A perspective on System Change

Currently, a phrase very ‘of the moment’ – highly desirable to get engaged in…and a complex concept with varying degrees of success…yet, perhaps, a victim of its own popularity? As with many popular concepts, it seems easy to fall into adopting the language as a short-cut…a shorthand way in conversation, debate or discussion, to explain the arena we are talking about. In adopting that shorthand, however, it feels that we open huge spaces for misunderstanding and misinterpretation. Do we really have a shared understanding of what we mean, what we are referring to, what we are speaking about, what we are asking for, what we are implying, when we say we are about “system change”?

Increasingly, it seems we talk about changing the system without recognizing or owning our own part in it. And therein lies the seeds of system change downfall. Too much about what to do to - outward focused, changes to be made out there, as though "the system" is an external entity to act upon. And it is not! We are a part of it, helped create it, work within it - and, yes, even perpetuate it. Like it or not, consciously and unconsciously, we are the system. So, no wonder creating system change is difficult - because it means we need to change too!!

Humans are exceptionally good at recognizing and responding to patterns (mostly unconsciously). Patterns help us understand, navigate, make sense of, and respond to the world around us. These are our own, individually created, paradigms - the lens through which we interpret the world as we experience it. Every pattern — expressed in us as individuals or shared across a complex ecosystem — reflects the values and mindsets embedded in that system...its culture. Sometimes our paradigms find ways to align, sometimes they clash, sometimes they just bump up against each other and we muddle through.

So, if we want to change systems, we must first understand - or at least better appreciate - the paradigms/patterns underpinning them. What values, beliefs, structures, behaviours underpin or delineate the system? Exploring and understanding the complexity of the 'self'/'selves' - the 'who we are that drives this', our part in this - owning that we are not observers of the system but actors in the system will put us in a better place to address the challenge of shifting the system.

Self-awareness precedes systems leadership.