Investing in the root system of change

Working relationally to create and cultivate organising and learning structures and processes to unlock the transitions, missions and transformations we seek

Where we are focusing our energy for change

It’s exciting to see the emergence of initiatives and approaches that are really trying to tackle some of the big, complex, interconnected environmental and societal challenges of our time. Such as missions, transition labs, grand challenges and portfolios — oriented towards policy, innovations, markets and sector transformation — seeking pathways and approaches towards transitions — often with urgency and within defined timeframes.

We have seen the emergence of the use of applying systemic practices and approaches to help create visions, understand and analyse the insights and evidence, design and innovate for transformation and create strategic pathways for change.

What I do notice is a lot of the processes focus on the tangible, the outcomes, the seeking of the solutions and innovations that can be scaled and replicated, trying to find proof, tools and evidence of what we should do. Often relying on linear and formulaic approaches that give more certainty in the steps to follow, however they seem to hide the complexity within them, the highly social and relational process and dynamic learning elements of the change process. Processes such as stakeholder engagement, collaboration and learning are often secondary considerations, and get shrouded by the need to identify the problem and “get” actors to align their actions.

We see organisations such as UNEP, who do seek to bridge the gap between strategy (the “what”) and execution (the “how”). Yet they still do not seem to get under the surface to the more relational, personal and cultural dynamics of the change process, like Tatianna Fraser (The System Sanctuary) does in her inquiry into Scaling Deep.

How might we pay more attention to how we bring people together, convene, connect, learn and work with the differences and nuances of people and their relationships as the deeper work that is required for transformation to happen?

So what might be needed?

Let’s step back for a moment and get real. The scale and pace of change is feeling totally crazy at times, unbelievable even. The interwoven crisis’ and realities we are facing can make us feel the overwhelming and perhaps even futile nature of it all. We are realising how much we do not know and are needing to find new depths of courage to step into the work that is needed. And yet we keep falling into the trap of wanting change to happen fast, and a desire for simple processes over “urgent” short timeframes, that then often reduces the challenges rather than leaning into the unknown, paradoxes and complexities.

If systems change is the emergence of new structures and ways of organising, it is about the reshaping and reconfiguring the patterns of our relationships and ways of relating. Yet, working with practitioners who run systems change initiatives, we find that they struggle to value and thus allocate the resources to the processes and the learning and practice development required — for the HOW we constellate for change, from relational practices, to facilitation, structures and forms of governance, so we can learn how to work with the relational dynamics of power, the learning flows and cultures and the ways we organisation and work together.

Facilitating a constellation with change actors exploring networks, movements and communities of practice in driving education system change

Invitation to reflect: Take a moment and ask yourself in your change work what do you honestly value the most — do you value the harder/outcome/tangible parts of change or do you see these equal to the often seen softer parts, or do you see the relational, process orientation as the change as where the value and energy is required?

*more on the hard and soft elements of how we organise for change

Process as outcome: What if these outcomes are the process itself?

Before sharing these cases I also invite you to reflect upon what if we articulated the outcomes as the process in of themselves, instead of just a means to an end. When we take a systemic, regenerative and living systems view of change, this invites us to articulate our outcomes as process outcomes. If we are seeking to work in this ever changing world, where we need to keep adapting to the changing context and the direction we are travelling in, then the ultimate outcome is having the ability — the capacity to continually change. How might this change what we seek to monitor, evaluation and how we come to see impact?

Project examples and lessons

Over the last year we, at the School of System Change, have been accompanying some of our learning and practice partners to develop their capacity and capability in how they organise and constellate for change. We share three of these initiatives; at the Royal Society of Chemistry, IDH and Local Motion; highlighting what we have done and the lessons learnt.

The Royal Society of Chemistry, a charitable organisation whose mission is to enable the chemical science community to make the world a better place, are seeking to enable the chemicals industries to adopt sustainable practices for producing more planet-safe chemicals.

A field catalyst “intermediaries or anchor organisations, which mobilise and galvanise a variety of actors across a system to achieve a shared goal and create change.” Bridgespan

They have been piloting their approach advancing the transition to sustainable polymers in liquid formulations (PLFs), through two missions of biodegradability and circularity across the industry. The RSC and a multi-sector Task Force created a Mission-oriented Strategy for PLFs, which engaged and energised the system with multiple projects for research innovation and action to influence policymakers. It was obvious at that point, that without coherent coordination by an independent organisation and a different way of thinking, the parts of the system would continue to act in isolation, and miss one of the windows of opportunity opened by the emerging regulatory landscape to create a shift in the system.

For this they now required to start working on their ways of organising for systems change, to

• Facilitate stakeholders to come together, collaborate and share leadership, including the rhythm and flow
• Design the organising infrastructure including the governance and decision making approach
• Understanding their role, the role of others and contributions in the ecosystem
• Structure and ways of working required to harness the energy of the actors in the system
• Structure the ways of working required to harness the energy of the actors in the system

Understanding our role(s) can be an unlock to designing a governance approach: Through working with them I notice how we needed to really pay attention to the different levels and articulation of roles and contributions different actors and their configurations might have — from the individuals — such as the difference between a chair of a group, a steward, a facilitator, a representative through to the wider roles the RSC might play finding the right verbs and articulating of what they will be doing in relation to other actors — such as the difference between catalysing collaborations, convening, brokering, to playing more of tracking and learning role. As well as the role and identity the initiative has in the wider ecosystem.

