This weekend I was asked to speak at Maple Grove United Church in Oakville, Ontario about some of my reflections working in the social change sector over the past few years. This offered me a great opportunity to think deeply about my journey so far and opened up some amazing conversations with Oakville residents about taking on complex challenges in our community. I've shared my speech with you below, and would love to continue the conversation online!
What have been some of the reflections, challenges, or insights that you've taken in on your path to creating change in your own community work? What advice do you have for others? Do you have examples of tackling complex problems in your neighbourhoods? Comment below!
I was asked to speak to you today about the organization that I work for and the role we try to play in the social change sector across Canada. The organization is called the Tamarack Institute, and we work with leaders in non-profits, governments, businesses and the community to make the work of advancing positive community change easier and more effective. We do this in a number of ways.
In all of our work, our role is to share knowledge, build the capacity of the field and co-create solutions together so that we can start to see true impact on some of the country’s most pressing problems.
So, what got me interested in this work?
Well that goes back to many years ago when our local Rotary Club, Oakville Trafalgar, gave me the opportunity to continue my studies and travel to the University of Edinburgh to do a one year Master’s program on international development with a focus on Africa. This was a huge turning point in my life. When I left for Edinburgh, having lived in South Africa for a semester during my undergrad and also volunteering in Uganda, I wanted to understand how to create change. I wanted to find the answers to the problems I saw people faced with. If only I could read the right article, take the right class, uncover the perfect organization – I’d understand how to change the world for the better, and I could be a part of it. Well that’s not what I found. What I found was a deeper understanding of the history and vibrant cultures of many of the countries who we hear about in the headlines as being needy, ill-informed and corrupt. I found countless initiatives where people were going into other people’s communities attempting to put them on the right path or offering their ‘expertise’, but causing more harm than good in the long run, I found world powers battling over territory all-while fueling and feeding civil wars and unworthy leaders in countries other than their own.
I found complexity, and there was no easy answer.
It seemed everywhere I turned, every book I read, every research project exposed, it was virtually impossible to tackle the pressing issues I hoped to better understand because there were always so many competing and uncontrollable factors that made the ‘true’ or ‘right’ way forward blurry and often misinformed and misguided.
I came home feeling wiser but all the more confused. Was there really no hope? As a privileged white girl from Canada, did I even have a place in a conversation about empowering communities in which I couldn’t even speak the language?
That’s where Brenda came in. Many of you in this congregation would have known Brenda Zimmerman – a brilliant, caring leader who if you only knew from coming to church you would think was a saint, without really even knowing that she was a true leader in the field when it came to facing complex challenges. In my industry, she is looked at as a guru, a visionary, and is referred to and referenced constantly.
I met with Brenda when I got home to tell her about the way I was feeling in hopes that she would set me in the right direction. After a few sips of coffee, I all of a sudden felt a wave of comfort come over me, that it wasn’t just me – people all across our country were feeling the same way. People, who had been working in the field for years, were tired of not seeing the results they were hoping for. It was becoming obvious that it was not more dollars, or more effort that was needed to create change, but a different way of working and understanding of the tasks we were taking on.
This is where I was introduced to the idea of complexity.
Again, Brenda was known for her amazing ability at simplifying complex concepts, and so it would only be appropriate for me to use her terminology to help teach you today, about the difference between a complex, complicated and simple problem.
Simple Problems
Think of a simple problem, like baking a cake. You have a recipe card, you have your ingredients. If you follow the directions closely, in less than an hour you have yourself a delicious and complete cake.
Complicated Problems
Now think of a complicated problem, like sending a rocket to the moon. This is not like following a simple recipe. This takes years of planning, coordination of many experts, problem solving, long term planning – but there is a path to do it. It’s not an easy path, but if you take the right steps, get the right experts involved, you can launch a rocket to the moon.
Complex Problems
Now who in this room has ever raised a child? If you haven’t raised a child, have you ever been involved in a romantic relationship? If you have, then you will understand what I mean by complex problems. Complex problems are unknowable. They are dynamic, ever-changing and are constantly being influenced by internal and external factors that are difficult to predict. There is no roadmap to raising a child. And even if your first child turns out just as you hoped, you might use the same, exact methods again, but get a completely different result.
Complex problems are the issues people get stuck on, and that’s because there is no recipe card or team of experts that are going to solve them. They are all around us, and we are all apart of them. They may be easy to name – poverty, racism, obesity, education, mental health – but what contributes to them and what will change them are never unmoving. If we are to face complex problems, we must first understand the basic concept that – a. we do not know the answers and b. we are both a part of the problem as much as we are part of the solution.
And that’s what led me to Tamarack. Tamarack is interested in complex problems. We’re interested in people who are breaking down sectoral barriers to discuss the different touchpoints in a community that influence a certain issue. We’re interested in mapping communities to reveal the systems that are in place and how we can better leverage or improve how they’re operating. We’re interested in hosting community conversations and listening to and empowering people who have lived experience of the issue being addressed to help shape the future for themselves.
Complex problems can’t be solved by writing a cheque, or building a school. If it were that easy, they would all be solved by now. Complex problems involve all of us and the only way to face them is by acknowledging the role that we each play in our communities, and opening our hearts and minds to the perspectives, assets and contributions of others.
As I went to write this, I learned about the initiatives the United Church of Canada is taking in engaging communities across the country in the role the church might play as the future unfolds. For those of you who might be involved in these types of discussions in the future, let me offer you a few words of advice from some of the learning I’ve taken away during my short time at Tamarack.
This work is not easy, I warn you. But what in life worth living for ever really is?