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

Developing our new Systemic Design Framework

Design Council medium.com

Adam Zeiner

Counterintuitive. That’s Forrester’s word to describe complex systems. Leverage points are not intuitive. Or if they are, we intuitively use them backward, systematically worsening whatever problems we are trying to solve

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

Keely Adler

Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System

donellameadows.org donellameadows.org

Tanuj and

Awareness’ is an unambitious political end-goal for a few reasons. Firstly: awareness of what? The information circulated in ‘awareness’ narratives often uncritically props up neoliberal ideology. Neoliberalism supports the privatisation of major businesses, cuts to state welfare, and an emphasis on ‘individual responsibility

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

Keely Adler

SSam Liebeskind

classic framework for thinking about managing change

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

I have heard John McKnight say that advisory groups speak quietly to power, protestors scream at power, and neither chooses to reclaim or produce power. The real problem with rebellion is that it is such fun. It avoids taking responsibility, operates on the high ground, is fueled by righteousness, gives legitimacy to blame, and is a delightful

Sam Liebeskind

To understand exactly why this is the case, let’s consider Chesterton’s Fence, described by G. K. Chesterton himself as follows:

There exists in such a case a certain institution or law; let us say, for the sake of simplicity, a fence or gate erected across a road. The more modern type of reformer goes gaily up to it and says, “I don’t see the use

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

SSam Liebeskind

Don’t remove a fence until you’ve understood why someone put it up in the first place