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

Best Practices are Useless in Complex Systems

Jen Briselli medium.com

Sam Liebeskind

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

“Quiet Quitting” articles allowed readers to access a convenient cause (damn lazy Gen-Zers) for a pretty existential problem (work sucks). It’s also, conveniently, a way of blaming workers for systemic ills. “Quiet Hiring” deflects from organizational norms that call for eking out as much productivity (at the lowest cost) from each employee in the

Anne Helen Petersen • Bed Rotting and Loud Quitting - by Anne Helen Petersen Bed Rotting and Loud Quitting

Keely Adler

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

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

Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System

donellameadows.org donellameadows.org

Tanuj and

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

Social Change Ecosystem Map - Building Movement

buildingmovement.org

Adam Zeiner

The systems analysis community has a lot of lore about leverage points. Those of us who were trained by the great Jay Forrester at MIT have all absorbed one of his favorite stories. “People know intuitively where leverage points are,” he says. “Time after time I’ve done an analysis of a company, and I’ve figured out a leverage point — in inventory

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

Keely Adler