Framing my challenge: part 1
Even before I started at The School of System Change, I knew I would find it difficult to define my personal ‘sustainability challenge’ for the 3rd part of the course.
Jean Boulton said to us:
‘Embracing complexity, dynamism and emergence is a belief system and a way of life’
I can feel how this is change and evolution process for myself. One of the many things that I have learnt has been around the need to be flexible and dynamic, to be able to adapt as things emerge and take opportunities as they arise. To take Hans von Foerster’s point — this mindset leaves the most possible opportunities.
I have been trying to live by this principle, which has meant embracing the unknown, seeing what emerges, and feeling comfortable with not knowing, both in mind and day-to-day at school / in professional life. I can already feel that School of System Change has connected me to countless new people, connections and sown the seeds of new opportunities.
Now it has come down to framing my challenge, the unknown feels uncomfortable again. While I have expanded my worldview, I am experiencing a tension between framing a question or challenge that a) allows me to explore and practise my new skills in the short term — over the next 3 months — but that b) can be ongoing after SoSC. How can I frame a challenge to explore that encompasses something that I am passionate about, and that isn’t too wide to feel I am making progress in the coming weeks, nor too narrow that I am limiting my learning.
I didn’t know where to start, so I began my thought process by looking at the things that I care about and that I think are the most crucial to creating a sustainable future. To do this, I re-visited a couple of things we’d explored at school:
Horizons is a tool created by Forum for the Future and Innovate UK, to help businesses think about their future market. It defines 31 environmental boundaries, social/political factors and essential human needs necessary for a sustainable future.
I found the original model a little difficult to make sense of. So I played around to make it work for me. I redrew my own version, highlighting the topics that I care about most, and connecting them to see and to try to understand how they all interlinked for me personally — to explore how they might help focus my challenge.
This analysis reinforced the areas that I feel most strongly about and that I feel are part of my future world and career: Climate Change, Biodiversity, Interdependence and Long-termism.
But I was interested to see that my clustering, connections and links made another area stand out, directly relating to the bigger picture: Resilience, Education, Information, Skills, Trust and Empathy
I realised that these are all topics and qualities I believe are critical to making change happen: Educating people and businesses in systems and giving them the knowledge, information and skills to be able to take action.
Collaboration and working together (the only way to create lasting change) needs trust and empathy
All these things are necessary for building resilience, and equipping us with the tools and knowledge to be adaptable. (Adaptability is an extra factor that I would like to add as an afterthought to this exercise)
As an exercise in refocusing my world view, it has left me with some interesting questions to mull over further:
How might we create the conditions to stop climate change and decreasing biodiversity
How might we foster the resilience and adaptability needed to do this?
How might an understanding and awareness of the environmental boundaries, the long-term thinking and interdependence play a part in changing the system
And on a people / societal level:
How might we educate people and brands around these key themes?
How might trust and empathy in relationships through collaboration work to tackle these themes?
How might I help to support and build resilience, both personally and in others?
This process has really helped me to comprehend the breadth and context of my challenge. I am left feeling both the need to explode these ideas out, into a wider context, and simultaneously drill down into what this means for me and my practice.
