This paper draws on process data from two action design studies in sustainable public procurement to show how systems thinking tools can create organizational impact and contribute to resolving grand challenges. Systems thinking helps uncover how problems are embedded in social, material, and ecological systems, but its application requires facilitation and meta-reflexive thinking, making it difficult for organisations to apply. This paper proposes a prescriptive process model for operationalising systems thinking within organizations without internal systems thinking skills. Our action design research of two cross-sectoral projects in sustainable, circular-oriented procurement shows that project participants struggle with systems thinking because it requires a cognitive predisposition to meta-reflexive decision-making. Building on insights from five learning cycles, we describe how generic systems thinking toolkits can evolve towards independent, organization- and role-specific toolkits. This evolution requires high collaboration efforts between outsider facilitators and insider change agents to configure the systems thinking toolkits to specific roles and organizations. We contribute to a better understanding of boundary work processes by showing how to span reflexive boundaries. Our process model also makes a strong practical contribution as it proposes a prescriptive process to increase the impact of systems thinking in organizations. Finally, we make a methodological contribution to organisational development and change research by combining action design research and process methods.
