Exploring my systems capabilities
Forum for the Future have developed a set of capabilities that system changers should have.
- Diagnosis — diagnosing complex sustainability challenges using systems thinking
- Strategy — designing system change interventions as a strategy for transformation
- Innovation — developing innovative solutions that seek to create scalable and systemic impact
- Collaboration — facilitating and building partnerships and coalitions for change
- Leadership — exploring personal leadership in the context of a complex future
Under each of these they have defined a set of skills that we can measure ourselves against.
It has been an interesting exercise to assess my capabilities as they were before the course and again part way through. After a month at school I re-assessed and found that I’d ranked myself lower than previously. My perspective has changed, this new context has given me a better, wider understanding of what I know and where gaps lie.
Linking to the 5 capabilities, Forum for the Future have also collated ‘Frameworks of the Field’, a set of models, tools, theories and devices that span across the system change capabilities
It is good to see the scale of what is out there, and it is a helpful navigation tool to map out the frameworks in terms of my own experience:
What I am aware of and know about
What I have experience in
What I am interested in learning more about
How might these areas complement each other
Which are less appealing, and why?
My experience working as a researcher and consultant at The Future Laboratory means my capabilities and strengths currently revolve around diagnosis and futures.
Two other areas have emerged that feel of significance to my system change practice; I marked many of the frameworks under ‘Collaboration and engagement’ and ‘strategy design’ as ones that I would love to learn more about.
They appeal even more when I think about how these three areas could interact with each other: How diagnosis, collaboration and bringing people together can work in tandem to co-create and influence design and strategy that creates a lasting effect, and how engagement and facilitation are crucial in this process.
It has also been interesting to note the areas that don’t appeal, or feel intimidating. Jean Boulton discussed how resistance could be a sign that something acting as a barrier to your practice; breaking that barrier could open new perspectives and opportunities. I’m keeping an open mind to this, and that it might be an obstacle worth overcoming, in the coming weeks and in the future.
