing tensions, narratives, and lived realities that deepened my understanding of sociotechnical systems in a practical way. Charley masterfully weaves in concepts and practical examples, engaging us in a collective sense-making process with others equally committed in navigating complexity and uncertainty. That shared learning space was what made the learning experience truly unique.â Lorena Molina, Founder & CEO, 1iLabs
âThis is the only course Iâve seen that weaves together systems thinking, tech and social organising principles in a multi-disciplinary way that gives you structures & frameworks to use and share with others to make change. If youâre building something or doing work in a complex context, I bet itâll beat any other self-investment you could make this year!â Amanda Green, Community Builder, Operations Nation
âCharley expertly guided us through a framework for making sense of the sociotechnical systems in which we work and live and offered important steps toward honoring their complexity while working toward interventions that can create meaningful change. The materials accompanying this course will certainly continue to guide my work long after finishing the course. If you are vexed by the complexity of the system you are aiming to change, this course will leave you feeling more empowered and hopeful about engaging with shaping this system for the better.â Madison Snider, Research Manager, Siegel Family Endowment
âCharleyâs course helped me think about our work at Driverâs Seat Cooperative in important new ways - expanding the field of view and identifying some additional elements to consider in our strategy. The mindset shifts around technology that he brings to the table are all things âyou canât unsee.â Highly recommend to both practitioners and theorists.â Hays Witt, Community Engagement Manager, New_Public
âAt first, I was concerned that giving up a good chunk of my weekend for this course would be too much, but it turned out to be the best way to spend my time. The concepts and frameworks that Charley introduced both validated that my approach to systems thinking is a worthwhile orientation and gave me tools and approaches that I was able to begin implementing at my organization within just a matter of days. Iâm now scheming to see if I can convince the other peer leaders around me to also take this course so that we can all organize around the same concepts and speak the same systems change language.â - Senior Trust & Safety Policy Manager
âCharley is an outstanding instructor. He brings fresh insights, grounds complex concepts through real-world cases, and encourages a truly systemic view of technology â reminding us that bias often stems from the social systems behind the tools, not just the tools themselves.â Cristina Velez, Digital Civil Society Lab Fellow, Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society
Course Structure
The course itself involves four two-hour long, live, interactive sessions over four weeks. This allows time for participants to practice the frameworks in their working context, join Office Hours during the week, and complete exercises in between each session that builds toward a capstone project.
Each session include teaching, practicing the material in small groups, group-coaching, and Q&A. Hereâs an overview of the content for each session:
Session 1
See Your System Clearly: The pace of tech change is dizzying, and uncertainty makes it hard to know where to focus. In this module, youâll learn how to cut through the noise and see your system for what it is. Youâll map the key frames, power dynamics, information flows, feedback loops, and relationships that drive its behavior â and surface the blind spots that keep you and your system stuck.
Youâll walk away able to:
Map the core parts of your system and how they interact
Spot the narratives and frames that hide deeper dynamics
Identify blind spots where interventions often fail
Session 2
Anticipate System Shifts: Tech hype hides whatâs really changing â and whatâs not. In this module, youâll learn to anticipate how your system is shifting by applying sociotechnical frameworks that show how people, power, and technology continually shape one another. Youâll build the capacity to spot genuine inflection points â and points of leverage!â rather than chasing the latest buzzword.
Youâll walk away able to:
Distinguish hype from meaningful shifts in your system
Use sociotechnical frameworks to analyze change
Anticipate how tech and power co-evolve in practice
Session 3
Reframe & Repurpose Your System: You now have the tools of systems change, but real-world contexts are full of differences â across teams, organizations, and cultures. This module equips you to align diverse groups around a common vision, negotiate across differences, and ensure technology is repurposed to serve your people and your purposeâ not the other way around.
Youâll walk away able to:
Reframe challenges to open new pathways for action
Align diverse stakeholders around shared purpose
Repurpose data & technology to serve your systemâs goals, not override them
Session 4
Reconfigure & Re-pattern Your System: With shared purpose in place, the challenge is reshaping how the system actually works. In this module, youâll learn how to facilitate collective sensemaking, distribute decision-making, and shift feedback loops. Youâll practice translating across difference, using enabling constraints to foster new behaviors, and acting interdependently so that patterns of change take root and endure.
Youâll walk away able to:
Facilitate collective sensemaking under uncertainty
Design enabling constraints that spark new behaviors
Shift feedback loops and decision-making to reinforce change
If you have any questions about the course, donât hesitate to reach out. I hope to see you in Cohort 4 or 5!
Charley