Learnings and insights: part 1

The School of System Change Basecamp is an important milestone on my journey into system change. This early landmark marks the start of a process of learning, leading me towards experimentation and practice.

Visiting lecturer Ray Ison, Open University kicked off our 4 day camp. These are some of my learnings and insights from him.

Putting thinking into practice

We need to transition from ‘systems sensibilities’ to ‘systems literacy’ and ‘systems capabilities’, both personally, and in the wider society. For me this means:

Systems sensibility — I think about the world and the way it works as a group of interdependent systems.

Systems literacy — I’m going deeper, learning to understand the complexity of systems and communicate this concept better

Systems capability — I am starting to put this into practice through the School of System Change, a couple of live projects, which has enabled me to build and develop skills, experience and capabilities.

It’s possible to draw parallels to see how we could increase the capacity for change globally by taking this approach to building systems awareness and thinking around the world, and by deepening understanding and enabling changes in practice.

If I am already on this journey, could my role as a system changer in the future be to help others, be it individuals, communities or business, to go through a similar process to create change?

Complex vs. complicated

Systems, by their nature, are complex, not just complicated, and need complex solutions.

A complicated issue might be how to fly to the moon, or how to remove a brain tumour. With the right expertise, knowledge, resources and tools, it is achievable. There are clear, systematic steps to solving that problem.

Finding a solution to a complex problem, such as reforming health care or the criminal justice system however, requires us to consider a multiplicity of entities, stakeholders, relationships and patterns that are intrinsically interdependent and linked. There are many problems to consider, many possible ways to intervene, and no one clear solution.

To find solutions to complex problems it is important to see the system in context of a wider view, so as to understand the relationships and patterns within the system itself, in order to identify the best places where it might be possible to intervene.

Systemic + systematic

Transformational change requires thinking and practice that is both systemic and systematic. A systemic approach affects everything in a system, but the more dominant systematic approaches of today’s society are linear, based on cause and effect. We need to think more systemically, to bring about a holistic change based in relationships, patterns and dynamics. A systemic approach takes into consideration the whole, the interdependent systems; as Ray Ison says in his book, Systems Practice: How to Act in a Climate Change World:

‘Systemic thinking provides an expanded context for systematic thinking and practice’

The power of verbs

There has been a failure to institutionalise narratives, concepts and praxis, except as ‘things’. We have forgotten the power of verbs. We live in a world obsessed with nouns. Our society ‘thingifies’, it has become materialistic and focused on products and ownership.

This made me think — if we re-harness the power of verbs, the doing, action words, in conversation and our language between each other can we become a society that makes change happen, rather than buys things to make us feel better about the world?

Conversation is a dance ritual

Change requires effective communication; making others understand, involving them and bringing them along the change journey, to make it stick.

In contemporary culture communication styles have arisen, which cause tensions, barriers and problems, between individuals, communities and society. We can think about human communication through metaphors such as the container metaphor, the control metaphor, the transmission metaphor. The dance ritual is the only metaphor which represents the biological way in which humans communicate. It is reciprocal, continuous, repetitive, reactive. It requires listening and responding, adapting to what emerges. It promotes equality and participation of all involved. This idea really made an impression on me. The dance ritual expresses an ideal analogy for how to communicate and facilitate system change.

(Further fascinating reading on metaphors of communication)

Social learning to embed change

Social learning is a theory that states that people learn from one another, via observation, imitation, and modeling. As a result, it provides a way to embed change. It is not just about information and knowledge transfer, but about fostering enthusiasm, and letting people experience and participate in creating the change themselves. I’m curious to learn ways to facilitate this. How do you start to influence people and accelerate their learning? How do you build people’s stake in the system and the change needed?

Expansive mindset

‘Act always so as to increase the number of choices’

Heinz von Foerster’s words are a reminder to always be open to change and to nurture a growth mindset, to allow for the maximum number of opportunities.

Hope from the Pope

‘Nothing in this world is indifferent to us’

These few words from the powerful encyclical Letter, Laudato Si’ Of The Holy Father, Francis 2015, while a simple reminder that we have played a part in shaping the state of our world, our ‘common home’ as it is today, also appeal to my sense of hope; if nothing is indifferent we therefore must be able to instigate change for a happier, healthier, safer common home.