School Stories: Making the transition into the world of systems change
Paula Oliveira used to be an executive in the brand consulting industry in London and attended Basecamp in 2019. She tells us about what led her to the training, how it inspired further change into her life and how she’s navigating the system change scene in Portugal and beyond.
This post is part of a series of articles and interviews with the School of System Change alumni. The purpose is to share stories of how the learning experience impacted people’s lives and share their stories of systems change in practice since doing Basecamp.
Tell us about your background.
I spent most of my career working in the branding industry, initially at Interbrand, focused on insights and valuation, and then leading the consulting team which also worked on strategy, employee engagement and leadership alignment. After that, I spent 2 years managing the London office of BrandCap (now part of Yonder).
Sustainability has always been a passion and a concern in my life, so during that time I was constantly bringing that as a lens into my work. I also wrote a number of articles about it together with Rita Clifton (my former boss, mentor and currently Forum for the Future’s Chair of the Board of Trustees). But I felt I wanted to go deeper into sustainable development somehow, and decided to take a learning sabbatical.
What was the need / potential that led you to Basecamp?
There wasn’t one trigger, but a series of nudges. I followed and admired Forum’s work for years, and a friend who attended Basecamp loved it. I then engaged with nni dialogue institute, a NFP which hosts systemic dialogues in communities and organisations around the world, and also provides training on its proprietary dialogue methodology. Their training made me eager to learn more about other tools and ways I could promote change that I wanted to see in the world. So when the moment came to go deeper into sustainable development and system change, attending Basecamp was a no-brainer.
What shifted for you at Basecamp? Any ‘a-ha’ moments?
Every session gave me some sort of a-ha moment! I remember one session with Charlene Collison, when she was sharing about a 6-month engagement process before stakeholders started defining the vision for the program. That was so different from the projects I was used to — most businesses are trapped into the quick-wins-short-term paradigm, so it was refreshing to learn this didn’t have to be the case. And I loved some of the practical tools to process information, such as system mapping or using the multi-level perspective and The Three Horizons.
But a lot of the inspiration came from the people. The balance between grounded technical excellence and grace and sensitivity I saw in people like Ben Haggard and Bill Sharpe gave me the certainty that there are wonderful people behind the positive changes we’re seeing in the world and also the courage to pursue that path myself.
What happened after you left the School?
I’ve been through a massive transition phase — it hasn’t been easy to continue to deepen my learning whilst changing career and moving country with my family in the middle of a pandemic! But I’ve been fortunate to have opportunities to engage with change at different levels since Basecamp — macro and micro — which gives me energy, hope and will for more.
Can you give us an example of the ‘macro’ work you’ve been doing?
At the macro level, I’ve been working closely with Nexial, a consultancy that developed its own mapping platform to help people, organisations and others to understand the dynamics and connections sitting underneath complex global problems.
I’ve been supporting them with many activities, the main one being an Economic System Map, commissioned by the Laudes Foundation as part of their strategy development process, including 200+ stakeholder consultations during 2020. It helped me to avoid the temptation of looking for single and simple root causes, and anchored the understanding that the reasons behind the dual crisis of inequality and natural system breakdown are all interlinked and deeply ingrained in the way we live. And of course must be challenged.
We’re now ‘cooking’ initiatives and seeking partners in the areas of New Economy, Sustainably Managed Landscapes and Circular Economy. If you feel this might be you, please get in touch!
What about at the micro level?
I’m still actively involved with nni dialogue institute as a Board member, as a trainer and hosting dialogues in the community — the most recent one in Alentejo, with a group which intended to create a local currency in the region. The process helped to acknowledge different tensions (for example different worldviews between ‘locals’ and ‘foreigners’), so what started with a practical dream is now morphing into a collective healing and sensemaking space that is generating different solutions to current and long term needs.
I’m also part of the advisory board of the Lisbon Project, a NFP that supports the integration of migrants and refugees in Lisbon, and a member of Circular Economy Portugal, helping to design different initiatives, mostly in the fashion and agro sectors.
Most recently I’ve been invited to join the core team of Innovations for the Future, a grassroots movement that brings together around 100 different initiatives in different domains, from eco-villages, embassies for humanity and planet welfare, regenerative funding and new-economy ventures that challenge the ‘customer-supplier’ logic. It started with a series of discussion groups and we are about to start in-depth interviews and bring a systemic process to the work of coming together, learning from each other, supporting each other and cultivating collective agency.
What else did you learn from all this since leaving the School?
That it is OK to be figuring it out, to ‘not know’, to give time to learning, exploration, inquiring — and not be rushing to the answer. And I recognize the privilege of being able to go through this exploration phase.
Another learning is that system change requires a lot of ‘weaving’, and this is not always acknowledged or remunerated. How do we transform ‘weaving and sensemaking’ into something valuable and sustainable for the people and organisations doing that? How do we value the fact that by just having a deep conversation about the system, by connecting people, you are already changing it? I met people who are very gifted and motivated to do this type of work, but don’t feel they can afford it. Others who lead NFPs or movements are stopping because they can’t carry on. Changing the system takes time and it’s hard to demonstrate impact, but everything is for ‘yesterday’ in the system we are challenging. And the further away people want to move the system, the more challenges they face.
It will sound contrary to what I’ve just said, but another point is about the balance between the urgency of today vs changing the system for the long term. People need to eat today, they need a roof today, they need healthcare today — this was even more evident during the pandemic. But we need to reach net zero as soon as possible, we need to act now. Many people are just tired of talking — there’s a perceived dichotomy between the need for that urgent action versus a considerate systems approach to change. I’m still learning to deal with that balance.
What’s next for you?
I learnt a lot from these different collaborations. I’m now in the process of bringing these learnings together and merging with my ‘old life’ in the branding industry. I see there is an opportunity to bring these two worlds together, so consultancies learn from this emerging world to better serve their clients, and at the same time use their skills to help accelerate the transition into a more sustainable and regenerative world. This is what I’m dreaming of at the moment and will be at the core of now-on.
Interviewer: Dan Ford, Senior Strategist at Forum for the Future
