The First System I Studied
My interest in systems didn't begin with theory. It began with technology transformation work in British Columbia after completing my MBA at the University of British Columbia.
Early in my career, I worked on Next Generation 9-1-1 initiatives, where I became fascinated by how critical information moves between people, organizations, and technologies. Emergency response depends on coordination. Information has to reach the right people at the right time, often under immense pressure and with little room for error.
At the time, emergency communications were undergoing a major transformation. Next Generation 9-1-1 was expanding beyond traditional voice calls to support richer data, new forms of communication, and greater interoperability between systems. The long-term vision was ambitious: technologies such as artificial intelligence, real-time data sharing, and smart city infrastructure working together to improve how information moved through emergency response.
Working on these initiatives exposed me to a question that would continue to shape my thinking:
What allows information to flow smoothly through a system?
Some organizations seemed capable of coordinating across complex networks of people and technology. Others struggled despite having talented individuals and significant resources. The difference was rarely a single person or a single technology. It was often the system itself.
Seeing the Same Pattern Again
Years later, I encountered many of the same challenges in healthcare and care coordination.
People often interacted with multiple organizations at once, each with only part of the picture. Information moved slowly. Individuals spent enormous amounts of time navigating systems that were never designed to work together.
Over time, I found myself returning to the same conclusion:
When systems don't connect,
people fill the gaps.
Whether in emergency response, healthcare, or other complex environments, people often become the bridge between disconnected systems, carrying information across organizations, technologies, and processes that don't naturally connect.
The more I encountered this pattern, the more I wanted to understand why some systems help people thrive while others leave them carrying the burden of coordination themselves.
Looking Beyond Individual Industries
What began as a question about how information moves through emergency response systems gradually evolved into a broader interest in how systems function across society.
Different industries face different challenges, but many are shaped by the same dynamics: coordination, incentives, information flow, and human behavior.
Once I started noticing those patterns, it became difficult not to see them everywhere.
An Invitation
Many of the forces that shape our lives are systems we rarely stop to think about.
This website is an invitation to explore them together.
Read My Stories
When systems don't connect, people fill the gaps. Across healthcare, emergency services, and many other industries, much of the work happens between organizations rather than within them. People become the bridge that keeps information, services, and decisions moving.
Many support systems don't begin when a problem first appears. They begin when the situation becomes severe enough to trigger attention. This video explores why people often enter services later than anyone would prefer.
A look at the work that happens behind the scenes to connect people with services. From referrals and follow-ups to status checks and information sharing, much of the job involves helping disconnected organizations work together.
Partnerships don’t fix coordination. The work still happens across disconnected systems, so it turns into follow-ups, status checks, and re-sending information just to keep things moving. Not because the work is complex, but because the systems aren’t connected.