Thinking about change.
How might we get to the big change we need?
Change is something I have always been interested in, and for the past (almost) 20 years I have been working in the context of change and design.
In recent years, my acute awareness of the complex challenges today’s humans face has been rattling my bones, head, and heart. Beginning as a tremor, more recently I liken the feeling more to a destabilising sense of panic. We are living in a VUCA world, that is a world characterised by Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity. The challenges we face today, neatly reflected in the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals, are VUCA challenges. They are dynamic, multifaceted and complex challenges, requiring collaboration between diverse stakeholders and multi-faceted change over time.
For the past 15 years I have been utilising human-centred design practices to inform my change work, and have been fortunate to apply these practices within complex social contexts such as the child protection system, health, disability and homelessness. Passionate about the power of design practices to support change in the world, in 2013 I enthusiastically founded a community of practice called Social Design Sydney. Over the past 6 years, Social Design Sydney has hosted over 20 events where practitioners, change agents and academics have presented ideas and projects related to design for social outcomes. (Watch over 60 social design case studies from these events)
In recent years, I have come to feel that design approaches falls short for creating the BIG change we need in the world. While design does offer valuable approaches, frameworks and mindsets, I STRONGLY feel that there is no one existing approach, mindset, or activity which will yield a ‘silver bullet’ for change.
This sense has led me to become very interested in transdisciplinarity (read about this here and here), an approach that seeks to build an understanding of whole systems and their complexity, whilst working in a holistic way through transforming and transcending existing disciplines. Big VUCA, complex challenges span multiple disciplines, and it is only through transcending traditional disciplinary boundaries, thinking and mental models that we can better inform collective action to address these challenges.
I am deeply concerned for the future, and feel that we need new ways of seeing, thinking, acting and co-creating. I am extremely concerned that my fellow humans and our leaders can not see the complex, systemic, dynamic, inter-dependent nature of the challenges we face…..and that big change is required! As I write this, my heart feels heavy as the lands close to where I live and was born are on fire…and have been for weeks. I can smell it from my desk in the heart of Sydney, Australia where I live.
In early 2019, I was in a pretty dark place. I was contracting for a state government department, working as a Service Designer on some social challenges. This seemed like a ‘good’ place to be. Yet, due to organisational and political constraints, I began feeling inconsolably frustrated by my inability to create impact. Great the government is utilising design approaches to support change, but the requirement to comply with Ministerial requests that were contrary to community and project needs, I found extremely hard to navigate.
I took time off consulting to consider a big, burning question:
How might the systemic change we need at this time be supported and what can I personally do to support it?
As part of this inquiry, I spent some time in the UK where I completed a course on Facilitation and Leadership at Schumacher College called Co-creating the Emerging Future, attended (and presented at) the 2019 Academy of Design Innovation Management Conference and attended the Systems Innovation Conference in London where I immersed myself in Systems Thinking, Futures Thinking and Complexity. During this time, I met with others involved in change work, and feel grateful to have had the opportunity to speak with designers, academics, activists, facilitators, public servants, consultants, and change agents from all over the world.
In August this year, I hosted a panel and open space event in Sydney where some international and local change makers were invited to consider the question: How might we solve systemic social change? We heard from Dr. Andrea Siodmok and Sanjan Sabherwal from the UK Policy Lab, and 5 Sydney based change agents — videos of these talks here .
I know I will be considering my burning question for some time and I hope to post more reflections about this inquiry….but for now…..
Introducing the Systems Change Salon…
As an idea for what I can personally do to support systemic change, I am starting a new community of practice called the Systems Change Salon for people in Sydney interested in supporting Systems Change.
The System Change Salon intends to build an experiential community of practice of diverse participants who are interested in social and systems change practice.
Like the European Salons of the Enlightenment, the System Change Salon is a place for the exchange of new ideas. It also intends to be a place of experimentation and doing. We will host small gatherings where we will experiment with tools and approaches from diverse knowledges (e.g. Asset-Based Community Development, Futures, Scenario Planning, Systems Thinking, The Cinefin Framework, Facilitation, Trauma Informed Practices, Theory U and/or something you know or are curious about?).
At each event we will introduce a new approach, apply it to a real-world problem and discuss how it can be used to inform change practice.
If you are based in Sydney, come join us at our first meet-up, February 19th at 6:00–8:45pm at UTS. We plan to look at Causal Layered Analysis.
Register your interest here
Please share with your networks!
For more info: https://socialdesignsydney.com/system-change-salon
