Systems practices — what might these be?

Anna Birney

Oct 4 · 5 min read

At the School of System Change we support people to navigate multiple approaches, tools and methods for systems change, because we believe there are many ways to do this work. Regularly, we are asked “How do you know whether what we are doing is systemic?”. Through our programmes we work with and draw on a wealth of practitioners across this emerging field. What we started to notice was a set of “systemic practices” that we think are at work across multiple approaches and tools practitioners use. Currently there are ten (a few more have joined the family since an earlier rendition we called The ways of a systems thinker — and there are, of course more). They come in no particular order. Below we offer a couple of short paragraphs of elucidation — drawing on some of the theory behind these practices. We would welcome feedback to help evolve these to the next level!

These systemic practices have collaboratively curated, in particular with Jennifer Berman, Anna Warrington, Laura Winn and myself.

HEADLINES – SEE SOURCE FOR DETAILS

• Enable the system to see itself, hold the whole picture
• Work at different levels concurrently
• Identify connections and how parts interact
• Engage different perspectives
• Understand agency, power, and responsibility
• Work with activating and resisting forces
• Consider different timescales and consequences over time
• Understand patterns to make effective interventions
• Embrace complexity, constantly learning and adapting
• Constantly question assumptions