System Change

Systemic change is generally understood to require adjustments or transformations in the policies, practices, power dynamics, social norms or mindsets that underlie the societal issue at stake. It often involves the collaboration of a diverse set of players and can take place on a local, national or global level.

Adam Zeiner and

social change always begins with people who have “both a critical eye and a hopeful heart.”

Sam Pressler • Building societal structures to hold the messiness of our relationships

SSam Liebeskind

Marshall Ganz

About XPLANE

xplane.com

Adam Zeiner

Post capitalism is not simply another ‘ism’ to replace previous ideologies; it is a conceptual container for social pluralities based on shared values (e.g. reciprocity, altruism, cooperation, gifting, equity consciousness, empathy, interbeing and solidarity with all Life). It stems from the shortcomings of the existing system and the lived

Stephen Reid • Post Capitalism and the Five Elements Mandala

Keely Adler

Theories of Change and Logic Models: Telling Them Apart

Understanding the distinction between Theories of Change and Logic Models, their components, and when to use each in program design and evaluation. Balancing complexity and simplicity for optimal effectiveness.

theoryofchange.org

Sam Liebeskind

When we seek to intervene in any system created by someone, it’s not enough to view their decisions and choices simply as the consequences of first-order thinking because we can inadvertently create serious problems. Before changing anything, we should wonder whether they were using second-order thinking. Their reasons for making certain choices... See more

fs.blog • Chesterton’s Fence: A Lesson in Second Order Thinking - Farnam Street

Sam Liebeskind

“We have a problem with scale. The planetary crisis can seem impossible to grasp. But focusing on the local can feel limited. How do we work to a scale that feels manageable? There is a way of reorganising how we think about scale: the -shed. -sheds (from Old English scead) describe the natural boundaries between waterbodies. They are not

Creative Destruction • Rabbit Holes 🕳️ #82

Keely Adler

PLACES TO INTERVENE IN A SYSTEM

(in increasing order of effectiveness)

Constants, parameters, numbers (subsidies, taxes, standards).

Regulating negative feedback loops.

Driving positive feedback loops.

Material flows and nodes of material intersection.

Information flows.

The rules of the system (incentives, punishments, constraints).

The distribution of

donellameadows.org • Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System

Keely Adler

In the United Nations’ IPCC most recent climate change mitigation report, the word “lifestyle” appears 193 times. The authors write, “The acceptability of collective social change over a longer term towards less resource intensive lifestyles, however, depends on the social mandate for change. This mandate can be built through public participation,

Alicia Kennedy • Restriction as Possibility; Lifestyle as Politics

Keely Adler

To make diagnosis something ‘empowering’, the first step is to completely break it apart and acknowledge all of its potential different and conflicting functions. Diagnosis can give you access to community, or cut you off from community. It can give you access to benefits, or it can bar you from income through employment. It could get you your

Dazed • This New Book Asks Whether Capitalism Really Is Driving Us All Crazy

Keely Adler