Designs the deeper patterns, structures, and mental models needed to grow a desired future event. Use when a class imagines a better outcome and wants to map how to cultivate it.
How this skill is triggered — by the user, by Claude, or both
Slash command
/education-agent-skills:aspirational-systems-icebergThe summary Claude sees in its skill listing — used to decide when to auto-load this skill
Designs the flipped version of the systems iceberg. Instead of starting with an undesirable event and asking what deeper patterns, structures, and mental models produce it, this skill starts with a visible event students or educators want to grow. It then asks: what repeated patterns would make this event normal, what structures and artefacts would sustain those patterns, and what mental models...
Designs the flipped version of the systems iceberg. Instead of starting with an undesirable event and asking what deeper patterns, structures, and mental models produce it, this skill starts with a visible event students or educators want to grow. It then asks: what repeated patterns would make this event normal, what structures and artefacts would sustain those patterns, and what mental models would need to be cultivated or shifted?
This is especially useful in classrooms because it turns systems thinking toward possibility. Students learn that a better future is not produced by a wish or slogan. It requires conditions: routines, roles, spaces, supports, information flows, incentives, relationships, and beliefs that make the desired event more likely.
The Center for Systems Awareness publishes a Guided Iceberg (Aspirational) resource that begins with "What are we trying to grow?" and asks what patterns, structures, artefacts, values, beliefs, and transformed thinking would support the aspiration. This skill adapts that practitioner tool for classroom and curriculum design. It also draws on Senge's work on mental models and learning organisations and Meadows' work on systems structures and leverage points.
The teacher must provide:
Optional context:
You are facilitating an Aspirational Systems Iceberg. Start with the desired visible event and work downward to the deeper system that would make it more likely.
Inputs:
Desired event: {{desired_event}}
Context: {{context}}
Student level: {{student_level}}
Current reality: {{current_reality}}
Stakeholders: {{stakeholders}}
Constraints: {{constraints}}
Rules:
1. Make the desired event observable. If the aspiration is vague, translate it into visible evidence: what would someone see, hear, read, or experience?
2. Work downward from aspiration to conditions:
- Event: What are we trying to grow? What visible evidence would show it is happening?
- Patterns and behaviours: What repeated actions, habits, interactions, and trends would need to become normal?
- Structures and artefacts: What routines, roles, spaces, tools, protocols, schedules, policies, resources, rituals, feedback loops, or artefacts would sustain those patterns?
- Mental models: What beliefs, values, assumptions, identities, and definitions of success would need to be strengthened, questioned, or shifted?
3. Include current reality without letting it dominate. The purpose is design, not complaint.
4. Avoid magical thinking. Every aspiration must be connected to concrete structures and small experiments.
5. Preserve agency and responsibility. Do not imply students alone must fix institutional or systemic problems.
6. End with first safe experiments that the class or teacher can try within their real sphere of influence.
Return exactly:
## Aspirational Systems Iceberg: [Desired Event]
**Context:** [brief]
**Design stance:** We are identifying the conditions that could help this aspiration grow.
### 1. Desired Event
**What we want to see happen:** [observable event]
**How we would recognise it:**
- [Visible/heard evidence]
- [Student/community experience evidence]
- [Artefact/product/data evidence]
### 2. Patterns and Behaviours to Grow
- [Repeated behaviour/habit/interaction]
- [Trend over time]
- [Pattern of response when difficulty appears]
### 3. Structures and Artefacts to Create or Strengthen
- **Routines:** [repeatable practices]
- **Roles:** [who holds what responsibility]
- **Spaces/materials:** [physical/digital/environmental supports]
- **Protocols/tools:** [scripts, forms, prompts, checklists, dialogue moves]
- **Time and rhythms:** [when this happens]
- **Feedback loops:** [how the system notices whether it is growing]
- **Institutional supports:** [adult, policy, resource, community supports]
### 4. Mental Models to Cultivate or Shift
For each mental model:
- **Current model that may limit growth:** [belief/story]
- **Aspirational model to cultivate:** [belief/story]
- **What would make the new model credible:** [experience/evidence/practice]
### 5. First Safe Experiments
Suggest 3 small experiments:
1. **Experiment:** [small action]
- **Why this tests the system:** [pattern/structure/mental model]
- **Evidence to notice:** [what to watch]
- **Risk/safety check:** [how to keep it low-harm]
### 6. Classroom Facilitation Sequence
- **Opening prompt:** [student-friendly]
- **Individual think time:** [what students write/draw]
- **Group mapping:** [how groups build the iceberg]
- **Gallery walk or discussion:** [how patterns across groups are noticed]
- **Action selection:** [how to choose one experiment]
- **Reflection:** [what to revisit later]
### Quality Gates
- [ ] Desired event is observable.
- [ ] Patterns are repeated behaviours, not one-off hopes.
- [ ] Structures are concrete enough to design.
- [ ] Mental models are examined with humility, not used to judge people.
- [ ] First experiments sit within real control or influence.
- [ ] Institutional responsibility is named where needed.
npx claudepluginhub garethmanning/education-agent-skills --plugin education-agent-skillsSequences compassionate systems thinking tools for classroom inquiry—from issue/aspiration to wise action. Use when a class needs a complete inquiry workflow with handoff outputs and safety checks.
Routes to the appropriate systems thinking tool based on your situation. Use for diagnosing system behaviors, feedback loops, and leverage points.
Activates expansive brainstorming and hyperassociative thinking for design problems. Shifts reasoning to question assumptions, find adjacent problems, and suppress premature idea-dismissal.