Systems change work is about understanding all of the actors in the system and the dynamic flow of power, relationships, and mindsets that exists between them. John Kania, Mark Kramer and Peter Senge, in their recently released paper, The Water of System Change use the metaphor of water to describe systems. The water is the environment through which fish and other life exists but it is also a flowing, moving and changing entity.
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Over the past few years, there has been an increasing emphasis on the need for “systems change” to achieve large-scale social impact.
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Collective Impact is a multi-sector approach to large-scale collaboration that is authentically inclusive of citizens in its development and implementation – in particular citizens who have life-experience with the big problems or issues being addressed, such as poverty, climate change, family violence, and so many more.
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There is a big tension in community change efforts. There is the tyranny of the immediate - hunting for quick wins, trying to move the agenda forward and being aware of the multiple demands on participant time. With such a focus on the immediate, we sacrifice the building of relationships and reflection to meet the demands of the short term and time factors.
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Imagine a restaurant review that focused exclusively on the cutlery on the table. “What about the meal?” you would ask. Indeed.
Knives and forks aren’t the meal. They are merely a means to a hopefully delicious end. Sadly, in the social justice world there is too much focus on tools and processes.
After our webinar Change for the Audacious: A Conversation with Steve Wadell on Large Systems Change (LSC), one of the participants, Ian, asked me about connections between it and integral theory and Theory U.
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