Systainability Asia Brings the Compass of Sustainability to TEDxChiangMai 2025

15 November 2025

TEDxChiangMai 2025, hosted by CMU Uniserve and attended by more than 350 people, was one of this year’s official TED Countdown Anchor Events aligned with COP30 in Belém, Brazil. As part of TED’s global initiative to accelerate climate solutions, the event invited participants not only to listen, but to learn, experiment, and take action.

Amid eight hands-on breakout sessions, Systainability Asia’s Robert Steele and Watkana Thongrueng led an interactive workshop exploring climate change through the Compass of Sustainability—a favourite among participants seeking practical tools for systems thinking and climate action.

A Dynamic, Hands-On Exploration of Climate Change

Twenty-one participants from international NGOs, schools, creative groups, and university SDG and climate action clubs joined our session. Many later described it as fun, energizing, and deeply insightful.

We started with an icebreaker that invited participants to move around the room through the four Compass dimensions—Nature, Economy, Society, and Wellbeing—and discuss open-ended questions about how climate change affects their lives through each lens.

We then formed four Compass groups and asked each one to map climate impacts and contributing factors from their assigned perspective. Within minutes, colorful strands of yarn stretched across the room as participants linked their ideas, creating a vivid web of connections.

The message became unmistakable: climate change is a whole-system challenge, and every action sends ripples through the rest of the system.

The Triangle Game: Systems Thinking in Motion

Next, we facilitated our workshop participants to explore interconnectedness through the Triangles Game. Each person secretly chose two others in the room and tried to keep an equal-sided triangle with them, while those two people were simultaneously doing the same with their own secret choices. As the game unfolded, the whole group began shifting, speeding up, slowing down, and continually readjusting in response to one another’s movements.

During the debrief, a powerful insight emerged: even someone who felt least connected still influenced the entire system. A single step by one person triggered adjustments across the room, sometimes instantly, sometimes with a delay, but always cascading through the group.

This simple movement exercise made the lesson unmistakable: in any system, small actions (what we call “leverage points” in systems thinking language) can create wide, often unexpected ripple effects.

A Moment of Collective Momentum

As an official TED Countdown Anchor Event, TEDxChiangMai offered a rare regional platform to explore both ideas and practical strategies for climate action. The sense of collective momentum was truly inspiring.

We are deeply grateful to everyone who joined our workshop and contributed their curiosity, creativity, and presence. Moments like these remind us why participatory learning, youth engagement, and systems thinking are essential for addressing climate challenges in Southeast Asia and beyond.

Together, we can create the ripple effects our world needs re-balance humanity with our planet.