Engaging in systems thinking takes time, space and energy. It requires participants to be comfortable with uncertainty, willing to adapt, change and commit to genuine learning through doing. It can often be a long journey, while you explore the problem and iteratively explore ways to tackle it. It requires patience from those involved and support from others, who can unlock the required resources and create the right culture and conditions for change to happen.
Being open minded is essential. What we think the problem may be, may not be what those impacted by the system feel. Confidence is another important aspect in driving systems change. Having the confidence to engage in conversations around challenging the status quo, and having the belief that there are other people and other agencies who are open minded to going on the same systems change journey as us.
Other attributes of good systems thinkers are:
- Seeks to understand the whole picture
- Sets out to see things from different perspectives
- Looks for interdependencies (things that influence each other)
- Finds where unanticipated consequences emerge.
- Makes systems visible through maps and models
- Focuses on structure, not on blame, recognising that a system’s structure generates its behaviour
- Observes how elements of a system change over time, generating patterns and trends
Knowing that it’s ok to fail is really important also. Not all ideas that are tried will be successful, and as long as we take the learning from those attempts, this is ok.
It’s worth noting that as providers of services, Barnardo’s can sometimes be part of the “problem” that we are trying to solve. We know that in some instances we are delivering services that support people around symptoms of problems rather than addressing the root causes. This is nothing to be ashamed of, but it doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t strive to find better ways of supporting people.