IDH, is an international organisation, who brings together public and private stakeholders to work on challenges across agricultural value chains, to transform markets. We first started with understanding the concepts and field of systems change approaches, sharing frameworks, methods and tools — and the navigation on the different components on where a ‘systemic approach’ might be integrated — ranging from strategy, design for programs, projects and how this all touched MEL. We then started to take a deep dive into program design and their capacity building into convening. For this we went through a discovery process around the deep experience they have across the organisation, understanding how they go about creating change and where they might need capability support. One of our pilots has been equipping people to navigate the complexities involved in convening and leading change, through piloting a course which; that deepens the capacity to:

• Understand the process of convening as a long term, relational, informal and formal, unfolding process
• Engage and influence stakeholders
• Facilitate the journey with awareness of the overall and different patterns of the processes needed for different situations
• Have personal awareness of our positionality as leaders
• Work with different views, perspectives and group dynamics — within intercultural contexts
• Find potential for innovations, investment and experiments around shared agendas
• Work with power dynamics and navigate conflict
• Sustain action for transformation, whilst navigating and adapting to change and knowing when to step out

Through this two to three year journey we are now, in 2025 looking to support how we institutionalise and support them to collectively embody the learnings from the partnership into ongoing practice.

The bespoke mini-course journey

Collective experiential learning can enrich our skills: As we were discovering and learning from their deep experience across the organisation, we noticing the value and outcome of this work is the community of practice that is emerging internally, seeing the immense value in connecting and creations spaces for learning from and creating a shared experience and understanding what it means to be a convener and the pivotal role of convening in creating systemic change. Bringing them together around systems framings and approaches helped them to build their collective muscles in unearthing and deepening the richness of their skills and experiences, from the paying attention to the patterns of their processes to the dynamics of the quiet convening process and navigating and adapting to changes, noticing the non-linear and messy work from the place of experience.

Local Motion, a place based initiative and network, is the third initiative. They are building social, economic and environmental justice movements by communities, for communities. As a ten year endeavour it seeks to provide communities with the resources they need to take ownership of their collective decisions with a cross sector collaboration approach, and thus create self-sufficiency in place for facilitating and leading the change, supporting the capability closest to the action, working with issues of power and equity As such we are working and designing in collaboration with a number of experienced practitioners and learning providers to walk alongside these places in their learning and practice development, helping them to

• Lead change — by finding ways to understand (and accept) your whole self so that you can discover how to use your power effectively
• Design and hold group processes — for awareness, connection and action; whilst staying in relationship, even in conflict
• Find pathways in complexity and support alternative narratives to emerge in and for place

Needing to create bespoke and adaptable learning journeys: We(the School as part of a collaborative practitioner team) are designing a learning journey that supports participants to “choose their own adventure”, putting in place experiential modules, coaching and learning guides to really support application and practice in place. What we are learning is there is a fine balance between the level of bespoke and adaptability, designing for differences in the group and the sessions emerging, whilst also providing a strong enough container so that it is accessible and does not feel overwhelming. We have therefore designed an onboarding runway to establish our relationship with them and create their own story, idea of place and journey.

It’s not about finding the right method but how we navigate, make choices and learn across multi-methods: These three projects are all different, from the global to the place, focusing on issues of justice, agricultural markets and sustainability. The design needs to be very contextual driven, as even the needs and relationships themselves change over time. This isn’t just about providing them with the methods and approaches — the world is awash with toolkits, but about the navigation of different methods, to be brought to bear at different times. At the heart of all of these is about setting them up as learners, so that sustained capability development and continual learning can occur to work with the changing context and approaches.

For more on our principles and approach to learning and practice partnerships

Paying attention to the roots of change

How might we expand and deepen how we see and understand change? How might we bring more awareness to the human, relational and messy experiences of creating change, including the emotional and innerwork? How might we value the new infrastructures, methods, capabilities and learning and practice development required to work with different perspectives, power dynamics and make connections across ecosystems and cultures?

Invitation to partner

We, at the School of System Change would love to work with more partners, in supporting the HOW of constellating, leading, facilitating and learning of change. Helping organisations and initiatives navigate what methods and approaches to use, building capabilities and accompany them as the uncover the roots systems for themselves.

[See our evolved curriculum that has placed more emphasis on these capabilities]

So if you are a mission, a network, community or place, an organisation seeking to be an intermediary, a transition lab or some other form of constellation who needs process, facilitation skills for governance — through a contextually designed learning approach that supports application in practice — then get in touch or join one of our courses, such as Spark that supports those leading and facilitating change.

We are also interested to partner with others who wish to curate stories and learning and facilitation resources that lift up this practice: accounts that don’t just tell the “glory stories” of change, but messiness and realities of what happens, as well as laying the groundwork to cultivate capacity with partners across the globe, where the work is contextually driven and owned.

Appreciation

Thank you to the partners who are courageous in pursuing and investing in the deeper work needed for change, our collaborative partners and contributors who are supporting our wider network and all of you who are trying to learn and lean into this learning.