We’re trying something a little different. A Q&A session with our founder, Edwin Colyer, which we held on his chosen subject of expertise, Systems Thinking. It’ll be split into 2 parts as we’ve delved deep into the conversation.
Sit back and enjoy, we’d also love to hear your comments too!
Defining Systems Thinking in the impact space
Q1: How would you define systems thinking for someone unfamiliar with the term?
It’s about trying to understand problems and their solutions “in the round” – a 360-degree view that recognises nothing takes place in a vacuum and is influenced and affected by a whole variety of different factors and forces: from obvious things like policies, people’s skills, and regulation to less obvious things like people’s priorities, their charisma and ability to motivate, and leadership priorities.
So, if you want to solve a problem, ideally, you want to work on all those influences/influencers and touchpoints. Align the whole system in your favour, and you’ll solve your problem or achieve your aims much faster and more efficiently.
Think about all those COPs that take place to try to address the challenge of climate change. This is a MASSIVE/EXISTENTIAL issue. It is impacted by every single thing we do in society, from what we eat or how we travel to the kinds of jobs we do and where governments focus their money and efforts. You need to get the top decision-makers and a whole raft of secondary decision-makers to all talk, agree, and then work through things together across the global socio-economic system. Climate change is not something that any person, company, or country can solve on its own.
Q2: Can you provide an example of how systems thinking has been successfully applied to solve a social or environmental challenge?
See above. The Paris Agreement was key. People came together and agreed on the 1.5-degree goal. However, it’s also important to note that we are not doing a great job in terms of implementing a coordinated global action plan at speed. This demonstrates how hard it is!
It is a hot topic in the civil service right now: Systems thinking for civil servants – GOV.UK – recommended reading.
Another good example in our space could be the civic universities partnership approach; see Civic Agreements – Civic University Network. This connects universities and local authorities to collaborate on specific place-based strategies and needs. It’s bringing education, research, and public services together. Perhaps not full systems thinking, but a move in the right direction.
Interdisciplinary research is also a move in the direction of systems thinking in as much as it recognises that problems need to be viewed and approached from many different angles/disciplines (oh, by the way, MetaMosaics might be a great way to facilitate these conversations and overcome some of the language, perspective, and terminology barriers related to interdisciplinary working 😉).
It’s probably worth Googling around the keywords: “systems thinking,” “change making,” “research outcomes,” “research impact,” and “accelerate.”
Challenges and Opportunities
Q3: What challenges do organisations face when adopting a systems-thinking approach?
It requires time, effort, and resources, as well as key skills in relational work, facilitation, and consensus building.
First, you have to understand and map out the system – what are all the cogs at work? Which are the most influential/powerful? Where do you need to focus effort?
Then, you need to understand the intrinsic and extrinsic motivations of all the different actors. Why should anyone want to work collectively with you? What is in it for them, and will it help them achieve their own organisational goals? There might be quite a lot of strategic communication and engagement work to do simply to prepare the ground, shifting mindsets and attitudes enough for people to see some value in just sitting around the table with others.
Then the real work starts, because you need to develop a shared goal or ambition – something everyone subscribes to and wants to achieve. This is the crux. If you can find a goal that meets everyone’s objectives (and aligns with each organisation’s individual mission or strategic objectives), then it’s game on.
This is a key role for MetaMosaics – despite diverse, potentially conflicting interests, it helps to connect people around common goals by building on a sense of shared humanity. It turns out that most people do share goals to improve wellbeing, establish peace, and promote prosperity, etc. The devil is then in the detail.
Q4: How does systems thinking help identify root causes of problems in the impact space?
You take a helicopter perspective and try to understand and map all the different, sometimes conflicting, activities, drivers, motivations, etc., that can help or hinder overall outcomes and impacts.
What you want to do is try to align all the people who have influence (and don’t ignore the marginalised people who may not have influence but should). MetaMosaics/ImpactCollectives also considers who isn’t in the room but should be.
Stay tuned for part 2!
