Peer Learning = Systems change strategy , built on trust

Second in our two part-series on the power of peer-learning for systems change.

In the systems change field many practitioners are focused on mapping the system and creating a strategy for action quickly.

We pull together a group of diverse actors and use mapping tools to find the leverage points which, if acted upon, could address root cause issues and could create an outsized impact in the direction we are hoping for.

The backbone of systems change work pre-COVID was really a snapshot that looked like this:

Illuminous yellow and pink sticky notes, small group tables, sharpies, half finished coffee mugs, a beige conference room somewhere, with tables pushed to the side and a cluster of people learning over a large sheet of white paper, debating where all the sticky notes should go.

Pre-COVID this was always face-to-face, and it was always done at break neck speed.

The trouble with face-to-face facilitation when what’s at home matters

The last time I went away on a three day retreat my 6 year old daughter left a note on my bedside that said this “I know you love your work, but we love you too and we miss you when you go away. You have to think about your kids too.”

Dagger to the heart at the start of a trip on an airplane across the country.

Tatiana’s son Zak, who was part of the growing youth climate change movement and has since stood as a Green Party candidate in Montreal, had a strong opinion about how many air miles she was clocking up too.

On top of this, can we just say it out loud, facilitation can be downright exhausting, even for an extrovert like me.

We learned from our program, The Systems Sisterhood, a peer learning program to support women-identified leaders of systems change, that the exhaustion we felt when we returned from multi-day facilitation gigs, was absolutely shared.

The travel and intense days of workshops, away from our families and back to all the emails we’d missed while we were away, led regularly to burn-out if unchecked.

Our virtual peer learning programs at The Systems Sanctuary (because Tatiana was based in Montreal while I was in San Francisco at the time) were the only viable way for us to work together regularly. They pushed back against the dominant narrative that we had to be together to do anything meaningful.

We always focused on creating a space to have a depth of conversation we don’t usually have in our day-to-day work lives. They could be done in pajamas, while eating and with small people running around in the background as needed.

What we hadn’t anticipated when we started, was that this methodology, to meet virtually and hear about each participants’ challenges at work- might help us formulate, map and understand possible new places to intervene in the system- new strategies for systems change.

From peer-learning to strategy

The backbone of our calls is always the peer input process. We’re asking people to highlight “challenges they face at home or at work, that keep them up at night, that they think the group could bring valuable insights to.”

We have always transcribed all our peer learning calls together and Tatiana and I will periodically go back through the notes and highlight key insights, clustering them into common barriers the group found themselves facing.

These we found could be mapped easily onto our systems maps. They shone a light on places where we might intervene in a system, leverage points in the system that helped or hindered participants in doing their work.

We were mapping systems, but we were doing it from home, over a period of 7 months, as trust between our groups had deepened, hearts opened and people were able to share vulnerably about what was really working for them.

The good ideas that were generated in our sessions became opportunities to intervene in the system too. Possible solutions, crowdsourced by the group.

When does this type of mapping work?

This approach doesn’t work for every systemic challenge but it is particularly useful if used at a field level.

If a group works in the same field of practice, or in the same organization and we want to uncover:

• Processes and procedures or ways of operating, that stand in people’s way.
• Stories that are being promoted that cause detriment to its progress?
• Whether there are barriers to innovation or whether healing needs to happen in a field before everything else will.

What do you mean by a field?

We mean a field of practice.

The philanthropic field, called out for inequality.

The environmental movement which focuses on the technical solutions, rather than cultural levers for change.

Organizations who are trying to support a new generation of leaders within outdated structures.

Many professions are at once facing cross cutting disruption from technology to racial and gender reckonings.

The systems change field itself which is white, western, academic and disconnected to the field of equity, power and justice.

Our NGO’s and social change organizations, many of which have toxic work cultures that create the conditions for burnout and failure.

Many of our fields of practice need systemic change themselves if they are to bring about the kind of positive change they hope to achieve.

Peer-learning circles, hosted independently, with care and love, can create the conditions for vulnerability to emerge, where it didn’t seem possible. Throw in a feminist intersectional analysis, good note taking and systemic frameworks and you can leave with a solid strategy for systemic change.

What’s best about this approach in my mind, is that the solutions that arise are held collectively by a group of people who have bonded together deeply because they’ve been having conversations at depth for multiple months.

The 3 day workshop thing can get us ideas, but the ideas are so fragile if they are not held by a community who care about them as much as they care about them as much as they care about each other.

Turning this into an ecosystem for positive change

Some of our peer groups are now taking the systemic analysis of common challenges and potential solutions, and launching new ecosystems for positive change.

Rather than starting with a meeting of strangers, they are setting out with a nuanced understanding of the context and a set of champions, friends and companions with whom they are deeply connected, to start the next chapter of their work with.

When it comes to fundraising for action, they have allies to partner with. When they need to bring in new connections, they have friends to call upon. It makes the whole thing easier, more authentic and based on friendship. Built upon trust.

We are yet to see the outcome of these new ecosystems emerging right now after COVID, but we will be keeping tabs and will let you know what happens next.

Build you own peer-learning program

If you are in the process of creating your own peer-learning circle, come and learn with us, as we share how we do it.

We are launching a new program next January designed to support people who are tasked with creating their own peer-learning programs and are overwhelmed at the prospect.

Learn how to build effective, inspiring and successful peer-learning cohorts in service of systems change.

We bring with us all the lessons, the templates and the back-end processes to make hosting peer learning cohorts stress free. We will get you clear on the ‘how to’ and prepared to launch or deepen your peer-learning Cohorts. Do join us if you would find this useful.